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FinanceEx-Google engineer Levandowski joins Kalanick's $1.7B robotics venture Atoms
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Travis Kalanick, former Uber CEO, announced that his robotics company Atoms raised $1.7 billion in a funding round backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, and Uber. The company, rebranded from City Storage Systems in March 2026, focuses on robotics for mining and transportation. In April, Atoms acquired Pronto, a heavy industry automation firm founded by Anthony Levandowski. Levandowski, a former Google engineer, was convicted in 2020 for stealing 14,000 trade secret files from Google's self-driving car project (Project Chauffeur/Waymo) when he left to start Otto, which Uber later acquired. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison but was pardoned by President Donald Trump on his last day in office in January 2021. The article highlights the controversial reunion of Kalanick and Levandowski, both central figures in Uber's past legal battles with Google over autonomous driving technology.
Source report
Rebecca Payne Fri, July 24, 2026 at 5:00 AM PDT | 4 min read
- UBER: -4.31%
- GOOG: +0.24%
You never know when you'll find yourself back in business with a former colleague.
For Uber co-founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick, his latest venture is bringing together people from his past — including a former Uber employee who was charged after stealing 14,000 files on his laptop as he left Google.
Kalanick announced this week that his robotics company, Atoms, had raised $1.7 billion in a funding round backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, along with Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and Uber.
Kalanick was forced to step down as CEO of Uber in 2017 following complaints about the company's workplace culture, including discrimination and sexual harassment.
Focus on Robotics
In 2018, Kalanick invested $150 million in City Storage Systems, giving him a controlling interest in the company, which at the time focused on redeveloping real estate.
The company was rebranded as Atoms in March 2026, with Kalanick announcing a new focus on robotics in the mining and transportation industries. In April, Atoms acquired Pronto, a heavy industry automation firm founded in 2018 by Anthony Levandowski.
Levandowski — described by TechCrunch as "one of Silicon Valley's most infamous characters" — gained notoriety at Google as a pioneer of self-driving technology. His reputation grew further when he was investigated and charged with stealing trade secrets after leaving Google to start self-driving tech firm Otto, which was later acquired by Uber.
He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2020, following a plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to one of 33 charges of trade secrets theft.
"Levandowski admitted that in 2016, as he was preparing to leave Google, he downloaded thousands of Project Chauffeur [now known as Waymo] files onto his personal laptop." — U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of California (2020)
At his sentencing, U.S. District Judge William Alsup called Levandowski's conviction the "biggest trade secret crime [he had] ever seen."
Levandowski was later pardoned by President Donald Trump on the last day of his first term.
Getty Images / Justin Sullivan
Source
Yahoo FinanceWestern
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Anthony Levandowski, Pardoned for Stealing 14,000 Google Files, Joins Travis Kalanick's $1.7B Robotics Venture