Physical AI is more than robots, says the Nvidia veteran now investing in it

TechCrunch’s podcast writeup covers Amulya Vishwanath — former NVIDIA robotics product-marketing leader, now Techable VC founder — on why robotics hasn’t had a ChatGPT moment and how she’s investing across physical AI, including robotics, materials science, and life sciences. She describes today’s robotics stack as a “Lego era” of actuators, hands, software, and safety standards still being rebuilt.

The headline matters: physical AI isn’t only humanoids on stage. Materials and life-sciences tooling are part of the same bet on intelligence meeting the physical world.

That broader definition is healthier than a single humanoid narrative. It also spreads dual-use and safety questions across more domains. We’re interested in disciplined investing that funds the boring blocks — sensing, actuation, verification — not only the demo model.

I’m watching how Techable defines “physical AI” in practice as checks close.

Companion Equity episode with Dominic-Madori Davis; Vishwanath is described as among the first women executives to leave NVIDIA for her own early-stage firm.