Anthony Levandowski Joins Travis Kalanick's $1.7B Robotics Venture After Pardon for Google File Theft
Travis Kalanick, former Uber CEO and co-founder, has secured a $1.7 billion funding round for his robotics company Atoms. The investment includes backing from Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and even Uber itself. As part of the expansion, Anthony Levandowski—once charged with stealing 14,000 files from Google before joining Uber’s self-driving division Otto—is now involved in Kalanick's venture. Levandowski was pardoned by former President Donald Trump after serving an 18-month prison sentence for trade secret theft. He had pleaded guilty to one of 33 charges related to downloading confidential data on his way out from Google’s self-driving project, later known as Waymo. Levandowski founded Pronto in 2018 and sold it to Atoms earlier this year. Kalanick has shifted focus toward robotics since stepping down from Uber in 2017 amid workplace culture controversies. His company rebranded from City Storage Systems to Atoms last March, with a new emphasis on automation for mining and transportation.
Topics: legal_issues robotics venture_capital