Peter Chen
Also known as Xi Chen
Peter Chen is a Covariant co-founder who helped move AI research into warehouse robotics. He pursued a PhD in Pieter Abbeel's Berkeley lab and worked as an OpenAI research scientist on reinforcement learning and generative models. His research included Meta Learning Shared Hierarchies and A Simple Neural Attentive Meta-Learner. As Covariant's CEO, he described its robotic manipulation system as a universal brain, and the company raised $40 million in 2020. Amazon licensed Covariant's robotic foundation models and announced in 2024 that he would join its Fulfillment Technologies & Robotics Team; as of October 2026, he works in that group.
Timeline
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Before 2017
Research across two labs
He pursued a PhD in Pieter Abbeel's Berkeley lab and worked as an OpenAI research scientist on reinforcement learning and generative models.
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2017
Starting Covariant
He and Pieter Abbeel co-founded Covariant in 2017, with Chen serving as CEO.
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2017–2018
Learning skills for new tasks
His research included the 2017 paper Meta Learning Shared Hierarchies, which uses shared subpolicies to help agents learn new tasks, and A Simple Neural Attentive Meta-Learner, published in 2018.
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2020
A brain for robotic work
As Covariant's CEO, he described the system as a universal brain for robotic manipulation tasks.
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2020
A $40 million round
Covariant raised $40 million to boost hiring and adapt its AI robotics software to new industries.
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2024
Licensing the robot models
Amazon received a non-exclusive license to Covariant's robotic foundation models.
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2024
Joining Amazon robotics
Amazon announced he would join its Fulfillment Technologies & Robotics Team with other Covariant founders and research staff.
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As of October 2026
Working at Amazon
He works on Amazon's Fulfillment Technologies & Robotics Team after moving there with his Covariant co-founders.
Sources and credits
Photo: We have no published photo of Peter Chen yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.
- Peter Chen on building brains for robots in the real world - The Robot Brains Podcast | Acast
- Berkeley Talks: Leaping robots, AI companies and a NASA mission: Stories of Berkeley student innovation
- (Peter) Xi Chen's Academic Website
- [1710.09767] Meta Learning Shared Hierarchies
- Logistics AI Startup Covariant Reaps $40 Million in Funding Round | Research UC Berkeley
- Amazon hires from AI robotics startup Covariant, licenses technology