Marc Lore's Wonder uses AI to let anyone launch a restaurant brand in under a minute across 120 programmable kitchen locations

Wonder Create, an AI-powered tool announced earlier this year, generates a complete restaurant—including name, branding, recipes, pricing, and health information—in under a minute based on a user's text description, similar to a 'Shopify front-end with an AI prompt.' The virtual restaurant then goes live across Wonder's network of tech-enabled kitchen locations.

Wonder operates 120 'programmable cooking platforms' (kitchens capable of running 25 different restaurant types) staffed by up to 12 people, with cooking assisted by conveyors and robotic arms. The company recently acquired Spice Robotics and plans to offer an 'infinite sauce machine' next year that can make about 80% of all sauces found in recipes on the internet today.

Lore says the company expects to grow from 120 locations to 400 next year, and aims by 2035 to have 1,000 unique restaurants operating out of 2,500 square feet. Wonder's kitchens currently produce 7 million meals with 12 people and Lore sees a path to 20 million throughput from the same headcount and square footage with added robotics.