Sam Altman is quietly backing a stealth startup that's building software for robots and cars
Exclusive By Rya Jetha You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email. and Charles Rollet You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email. Sam Altman. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is backing a stealthy physical AI startup run by former Tesla and Meta employees, in the latest sign that investors are rushing into robotics. The startup, called Alfred, is also being funded by Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, Chapter One, and others, according to internal documents reviewed by Business Insider. The startup is aiming to raise at a $40 million valuation, co-founder Ankit Ukil told Business Insider. Aflred is run by Ukil, a former Tesla designer, and Dömötör Gulyas, a former engineer at Meta Reality Labs. Alfred is emerging as investors pour money into physical AI, a category built around bringing AI to machines that move through the real world — like robots. In April alone, physical AI startups raised around $5.3 billion in VC funding, according to Crunchbase data. Big Tech companies are also flocking to place their bets in the robotics arms race. On Sunday at Nvidia GTC Taipei, the company announced a standard humanoid robot blueprint for academic researchers, expected to be available in late 2026. Over the weekend, Altman took to X to declare that robotics is OpenAI's next frontier. "In the short term, we are focused on robots to support skilled workers to build our future infrastructure; in the long term, we imagine everyone having a personal robot doing anything they need," Altman wrote on X . Altman is also backing startups in the space alongside OpenAI's bet. He invested in Alfred through his venture capital firm, Hydrazine Capital. Ukil said he and Altman initially bonded over their love of cars. "He's a big car guy," he said. "I met Sam a while ago, and he largely believed in me before the company existed." Altman was filmed driving an ultra-rare $5 million Koenigsegg Rivera in Napa in 2024, Business Insider previously reported . Altman and OpenAI did not respond to requests for comment. The rest of Alfred's team includes designers and engineers from Tesla, Ford, and Honda, according to the documents. The startup was founded 9 months ago, according to Ukil's LinkedIn profile, and is based in Hawthorne, California, opposite the SpaceX factory where the Falcon rockets are made. The founders are pitching investors on a software platform that helps engineers build machines faster. The ultimate goal of Alfred is for their product to turbocharge the manufacturing process by shrinking research and development timelines. That way, engineers can skip gruntwork and focus on doing things like adding cool new features to cars, such as those often seen in the latest Chinese electric vehicles, Ankit said. Ukit told Business Insider that Alfred's flagship platform is under development, and that the startup is in "active conversations" with unspecified automakers, defense, and robotics companies. Over the past 15 years, Altman has made more than 170 investments, according to PitchBook data. These include venture fund Hydrazine Capital, through which he invested in Alfred. Altman has no equity in OpenAI, but his venture investments, including stakes in Stripe, Reddit, and Helion Energy, have helped make him a billionaire. Read next Rya Jetha You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email. Rya is a senior reporter at Business Insider covering physical AI and robotics. She writes about factory automation, humanoid robots, and the race to collect the real-world data needed to bring AI into the physical world. She previously worked at The San Francisco Standard, where she reported on tech culture and autonomous vehicles. She has a bachelor’s degree in history and politics from Pomona College and a master’s in history from the University of Cambridge. Rya lives in San Francisco. Contact her at [email protected] or on Signal at rjetha.07. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device. Here's our guide to sharing information securely . Charles Rollet You're currently following this author! Want to unfollow? Unsubscribe via the link in your email. Charles Rollet is BI's tech correspondent in San Francisco. Prior to joining BI, Charles worked at TechCrunch covering startups and VC. Charles is based in the Bay Area, where he enjoys hiking with his dogs. You can contact Charles securely on Signal at charlesrollet.12 or +1-628-282-2811. Sam Altman Exclusive Startups More
Source: Business Insider