Google Acquires Intrinsic: A Leap Forward in Physical AI
Google, one of the world’s leading tech giants, has taken another monumental step in the realm of physical AI. The company has announced the acquisition of Intrinsic, an Alphabet-owned company renowned for developing AI models and software geared towards making industrial robots more accessible. This move signifies Google’s ongoing commitment to advancing robotics software platforms. [source]
Intrinsic Joins Google’s Fold
Intrinsic will continue to operate as a separate entity within Google, but will closely collaborate with Google’s DeepMind, utilizing Google’s Gemini AI models and cloud services. The financial details of the acquisition, however, have not been disclosed by Alphabet.
Intrinsic: A Brief Overview
Intrinsic came to fruition as an independent Alphabet-owned company in 2021, after spending five years under Alphabet’s moonshot research division, X. Other successful graduates of X include Waymo, a robotaxi company, and Wing, a drone delivery company. Since its inception, Intrinsic has been under the leadership of CEO Wendy Tan White.
Shortly after declaring its independence, Intrinsic made its first major move by acquiring Vicarious, a robotics software company, in 2022. While the acquisition cost remains undisclosed, it is known that Vicarious had previously raised around $250 million from various venture capital firms and tech leaders like Jeff Bezos.
Following this, Intrinsic acquired several for-profit divisions of Open Robotics, a non-profit entity that develops hardware and software platforms for the robotics industry.
Intrinsic’s Journey to Date
Despite its rapid expansion, Intrinsic faced a setback when it had to lay off 20% of its workforce in January 2023. But the company bounced back quickly, announcing its first product, Flowstate, a few months later. Designed to make robotics more accessible, Flowstate is a software platform that simplifies the development of robotics workflows for developers without extensive robotics experience.
Over the years, Intrinsic has refined its technology, enhanced its simulation capabilities, and in 2025, introduced its Intrinsic Vision AI model.
Partnership with Foxconn and Future Prospects
In 2025, Intrinsic announced a joint venture with electronics manufacturer Foxconn. The collaboration focuses on developing general-purpose intelligent robots aimed at revolutionizing electronics manufacturing and fully automating factories.
As part of Google, Intrinsic now aims to leverage Google’s superior AI capabilities to realize these ambitious goals. Tan White in a company blog post expressed her optimism about the partnership, stating, “In combination with Google’s incredible AI and infrastructure, we will unlock the promise of physical AI for a much broader set of manufacturing companies and developers. This will fundamentally change production, from economics to operations, and enable truly advanced manufacturing.”
Why this Move Matters to Google
This acquisition aligns with Google’s vision of advancing and monetizing AI models and technology, a view shared by tech leaders like Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon. For them, physical AI represents the future of AI, and Google’s acquisition of Intrinsic is a significant step towards realizing this future.
With its commitment to advancing AI and robotics, Google’s acquisition of Intrinsic promises to bring about groundbreaking changes in the field of manufacturing and beyond.
