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It\u2019s been a big year for AI acquisitions \u2014 so big that most of them barely register anymore. Anthropic and OpenAI have each gone on buying sprees, snapping up developer tooling, AI services shops, and product-testing startups to convert model capability into enterprise revenue and extend their reach faster than the other. Which is what made a weekend rumor about Anthropic acquiring robotics startup Physical Intelligence stand out. It spread exceedingly fast, even after a denial from Physical Intelligence\u2019s CEO<\/p>\n
Part of that ties to who\u2019s involved. Physical Intelligence isn\u2019t some obscure robotics shop. It was co-founded by Lachy Groom, an investor-operator whose star has been on the rise<\/a> in Silicon Valley in recent years; it has raised more than $1 billion (and was reportedly in talks this spring for another $1 billion round<\/a> at an $11 billion valuation); and its \u03c00.5 model<\/a> is apparently among of the more widely used robot brains in robotics research. <\/p>\n As it turns out, the rumor wasn\u2019t completely spurious. Anthropic and Physical Intelligence actually did hold acquisition talks<\/a> this spring, according to The Information, so tech blogger Robert Scoble \u2014 whose weekend post<\/a> on X set off the frenzy \u2014 may have gotten the specifics wrong without being wrong that something had happened. <\/p>\n Physical Intelligence\u2019s response to the rumor mill wasn\u2019t the world\u2019s most vigorous denial, it should be noted. According to The Information, Physical Intelligence CEO Karol Hausman told employees the reports weren\u2019t true via a Slack message containing a gif of a character from \u201cThe Office\u201d shaking her head no. <\/p>\n Groom, for his part, did not respond to TechCrunch\u2019s request for comment, sent Monday night.<\/p>\n Anthropic has made four known acquisitions this year; OpenAI has been more aggressive, acquiring at least 17 companies since 2023. Both are also, of course, now preparing to go public. Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO on June 1, followed by OpenAI a week later, setting up what could be two of the largest U.S. stock debuts in history.<\/p>\n So why robotics, why now? The likeliest answer is that physical-world understanding may be a prerequisite for superintelligent systems, and no amount of internet text can substitute for it.<\/p>\n OpenAI\u2019s own history here is instructive. It built an early robotic hand that could solve a Rubik\u2019s Cube, then shut the entire robotics group down in 2021, with co-founder Wojciech Zaremba later saying the approach was missing pieces needed for real superintelligence. The team came back in 2024, quietly building a humanoid robotics lab in San Francisco, before CEO Sam Altman made it official<\/a> in late May, announcing \u201cOpenAI Robotics\u201d was hiring and describing a near-term focus on robots for infrastructure work, with a personal robot for everyone as the long-term goal.<\/p>\n Anthropic hasn\u2019t built anything resembling OpenAI\u2019s hardware lab. What it has done is publish a string of research pieces through its internal group that stress-tests frontier capabilities for safety purposes. That included Project Fetch last November, where Anthropic staff tested how much Claude could help non-experts program a robot dog<\/a> and a second phase in June that, according to Anthropic, found a newer model completed the same tasks roughly 20 times faster than the best human-plus-Claude team from the year before.<\/p>\n Buying an existing team with robotics expertise would let Anthropic skip years of work. There\u2019s a possible complication, though. Physical Intelligence was founded in San Francisco roughly two years ago by Groom, former Google researchers, and professors from Stanford and Berkeley, and its early investor base looks a lot like OpenAI\u2019s own, including Khosla Ventures and Thrive Capital. Founders Fund \u2014 also a major OpenAI investor \u2014 was reportedly involved in Physical Intelligence\u2019s newest funding round earlier this year.<\/p>\n In fact, OpenAI is itself an investor in Physical Intelligence, so it isn\u2019t just a peripheral player; it\u2019s a stakeholder in a company that its chief rival was reportedly in talks to buy very recently.<\/p>\n That raises questions around whether OpenAI\u2019s early investment came with any information rights, or a right of first refusal over a sale to a competitor \u2014 the kind of protective provisions that large strategic investors sometimes negotiate for precisely this scenario.<\/p>\n That leaves open the possibility that if Physical Intelligence is actually in play, OpenAI \u2014 already a shareholder, already close to Groom, already trying to ensure it bests Anthropic in robotics \u2014 may have the more obvious claim to it than Anthropic does. We asked OpenAI these questions earlier today and the company didn\u2019t respond. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/em><\/p>\n