OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is backing Alfred, a startup building software to help engineers at robotics and automotive companies reduce research and development timelines, according to Business Insider.
Hydrazine Capital, Altman's venture firm, is the vehicle through which he made the investment, according to Business Insider. Additional backers include Khosla Ventures, SV Angel, and Chapter One, among others.
Alfred was founded roughly nine months ago and is based in Hawthorne, California. The founding team pairs Ankit Ukil, who comes from a design role at Tesla $TSLA, with Dömötör Gulyas, who previously worked as an engineer at Meta $META Reality Labs. Other team members have backgrounds at Tesla, Ford $F, and Honda $HMC.
The startup's flagship platform is still under development. By automating routine engineering tasks, the platform is designed to free up time for higher-value work — Ukil cited the kinds of features that have become standard in newer Chinese EVs as the sort of innovation engineers could pursue instead, he told Business Insider. Ukil said talks are already underway with a number of potential customers across the automotive, defense, and robotics sectors, though he declined to name them.
A mutual enthusiasm for cars helped forge the connection between Ukil and Altman. "I met Sam a while ago, and he largely believed in me before the company existed," Ukil told Business Insider.
The company is entering the market at a moment when capital is flowing heavily into physical AI, broadly defined as the application of AI to machines that interact with the physical environment.
Altman has been vocal about his interest in robotics. In a weekend post on X $TWTR, Altman sketched out a two-part robotics vision: near-term deployment alongside skilled tradespeople working on infrastructure, eventually giving way to personal robots available to everyone.
PitchBook data cited by Business Insider shows Altman has accumulated a portfolio of more than 170 investments across his 15-year career as a backer. Despite holding no ownership stake in OpenAI, Altman has built considerable personal wealth through bets on companies like Stripe, Reddit $RDDT, and Helion Energy.