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Industrial AI can be built as specialized 'atoms-based computers' for sectors like food and mining, where automation of production and logistics can dramatically reduce costs and improve safety.

Kalanick describes two concrete examples of 'atoms-based computers': a food computer that automates meal production and delivery to approach grocery store costs, and a mining computer that automates mining operations to increase yield and safety. ✦ AI generated

Travis Kalanick · a16z Podcast · 2026-08-14 · original ↗

starts at this moment · 7:51

The first one's a food computer, Adams food, infrastructure for better food. The real question is, can you make a meal that's prepared and delivered to you so efficient that it approaches the cost of going to the grocery store?... Well, it means that your manufacturing has to be automated. So, we have robotics that basically do the production of food. Let's call that between six and eight between six and $8 per meal... We also have mining. Uh we have a really cool mission. Uh, I've gotten super geeked out on mining. I love it... More productive mines to power Earth's industries... when we talk about mining, we're talking about, you know, we go to gold mine CEOs and we're like, would you like 20% more gold per year?... but it means your opex is lower and it means by the way these mines are pretty damn unsafe. And so making these places way safer is also part of the purpose of what we're doing.

verbatim transcript · starts at 7:51

Transcript · around this moment

7:51prepared and delivered to you so efficient that it approaches the cost of going to the grocery store? You're like, okay, well, that's a pretty good question. If you can do it, it's awesome, but what would it take? Well, it means that your manufacturing has to be automated. So, we have robotics that basically do the production of food. Let's call that between six and eight between six and $8

8:16per meal. Okay. Um there's lots of cool things we're going to do in the future here. Um you also need to be able to move the food whether it be inside of a facility that where it's being made or actually robotic couriers, what I like to call autonomous burritos. You roboticize production. You roboticize the logistics and transportation of of of food, but you still need a space to do it.

8:45This goes back to that sort of atomsbased computer, right? You still need real estate, industrial real estate where that robotic production happens and where the robotic logistics occurs. That's our food computer. Adam's mining. Uh we have a really cool mission. Uh, I've gotten super geeked out on mining. I love it. Like I I'm loving it more every day. Um, uh, more productive minds to power Earth's industries. What makes super

9:15intelligence? Well, it's it's chips and its energy. We know that. Where are the chips come from? Chips come from the ground. Where's the energy come from? And a lot of people are like, "Oh, it comes from the sun." Yeah, it comes from the sun. But how are you capturing it from the sun? From stuff made from the ground, right? So being in the ground at this sort of almost like this primitive of

9:41physical AI is like a super interesting place. And when you're automating that thing, it's super interesting. So when we talk about mining, we're talking about, you know, we go to gold mine CEOs and we're like, would you like 20% more gold per year? We haven't heard no. Uh but they say prove it. And that's kind of the fun part. Um, but it means your opex is lower and it means by the

10:05way these mines are pretty damn unsafe. And so making these places way safer is also part of the purpose of what we're doing. And so you go okay well I when I talk about mining I like to talk about digitized storage. What is digitized storage and mining? It's called land right? This is storage for the mining computer. And this is network, right? Cuz you're moving you're moving the rocks. This is

10:34network. Um this is me by one of those vehicles. Check that out. Okay. I'm standing next to a TCP packet. There's like eight people understood what I just said. But look at that [ __ ] thing. So fully loaded. That's probably like 2 million pounds. All right. And uh this is an autonomous mining machine operating on our stuff. There are probably about three drones that were injured in this in the in the

11:06filming of this video. But CPU is really interesting in mining too, right? like how do you process the material to make it the metal and mineral that we need to to do all the things that we do to push civilization forward uh progress forward. There's lots of really cool things um to automate here. You guys ever see these things? These this is called flotation. You see these

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