1,000+ engineers, 18 global offices
Applied Intuition employs over 1,000 engineers across 18 global offices, with 83% of the company being engineering-focused.
Snapshot · The a16z Show
Why Physical AI Is the Next Frontier | Applied Intuition
Explore episode
Jul 21, 2026
Where this was said
Introductions and What Applied Intuition Actually Does
At 2:35 · chapter starts 1:10
Erik Torenberg opens formally, noting that Marc Andreessen and the firm were among Applied Intuition's very first investors before turning the floor over to Qasar Younis for a company overview. Younis describes Applied Intuition with deliberate plainness: it is an engineering-first company — 83% engineering — that makes machines intelligent. Not just cars, but trucks, tanks, drones, anything that moves physically in the world. What follows is the episode's opening provocation: looking back 25 years from now, the companies that transformed the physical world in this intelligence revolution may prove bigger than those that transformed the digital world. He draws a pointed analogy to the early internet — the analytics and serving companies weren't the winners, Amazon and Apple were. The implication is clear: Applied Intuition intends to be in that second category.
Physical AI Will Build Bigger Companies Than Digital AI
The companies transforming the physical world will likely be larger than those dominating digital AI. Every sector of the global economy — manufacturing, mining, agriculture, logistics — is physical, and unlocking those with intelligence is a far larger total addressable market than optimizing ads or generating videos.
Automotive is 30% of Applied Intuition
Despite being founded around autonomous vehicles, automotive now represents only 30% of Applied Intuition's business, with 70% coming from defense, mining, agriculture, and other sectors.
Automotive = ~3% of global GDP
Automotive alone accounts for approximately 3% of all global GDP, illustrating the massive economic stakes of making vehicles autonomous.
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