A rumor that AI giant Anthropic was acquiring robotics startup Physical Intelligence spread like wildfire over the weekend, only to be met with a terse, gif-based denial from the target's CEO. But the episode has exposed the deep and tangled connections between the two companies and their common rival, OpenAI, revealing a high-stakes scramble for dominance in physical-world AI.
The rumor, ignited by a post on X from tech blogger Robert Scoble, sent the tech world buzzing. It was quickly denied by Physical Intelligence CEO Karol Hausman, who told employees via a Slack message that the reports weren't true, punctuating the statement with a gif of a character from "The Office" shaking her head no. While not the world's most vigorous denial, it was enough to quell the immediate frenzy.
However, the denial may not be the full story. According to a report from The Information, Anthropic and Physical Intelligence held genuine acquisition talks in the spring of 2025. This suggests Scoble may have gotten the specifics wrong without being wrong that something significant had happened. Lachy Groom, co-founder of Physical Intelligence and a rising star in Silicon Valley, did not respond to TechCrunch's request for comment sent Monday night.
The Robotics Gold Rush
The rumor highlights a broader trend: AI acquisitions have been enormous in 2025, with both Anthropic and OpenAI on buying sprees to convert model capability into enterprise revenue. Anthropic has made four known acquisitions in 2025, while OpenAI has acquired at least 17 companies since 2023.
Physical Intelligence is not an obscure robotics shop. Founded in San Francisco roughly two years ago, in 2023, it was co-founded by Groom, former Google researchers, and professors from Stanford and Berkeley. The startup has raised more than $1 billion. In spring 2025, it was reportedly in talks for another $1 billion round at an $11 billion valuation. Its π0.5 model is among the more widely used robot brains in robotics research.
The likeliest answer for why robotics is suddenly so hot is that physical-world understanding may be a prerequisite for superintelligent systems. OpenAI built an early robotic hand that could solve a Rubik's Cube, but shut its entire robotics group down in 2021. Co-founder Wojciech Zaremba later said the early robotics approach was missing pieces for superintelligence. OpenAI quietly built a humanoid robotics lab in San Francisco in 2024, and in late May 2025, CEO Sam Altman made "OpenAI Robotics" official, announcing hiring and a near-term focus on robots for infrastructure work, with a personal robot for everyone as a long-term goal.
Anthropic, by contrast, has not built hardware like OpenAI. But it has published research through its internal group, including Project Fetch in November 2024, where staff tested how much its Claude model could help non-experts program a robot dog. In June 2025, Anthropic found a newer model completed the same tasks roughly 20 times faster than the best human-plus-Claude team from the year before.
The Investor Web
The potential acquisition of Physical Intelligence by Anthropic is complicated by overlapping investors. Physical Intelligence's early investor base includes Khosla Ventures and Thrive Capital, which are also early OpenAI investors. Founders Fund, a major OpenAI investor, was reportedly involved in Physical Intelligence's newest funding round talks earlier in 2025.
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Most critically, OpenAI is itself an investor in Physical Intelligence. This creates a possible complication: OpenAI's early investment may have come with information rights or a right of first refusal over a sale to a competitor. If Physical Intelligence is actually in play, OpenAI may have the more obvious claim to it than Anthropic does.
TechCrunch asked OpenAI questions about the situation, and the company did not respond.
The IPO Race
The backdrop to all this maneuvering is the race to go public. Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO on June 1, 2025. OpenAI followed suit just a week later, on June 8, 2025. Both companies are converting their AI research into commercial products, and acquisitions are a key part of that strategy.
Buying an existing team with robotics expertise would let Anthropic skip years of work. Physical Intelligence, with its $1 billion in funding and its $11 billion valuation target, would be a major prize. The startup's π0.5 model is already widely used, giving Anthropic an immediate foothold in robotics.
What's Next
The rumor may have been based on real acquisition talks that occurred in spring 2025. Physical Intelligence's weak denial—a Slack gif—suggests the rumor may have some truth. With both Anthropic and OpenAI now public companies in waiting, the pressure to secure the best robotics talent and technology is only going to intensify.
The episode also underscores the strange bedfellows in AI. Khosla Ventures and Thrive Capital are early investors in both OpenAI and Physical Intelligence, while Founders Fund is a major OpenAI investor that was reportedly involved in Physical Intelligence's newest funding round talks earlier in 2025. The web of connections means that any acquisition will have to navigate complex relationships and potential conflicts of interest.
For now, the rumor has been denied, but the underlying dynamics remain. The race to build the next generation of AI-powered robots is on, and the players are already positioning themselves for the next move.