This year has seen a surge in AI acquisitions, to the extent that many have gone unnoticed. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have aggressively expanded their portfolios by acquiring various companies, including developer tools, AI service providers, and startups focused on product testing. Their aim is to enhance model capabilities and accelerate their market presence. Amid this fervor, a rumor emerged over the weekend regarding Anthropic's potential acquisition of the robotics startup Physical Intelligence, which quickly gained traction, despite a dismissal from the CEO of Physical Intelligence.
The swift spread of the rumor can be attributed to the prominent players involved. Physical Intelligence is not an unknown entity; it was co-founded by Lachy Groom, a noted investor-operator making significant waves in Silicon Valley. The company has successfully raised over $1 billion and was reportedly discussing another funding round worth $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation earlier this year. Its π0.5 model has gained traction as one of the leading robot brains utilized in robotics research.
Interestingly, the rumor did have some basis. Reports indicate that Anthropic and Physical Intelligence indeed engaged in acquisition discussions this past spring, suggesting that tech blogger Robert Scoble’s initial post, which sparked the rumor, may have misrepresented the details but was grounded in truth.
Physical Intelligence's attempt to quash the rumors was rather subdued. CEO Karol Hausman communicated with employees via Slack, emphasizing the false nature of the reports with a light-hearted gif from “The Office” that depicted a character shaking her head.
Groom did not respond to inquiries from TechCrunch sent on Monday evening.
So far this year, Anthropic has completed four known acquisitions, while OpenAI has been even more active, acquiring at least 17 companies since 2023. Both companies are now also gearing up for public offerings; Anthropic submitted a confidential IPO application on June 1, followed by OpenAI a week later, hinting at two monumental stock launches on the U.S. market.
What’s driving this interest in robotics at this time? The most likely explanation is that understanding the physical world is essential for developing superintelligent systems, which cannot be learned through internet text alone.
OpenAI’s previous experience in robotics provides context. The company developed a robotic hand capable of solving a Rubik’s Cube but discontinued its robotics division in 2021, with co-founder Wojciech Zaremba noting that the approach lacked critical elements necessary for true superintelligence. The robotics team was revived in 2024, and OpenAI is now establishing a humanoid robotics lab in San Francisco, with a vision for personal robots for everyone in the long term.
Anthropic, on the other hand, has not established any hardware labs akin to OpenAI’s. Instead, it has focused on publishing various research initiatives that explore sophisticated capabilities for safety evaluation. One notable project, Project Fetch, involved testing how well Claude could assist non-professionals in programming a robot dog. A second phase, conducted in June, demonstrated that a newer model completed similar tasks approximately 20 times faster than the best human-plus-Claude team from the previous year.
Acquiring a team like that at Physical Intelligence would allow Anthropic to bypass years of foundational work. However, complications could arise, as Physical Intelligence was started in San Francisco about two years ago by Groom, alongside former Google researchers and professors from Stanford and Berkeley. Its early investors share affiliations with OpenAI, including Khosla Ventures and Thrive Capital. The Founders Fund, another significant investor in OpenAI, reportedly played a role in Physical Intelligence’s latest funding round.
Moreover, OpenAI itself has invested in Physical Intelligence, meaning it holds a stake in a company that Anthropic was recently courting for acquisition. This situation raises concerns about whether OpenAI’s initial investment secured any rights, such as information rights or a right of first refusal regarding sales to competitors, which is common for strategic investors in such situations.
This scenario opens the door to the possibility that if Physical Intelligence is indeed up for acquisition, OpenAI—already a shareholder and connected to Groom, while simultaneously aiming to outpace Anthropic in the robotics domain—may have a stronger claim to the company compared to Anthropic. We reached out to OpenAI for clarification on these matters, but the company has yet to respond.
