Amazon has hired the founders of Covariant, a prominent AI robotics startup, along with approximately a quarter of the company’s employees. The e-commerce giant has also secured a non-exclusive licence to utilise Covariant’s robotic foundation models.
Covariant, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, specialises in developing advanced AI models that enable robots to perceive, reason, and interact with their surroundings, supporting various warehouse automation tasks.
Amazon has been deeply impressed by Covariant’s iterative, customer-focused approach to tackling the most challenging problems in warehouse automation and their comprehensive understanding of the end-to-end process.
Through this agreement, Amazon will receive a non-exclusive licence to Covariant’s robotic foundation models. These models will help drive new ways to generalise how Amazon’s robotic systems learn and provide dynamic opportunities for using automation to enhance safety and better serve customers.
As part of this effort, Amazon intends to boost its AI and robotics workforce in the Bay Area in order to leverage top-tier talent and push forward the latest advancements in automation.
Pieter Abbeel, Peter Chen, Rocky Duan, and a group of research scientists and engineers (approximately 25% of Covariant’s current workforce) will join Amazon’s Fulfillment Technologies & Robotics Team.
Their role will be to drive the development and implementation of Covariant’s technology within Amazon’s operations and continue developing innovative AI solutions. Covariant will continue serving its existing customers and building upon its technology that supports fulfilment and distribution centre automation.
“We’re excited to welcome some of Covariant’s talented team to Amazon and look forward to building on this technology with them to deliver the next generation of robotics that will drive forward the state-of-the-art in automation,” said Joseph Quinlivan, vice president of Amazon Fulfillment Technologies & Robotics.
“With some of the smartest minds, we will advance fundamental research, marrying our rich expertise to unlock new ways for AI and robots to assist our operations employees. Imbedding Covariant’s AI technology into our existing robot fleet will make them more performant and create real world value for our customers,” he added.
This acquisition follows a similar pattern to Amazon’s previous hiring of the founders of AI startup Adept in June, which allowed the company to gain access to valuable talent and technology without resorting to full-scale acquisitions that might face antitrust scrutiny. This strategy, often referred to as a “reverse acquihire,” enables tech giants to expand their capabilities while avoiding potential regulatory hurdles.