Thrun Unveils Dulo, a Stealthy Robotics Startup with Ambitious Hardware Design Plans

Sebastian Thrun, a renowned engineer behind Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) self-driving-car project Waymo, has launched a new robotics startup called Dulo. Thrun confirmed the venture at the Actuate robotics conference in San Francisco, stating that it's under stealth and very small but focused on robotics.

Dulo aims to develop 'foundation models for hardware design' aimed at enabling 'manufacturing at lightspeed.' The team includes alumni from Waymo, Google Brain, and Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL), which Thrun previously directed. Robotics funding has hit record highs, with physical AI startups raising $16.3 billion across 492 deals in the first quarter of 2026.

Thrun has a history of leaving established roles to chase new ventures. He stepped down as a tenured Stanford professor in 2013 to focus on Udacity, an online education startup he founded after his AI course drew 160,000 students worldwide. Thrun is now hiring engineers for Dulo in San Francisco.