PhysicsX raises $135M to bring AI-first engineering to aerospace, auto, and energy

PhysicsX, a London-based startup building AI software for advanced manufacturing, has raised $135 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Atomico, with backing from Temasek, Siemens, Applied Materials, and the July Fund. Existing investors including General Catalyst, NGP, Radius Capital, Standard Investments, and Allen & Co. also returned.

The new funding will help the company grow internationally and push adoption of its platform across high-stakes sectors like aerospace, defense, automotive, semiconductors, materials, and energy.

Since its Series A round two years ago, PhysicsX has grown to over 150 employees and quadrupled revenue. The new funding brings its total raised to nearly $170 million and will support the development of larger physics-based AI models, along with global expansion.

PhysicsX was founded in 2023 by Robin Tuluie and and Jacomo Corbo.  The startup is betting that deep AI support for engineers will become a competitive advantage in industries where quality, safety, and performance aren’t optional.

Prior to PhysicsX, Tuluie led R&D at Renault F1 and Mercedes F1, and served as Vehicle Technology Director at Bentley. Corbo was a former Chief Scientist and cofounder of QuantumBlack (an AI firm acquired by McKinsey), and former Chief Race Strategist at Renault F1.

PhysicsX calls itself a “physical AI company,” and that’s a fair description of what it’s doing—bringing machine learning into the heart of how physical products get built, tested, and improved.

At its core, PhysicsX is building an AI-native software stack meant to support the entire engineering process. The goal? Help companies working on complex systems move faster and solve harder technical challenges—especially as skilled labor becomes harder to find and systems grow more complex.

“Engineering is at an inflection point,” said Corbo, who now serves as CEO. “The tectonic plates of the global economy are being reshaped by industrial manufacturing. Geopolitical currents and the questions of sovereignty and supply chain resilience are most strongly felt here. At the same time, innovation within these fields has never been more urgent. We’re building into that unmet need and bringing new software and AI capabilities to fundamentally overhaul what engineering looks like today and transform how hardware innovation is executed.”

PhysicsX is already working with major manufacturers and engineering teams. The company says its software is now part of daily workflows at some of the most demanding technical environments on the planet.

Investors see it as more than just optimization software—it’s a new kind of toolkit for engineers who need to tackle problems that can’t be solved through traditional methods.

“PhysicsX is unlocking a new engineering paradigm. They’re not just shortening design cycles, lowering costs, and accelerating innovation: they’re empowering engineers to solve problems that were previously beyond human intuition,” said Laura Connell, Partner at Atomico. “By fusing frontier AI research with deep industrial expertise, the team is building transformative tools for the sectors that underpin the global economy. We’re proud to lead this investment and support PhysicsX in shaping the future of software-defined engineering.”

General Catalyst, one of PhysicsX’s earlier backers, echoed that sentiment. “PhysicsX is a developer-first AI platform that redefines what’s possible for engineers,” said Managing Director Paul Kwan. “Since our investment nearly 2 years ago, PhysicsX has significantly scaled their team and solutions to help the world’s advanced industries better design, build and operate their most critical and complex systems.”

Peter Koerte, CTO and Chief Strategy Officer at Siemens, said the company’s investment is a bet on how industrial-grade AI will shape manufacturing. “Our strategic investment in PhysicsX builds on our successful collaboration in developing AI-based deep physics simulations and underscores our conviction in their ability to accelerate industrial innovation,” he said. “PhysicsX, with its strong European roots, can drive global transformation in industrial AI while building on Europe’s industrial strength and world-class AI talent pool to create solutions that will define the future of manufacturing, particularly in mission-critical applications where performance and reliability are paramount.”