The current year has seen an unprecedented surge in AI acquisitions, to the extent that many go largely unnoticed. Both Anthropic and OpenAI have been highly active, acquiring a diverse range of companies including developer tools, AI service providers, and product-testing startups. Their strategy appears aimed at rapidly converting model capabilities into enterprise revenue and expanding their market reach more quickly than their competitors. This context made a recent weekend rumor about Anthropic's potential acquisition of robotics startup Physical Intelligence particularly noteworthy, spreading with remarkable speed even after an initial denial from Physical Intelligence's CEO.
The prominence of this rumor is significantly tied to the parties involved. Physical Intelligence is far from an obscure entity in the robotics sector. It was co-founded by Lachy Groom, a notable investor-operator whose influence in Silicon Valley has steadily grown in recent years. The company has successfully raised over $1 billion in funding and was reportedly in discussions this spring for an additional $1 billion round, valuing it at $11 billion. Furthermore, its π0.5 model is recognized as one of the more widely adopted robot brains in robotics research.
It has since emerged that the initial rumor was not entirely unfounded. According to The Information, Anthropic and Physical Intelligence did, in fact, engage in acquisition discussions this spring. This suggests that tech blogger Robert Scoble, whose weekend post on X ignited the widespread speculation, may have been inaccurate regarding specific details but correct in the broader sense that significant talks had occurred.
Notably, Physical Intelligence's initial response to the swirling rumors was not characterized by a particularly robust denial. The Information reported that Physical Intelligence CEO Karol Hausman addressed employees via a Slack message, stating the reports were untrue, accompanied by a GIF of a character from "The Office" shaking her head in negation.
Lachy Groom, for his part, did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment, which was sent on Monday night.
Anthropic has completed four known acquisitions this year, while OpenAI has pursued a more aggressive strategy, acquiring at least 17 companies since 2023. Both AI giants are also currently preparing for their initial public offerings. Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO on June 1, with OpenAI following suit a week later, setting the stage for what could be two of the most significant U.S. stock market debuts in history.
This raises the strategic question: why the sudden focus on robotics? The most probable explanation is that a profound understanding of the physical world may be an essential prerequisite for developing superintelligent systems, an understanding that cannot be adequately replicated solely through vast amounts of internet text data.
OpenAI's own journey in this domain offers valuable insights. The company initially developed a robotic hand capable of solving a Rubik's Cube but subsequently disbanded its entire robotics group in 2021. Co-founder Wojciech Zaremba later indicated that the approach lacked critical components for achieving true superintelligence. However, the team quietly re-formed in 2024, establishing a humanoid robotics lab in San Francisco. CEO Sam Altman officially announced "OpenAI Robotics" in late May, confirming hiring efforts and outlining a near-term focus on robots for infrastructure work, with the long-term vision of a personal robot for every individual.
Anthropic has not developed a hardware lab comparable to OpenAI's. Instead, its internal research group has published a series of papers focused on stress-testing frontier AI capabilities for safety purposes. This includes Project Fetch, launched last November, where Anthropic staff evaluated how effectively Claude could assist non-experts in programming a robot dog. A subsequent phase in June, according to Anthropic, demonstrated that a newer model completed the same tasks approximately 20 times faster than the top human-plus-Claude team from the previous year.
Acquiring an established team with specialized robotics expertise would allow Anthropic to bypass years of developmental work. However, a potential complication exists. Physical Intelligence was founded approximately two years ago in San Francisco by Groom, former Google researchers, and professors from Stanford and Berkeley. Its early investor base bears a striking resemblance to OpenAI's, including prominent firms like Khosla Ventures and Thrive Capital. Founders Fund, another significant OpenAI investor, was also reportedly involved in Physical Intelligence's most recent funding round earlier this year.
Crucially, OpenAI itself is an investor in Physical Intelligence, meaning it is not merely a peripheral observer but a direct stakeholder in a company that its primary competitor was reportedly in recent acquisition talks to purchase.
This situation prompts questions about whether OpenAI's initial investment included protective provisions, such as information rights or a right of first refusal regarding a sale to a competitor. Such clauses are commonly negotiated by large strategic investors precisely to safeguard their interests in scenarios like this.
Consequently, if Physical Intelligence is indeed an acquisition target, OpenAI—already a shareholder, maintaining close ties with Groom, and actively striving to outperform Anthropic in robotics—may possess a more compelling claim to the company than Anthropic. When asked about these matters earlier today, OpenAI offered no response.
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