Anthropic-Physical Intelligence Acquisition Rumor Stirs AI Community
A weekend rumor about Anthropic acquiring robotics startup Physical Intelligence spread rapidly, despite a denial from Physical Intelligence's CEO. The companies reportedly held acquisition talks this spring, and OpenAI's investor role may complicate any deal.
Over the weekend, rumors circulated that Anthropic, a leading AI company, was considering acquiring Physical Intelligence, a robotics startup. Physical Intelligence CEO Karol Hausman denied the reports via a Slack message with a GIF from "The Office," but the rumor persisted.
Physical Intelligence is a notable robotics company co-founded by Lachy Groom, a rising Silicon Valley investor-operator, along with former Google researchers and professors from Stanford and Berkeley. It has raised over $1 billion and was reportedly in talks for another $1 billion round at an $11 billion valuation. Its π0.5 model is widely used in robotics research.
According to The Information, Anthropic and Physical Intelligence did hold acquisition talks this spring. Tech blogger Robert Scoble's post on X sparked the frenzy, suggesting he may have gotten details wrong but not the fact that something occurred.
Both Anthropic and OpenAI have been on acquisition sprees this year—Anthropic with four known acquisitions, OpenAI with at least 17 since 2023. Both are also preparing for IPOs. Robotics is a focus because physical world understanding is seen as a prerequisite for superintelligence.
Anthropic hasn't built its own robotics hardware but has published research, including Project Fetch in November 2024, where Claude helped non-experts program a robot dog. In June, it reported that a newer model completed tasks roughly 20 times faster than the best human-plus-Claude team from the year before.
However, Physical Intelligence's investor base overlaps significantly with OpenAI's, including Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital, and Founders Fund. OpenAI itself is an investor in Physical Intelligence. This raises questions about whether OpenAI's investment includes information rights or a right of first refusal, potentially giving it an advantage in any sale. If Physical Intelligence is in play, OpenAI, already close to Groom and competing with Anthropic in robotics, may have a stronger claim.
TechCrunch did not receive responses from Lachy Groom or OpenAI.
