Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, rebranded the company to Atoms with an emphasis on robots

Travis Kalanick has emerged after nearly eight years of operating largely out of public view with a new company called Atoms. The company is essentially a rebranded and expanded version of his ghost kitchen business CloudKitchens, which itself evolved from his earlier venture City Storage Systems.

The announcement came on Friday, after which Kalanick spoke in detail during an hour-long interview on the TBPN Podcast, outlining his vision to deploy what he calls “gainfully employed robots” across industries such as food service, mining and transport.

After stepping down from Uber in 2017, Kalanick began building CloudKitchens in 2018. The company focused on creating infrastructure for food delivery businesses by setting up ghost kitchens—commercial kitchen spaces designed primarily for delivery rather than dine-in service.

Kalanick said the core idea behind CloudKitchens was to deliver prepared meals so efficiently that their cost could approach the cost of buying groceries and cooking at home. If that could be achieved, he believed the impact on the food industry would be similar to the transformation Uber brought to the transportation sector. According to him, this concept has been the foundation of his work since leaving Uber.

The newly launched Atoms now absorbs CloudKitchens and extends the concept into industrial robotics and automation. Instead of building general-purpose humanoid robots, the company is focusing on specialised machines designed to perform specific tasks more efficiently in real-world industries.

Kalanick said the company had remained extremely secretive for years, despite employing thousands of people. Many employees were reportedly unable to publicly list the company on professional networks during that time. The secrecy, he explained, allowed the organisation to focus on building technology without the intense media scrutiny that characterised his time at Uber.

Reflecting on his experience leading Uber, Kalanick said the company had faced relentless public attention, with constant headlines influencing business decisions. After leaving the ride-hailing firm, he chose to work quietly and concentrate on building new technology rather than operating in the spotlight.

Following his departure from Uber, Kalanick raised hundreds of millions of dollars for CloudKitchens. One of the largest investments came from the Public Investment Fund, which reportedly invested around $400 million into the venture.

With Atoms, Kalanick is now positioning himself in the rapidly growing robotics and artificial intelligence infrastructure sector. The company is betting that specialised automation—rather than general-purpose robots—will drive large productivity gains across industries and help reduce the cost of physical labour.

Atoms is structured around three main divisions. Atoms Food focuses on combining robotics, real estate and autonomous delivery systems to make prepared meals as affordable as groceries. Atoms Mining is designed to improve productivity and efficiency in mining operations through automation. The third division, Atoms Transport, is centred around a robotic mobility platform that Kalanick described as a “wheelbase for robots,” intended to serve as a core logistics technology.

Reports from The Information have also indicated that Kalanick may be building a new self-driving venture with significant backing from Uber.

Kalanick had resigned as chief executive of Uber in 2017 after pressure from investors during a turbulent period for the company and later stepped down from its board in 2019. On the website for Atoms, he wrote that he was “heartbroken” after leaving Uber but now sees the new venture as a return to what he calls his original calling—building “atoms-based computers,” meaning specialised systems that combine robotics and artificial intelligence to automate tasks in the physical world.