Intrinsic CEO Wendy Tan White led the company to graduate from Alphabet’s “Moonshot” Factory X.
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google It has become a leading smartphone company by developing the Android operating system and partnering with cell phone manufacturers that need a solution. apple’s iPhone. Now, the search giant has similar plans to tackle robotics.
Earlier this week, Google announced that it would be moving its in-house robotics software project, Intrinsic, from the “Other Bets” category to its headquarters.
Just as Android works on phones and tablets from devices like Samsung, Motorola, and China’s Xiaomi, Intrinsic works similarly on robotic systems, although the names of its partners are less well-known. These include Fanuc, Universal Robots, and KUKA, all of which primarily focus on industrial robots. Competitors include Amazon and Tesla.
McKinsey predicts that the market for general-purpose robots could reach $370 billion by 2040, creating a huge opportunity for Google as artificial intelligence moves from the digital world of chatbots, image generation, and AI agents to the physical world.
Intrinsic says on its website that it builds its operating system so manufacturers can “focus on solving problems, not plumbing.” Similar to Android, developers leverage Intrinsic’s ready-made features to develop applications more efficiently.
“We strive to be accessible to everyone,” Intrinsic CEO Wendy Tan White said in an interview with CNBC last year. “It doesn’t matter what your hardware is or what your AI model is, we can help you put it together and access it.”
Being within Google brings Intrinsic closer to the company’s AI models, infrastructure, and cloud tools. The company will continue to operate as a separate group within Google, remaining under the Intrinsic brand and the leadership of Tan White, who led the company when it left Alphabet X’s “moonshot factory” in 2021.
Google has a checkered history with robotics.
In 2013, Alphabet acquired Boston Dynamics, known for its walking robots, and Shaft, a Japanese humanoid robot company. It also acquired several vision-related startups. After spending several years building a clear business in the space, Google sold Boston Dynamics and Shaft to SoftBank for an undisclosed sum in 2017.
The recent explosion in AI has changed the game.
In mid-2025, Google debuted two new AI models, Gemini Robotics and Gemini Robotics-ER (Extended Reasoning), bringing generative AI to physical movement commands to control robots. Google said in a blog post at the time that it was partnering with Texas-based robot developer Apptronik to “build the next generation of humanoid robots with Gemini 2.0.”
Last month, Google partnered with Boston Dynamics to integrate Gemini into its Atlas humanoid robot built for manufacturing environments. In November, Google’s DeepMind division hired a former Boston Dynamics CTO.
Intrinsic’s team will work closely with DeepMind’s AI technology stack, from research and model development to implementation and day-to-day operations in manufacturing and logistics, the company said. It will also work more closely with Google’s Gemini, Infrastructure, and Cloud teams.
Brian Garkey, head of Intrinsic technology, said in an interview that the company has the advantage of building on DeepMind’s models, adding specialized data and “building on the shoulders” of its own technology.
Late last year, Intrinsic and Foxconn announced a partnership to bring AI robots to electronics assembly at Foxconn’s U.S. factories. AI server manufacturing in its current form is primarily a combination of strict automation and manual production.
Google is pouring money into data centers and hardware to handle the surge in usage of its AI tools and models. CNBC reported in November that Google’s head of AI infrastructure, Amin Vahdat, told employees that the company needed to double its service delivery capacity every six months to meet demand for AI services.
“We want to move into areas where there is a lot of investment in end markets,” Tan White said. “And now, with the need for more products and more computing, the electronics market is just going crazy. There’s a huge demand.”
A 2025 Deloitte survey of 600 manufacturing executives found that 80% of respondents plan to invest 20% or more of their improvement budgets in smart manufacturing initiatives focused on essential tools and technology.
Intrinsic’s flagship product, Flowstate, is a web-based platform that allows users to build robotic applications without writing thousands of lines of code. The company also offers open source tools to help build robot applications, similar to Google’s approach to Android.
Tan White said Google CEO Sundar Pichai also compared the company’s mobile strategy.
“He said this is the Android of robotics,” Tan White said, noting that Pichai worked on Chrome and Android before becoming CEO. “I think he’s a very reliable person.”
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