Marc Lore, the veteran e-commerce entrepreneur who sold his previous startups to Amazon and Walmart, has big plans to infuse AI into his current venture, Wonder. The centerpiece of those plans is Wonder Create, an initiative that would let anyone — from food entrepreneurs to social media influencers — use AI to design and launch their own restaurant brand in under a minute. The virtual restaurant would then go live across Wonder’s growing network of tech-enabled kitchen locations, currently numbering 120 and expected to reach 400 next year.

Lore’s startup, a vertically integrated dining and delivery platform, has evolved from food trucks to fast casual restaurants with 10 to 20 seats. These are not normal restaurants, though; they are “programmable cooking platforms” capable of operating as 25 different types of restaurants based on cuisine, within their all-electric kitchens that are increasingly becoming robotic.

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything conference this week, Lore said these kitchens have a 700-ingredient library. The “restaurants” they house actually consist of many different brands that operate from within these locations. In addition to a staff of up to 12 people in these kitchens, cooking tech, like conveyors and robotic arms, are involved in the cooking process. The company also just bought Spice Robotics, a maker of an automatic bowl-making machine previously used by Sweetgreen. Next year, it plans to offer an “infinite sauce machine” that can make about 80% of all the sauces found in recipes on the internet today.

The Vision Behind Wonder Create

Wonder Create was announced earlier this year as a way for anyone to use Wonder’s software to launch their own restaurant brand and recipes. Lore offered more details as to how this would work by leveraging AI technology, describing the plan as something like a “Shopify front end with an AI prompt.” During the WSJ interview, he explained: "You type in what kind of restaurant you want to build. It builds the restaurant -- AI does -- in under a minute. It does the name, branding, description, pictures, pricing, health information, and all the recipes for your restaurant." The would-be restaurateur could then refine the prompt if changes were needed. When ready to go live, the restaurant would launch across all of Wonder's locations.

The company currently has 120 of these "programmable cooking platforms" in operation, a number that's expected to grow to 400 next year. As it adds robotics to the equation, the company won't necessarily reduce headcount, Lore noted. Instead, it will increase the number of meals a kitchen can produce in a given period. "We have about 7 million throughput capacity with 12 people," he said. "We see a path to getting to 20 million throughput out of 2,500 square feet with just 12 people. The goal also is … I guess by 2035, to have 1,000 unique restaurants operating out of the 2,500 square feet."

Background on Marc Lore

Marc Lore is a serial entrepreneur who made his first fortune by founding Diapers.com, which was acquired by Amazon in 2011 for $545 million. He later co-founded Jet.com, an e-commerce platform that aimed to compete with Amazon, and sold it to Walmart in 2016 for $3.3 billion. After leaving Walmart in 2021, he launched Wonder with the goal of reinventing the restaurant industry. Wonder initially operated food trucks before transitioning to fast-casual brick-and-mortar locations. The company has raised over $1.7 billion in funding from investors including Bain Capital and Accel, and has acquired several food-related businesses: Grubhub, Blue Apron, and most recently the New York City-based Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken chain for $6.5 million in February 2026.

How the AI Platform Works

The AI system behind Wonder Create leverages large language models and generative image tools to produce a complete restaurant concept. Users start by typing a description, such as “a Mexican-Asian fusion taco truck with a focus on vegan options.” The AI then generates a brand name, logo, menu items with ingredient lists, nutritional information, and suggested pricing based on market data. The system also creates high-quality images of the dishes using generative AI, making the brand look polished even before a single meal is cooked. Once the user approves, the brand is added to Wonder’s platform and becomes available for delivery across all Wonder kitchen locations. The user can track sales, customer feedback, and modify recipes in real time.

Lore emphasized that the platform is designed to be accessible to anyone, regardless of culinary experience. "It could be a mega-influencer, a micro-influencer -- anyone that wants to monetize their following," Lore said. "Or it could be a private trainer that wants to make specific bowls. It could be a not-for-profit. It could be Disney for [marketing] their new movie. Anybody can make a restaurant."

Robotics and the Infinite Sauce Machine

Wonder’s kitchens are highly automated. In addition to conveyors and robotic arms, the company recently acquired Spice Robotics, which developed an automatic bowl-making machine that was previously deployed at Sweetgreen. This machine can assemble salads and grain bowls with precise ingredient placement. Next year, Wonder plans to introduce an “infinite sauce machine” that can produce approximately 80% of all sauces found in recipes across the internet. This machine will pump sauces from a central reservoir, allowing for endless variations without manual prep. The robotics are not intended to replace human workers but to augment them, increasing throughput from about 7 million meals per year per 12-person team to a projected 20 million by 2035.

Comparison to Ghost Kitchens

Ghost kitchens — also known as virtual restaurants — gained popularity in the early 2020s as a way for brands to sell food without owning physical storefronts. However, many ghost kitchen operators faced challenges with inconsistent food quality, lack of customer loyalty, and operational complexity. MrBeast Burger, a high-profile ghost kitchen brand launched by YouTube star MrBeast, suffered from widespread complaints about food quality due to reliance on dozens of different contracted kitchens. Wonder’s approach aims to solve that problem by centralizing production in owned, programmable kitchens with standardized robotic processes. Still, Lore acknowledged limitations: Wonder’s robots cannot toss pizza dough or slice and roll sushi. The focus remains on simpler fare like burgers, chicken wings, fried chicken, and bowls.

Expansion and Acquisitions

Wonder’s strategy includes acquiring existing restaurant brands and scaling them across its network. Lore sees an arbitrage opportunity: "When you buy a brand -- and you can buy a brand that has 10 locations, or even 50 locations -- and then overnight put it in 1,000, there's just an incredible arbitrage there." This approach reduces the risk of launching unknown brands while leveraging established customer recognition. Wonder also integrates its delivery infrastructure with Grubhub, which processes 250 million deliveries annually, and uses Blue Apron’s meal kit supply chain for ingredient sourcing.

Despite the ambitious plan, the broader market for AI-generated restaurants remains unproven. Skeptics point to consumer distrust of machine-made food and the importance of human touch in dining. However, Lore remains confident that Wonder’s model will succeed where earlier ghost kitchens failed. By combining AI-driven creativity with robotic precision, he believes Wonder can unlock a new era of food entrepreneurship where anyone with an internet connection can become a restaurateur.

Source: TechCrunch News