Alphabet’s robotics software arm Intrinsic moves under Google

Google is taking another step deeper into physical AI by bringing a well-known robotics software platform more directly under its umbrella.

Alphabet-owned Intrinsic — a company that develops AI models and software meant to make industrial robots easier to use and deploy — is moving under Google, the companies said on Wednesday. Intrinsic will continue operating as a distinct entity within Google. Still, it will collaborate closely with Google DeepMind and use Google’s Gemini AI models and cloud services as part of the shift.

Alphabet did not provide details on funding terms or any purchase price associated with the move.

Intrinsic first “graduated” into an independent Alphabet-owned company in 2021, following five years of work inside Alphabet’s X, the company’s moonshot research lab. Other projects that previously spun out of X include robotaxi company Waymo and drone delivery company Wing.

Wendy Tan White has served as Intrinsic’s CEO since the company’s 2021 spinout.

After becoming independent, Intrinsic moved quickly. Just a few months later, it acquired fellow robotics software company Vicarious in April 2022. Although the acquisition price was not disclosed, Vicarious had raised around $250 million from venture capital firms and high-profile tech investors, including Jeff Bezos.

Not long after that, Intrinsic also acquired several for-profit divisions of Open Robotics, the nonprofit organisation behind hardware and software platforms widely used in the robotics industry.

Even with that rapid expansion, Intrinsic still went through a major restructuring, laying off 20% of its workforce in January 2023.

Only a few months later, Intrinsic introduced its first product, Flowstate. The platform is designed to help developers build robotics workflows, even if they don’t have deep experience in robotics — closely aligning with the company’s broader mission of making robotics more accessible.

Since launching Flowstate, the company has continued refining the technology, strengthening its simulation tools, and in late 2025, introducing its Intrinsic Vision AI mode5.

In October 2025, Intrinsic also announced a joint venture with electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn. Under the partnership, the two companies said they would work together on general-purpose intelligent robots aimed at reshaping how electronics are made, with the long-term goal of reaching full factory automation.

Now, Intrinsic is pursuing those ambitions with deeper access to Google’s AI capabilities and infrastructure.

“Combined with Google’s incredible AI and infrastructure, we’re going to unlock the promise of physical AI for a much broader set of manufacturing businesses and developers. This will fundamentally shift production, from its economics to operations, and enable truly advanced manufacturing,” Tan White wrote in the company’s blog post.

For Google, the move is also strategically aligned with how many major tech leaders view the next phase of AI. Executives such as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon have pointed to physical AI as a natural next step in both the monetisation and evolution of AI models and AI-driven technology.