Founder of AI robot company Covariant to join Amazon

Amazon is recruiting three founders of Covariant, a well-funded startup focused on developing artificial intelligence software for warehouse robots.

The company announced this move late last Friday. Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, and Rocky Duan, who previously worked at OpenAI and then founded Covariant, will now join Amazon's Fulfillment Technology and Robotics team. Several engineers and researchers from Covariant, accounting for about a quarter of its total workforce, will also join them.

As part of the deal, Amazon will also obtain a license for Covariant's foundational AI models. The company stated that the agreement is non-exclusive.

Amazon has deployed over 750,000 robots in its fulfillment centers to handle online shoppers' orders more efficiently. Some of Amazon's automation systems, such as Sequoia, work collaboratively with multiple robots to perform multi-step tasks. Other systems automate simpler tasks, such as checking for packaging issues. Many of Amazon's robots are equipped with onboard AI algorithms.

Covariant, formally known as Embodied Intelligence Inc., also utilizes machine learning to enhance the efficiency of warehouse robots. The company's flagship product is an AI platform called Covariant Brain, which enables robots to perform picking tasks by retrieving products ordered by online shoppers from warehouse shelves.

In the past, companies had to manually adjust their robots' picking workflows to accommodate every type of product in the warehouse. Covariant Brain aims to reduce the need for manual programming, thereby reducing the workload and associated costs of deploying warehouse robots.

Since its establishment in 2021, Covariant has raised over $200 million in funding from investors. Following a funding round last year, the company revealed that its platform had deployed over 300 robots in warehouses. Amazon stated on Friday that Covariant will continue to support its "dozens of customers" and further enhance its technology.

The company's platform is partially supported by internally developed foundational models. Last year, the company detailed a model called RFM-1, which allows robots to autonomously plan the optimal way to execute a given task and seek human assistance when necessary. Amazon will use the foundational models licensed from Covariant to enhance its automation technology.

Joseph Quinlivan, Vice President of Amazon's Fulfillment Technology and Robotics team, said, "Embedding Covariant's AI technology into our existing fleet of robots will make them more efficient and create real value for our customers."

This deal is one of several recent transactions where tech giants recruit key employees from AI startups and license their technology. Last month, Google hired the founders of chatbot developer Character.AI Inc. and agreed to license their large-scale language models. Microsoft also reached a similar agreement earlier with well-funded OpenAI competitor Inflection AI Inc.