Marc Lore, the serial entrepreneur who previously sold his startups to Amazon and Walmart, is betting that artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the way restaurants are created and operated. His current venture, Wonder, is a vertically integrated dining and delivery platform that has evolved from food trucks into a network of tech-enabled kitchens. Now, with the introduction of Wonder Create, Lore envisions a future where anyone—from food enthusiasts to social media influencers—can launch their own restaurant brand in under a minute using nothing more than a few lines of text.
Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything conference, Lore outlined the mechanics behind Wonder Create. He described it as a Shopify-style front end paired with an AI prompt. Users simply type in what kind of restaurant they want to build, and the AI generates the name, branding, description, pictures, pricing, health information, and even all the recipes. If the user isn't satisfied, they can refine the prompt and regenerate. Once finalized, the virtual restaurant goes live across Wonder's growing network of locations.
Wonder currently operates 120 of what Lore calls programmable cooking platforms. These are not traditional restaurants; they are compact, all-electric kitchens that can function as up to 25 different types of restaurants depending on the cuisine being prepared. Each location houses a 700-ingredient library and employs up to 12 people, supported by conveyors, robotic arms, and other automation technologies. The company recently acquired Spice Robotics, a maker of an automatic bowl-making machine previously used by Sweetgreen, and next year plans to introduce an infinite sauce machine capable of producing 80% of all sauces found in recipes on the internet.
Lore's background in e-commerce is instructive. He co-founded Quidsi, which operated Diapers.com and was sold to Amazon in 2010 for $545 million. He then founded Jet.com, an online retailer that was acquired by Walmart in 2016 for $3.3 billion. After a stint leading Walmart's e-commerce operations, he left to focus on Wonder, which he launched in 2018 as a food-truck business. Since then, Wonder has acquired Grubhub, the meal-kit service Blue Apron, and several restaurant brands, including New York City's Blue Ribbon Fried Chicken, which it bought for $6.5 million in February 2026.
The concept of virtual or ghost kitchens gained significant attention in the early 2020s, with brands like MrBeast Burger and CloudKitchens raising millions. However, many of these ventures struggled with inconsistent food quality and lack of customer loyalty, leading to closures and scaling back. MrBeast Burger, for example, faced widespread complaints because it relied on dozens of different contracted kitchens, each with its own staff and equipment. Wonder aims to solve that problem by using its own centrally managed kitchens that are increasingly automated. Lore argues that by controlling the entire production process—from ingredient sourcing to cooking to delivery—Wonder can maintain consistent quality across all locations.
The economic model is compelling. Lore explained that a 2,500-square-foot kitchen currently has a throughput capacity of about 7 million meals per year with 12 staff members. He sees a path to 20 million meals from the same footprint and headcount, thanks to robotics and automation. The long-term goal is to have 1,000 unique restaurant brands operating out of a single 2,500-square-foot location by 2035. This would represent a massive shift from the current restaurant industry, where each brand typically requires its own brick-and-mortar location, with all the associated real estate and labor costs.
Wonder Create is not limited to aspiring restaurateurs. Lore envisions influencers using the platform to connect with their audiences by creating personalized restaurant brands. A mega-influencer or even a micro-influencer could monetize their following by launching a virtual restaurant without having to deal with the complexities of supply chains and kitchen operations. Similarly, a private trainer could design custom bowls for their clients, a non-profit could create a brand to raise awareness, or a movie studio like Disney could launch a promotional restaurant for a new film. In short, anyone can make a restaurant.
Despite the ambitious vision, there are limitations. Lore acknowledged that current technology cannot handle tasks like tossing and stretching pizza dough or slicing and rolling sushi. Wonder focuses on simpler basics: burgers, chicken wings, fried chicken, and bowls. The company is also mindful of the fate of earlier ghost kitchen experiments. By integrating robotics and AI, Wonder hopes to avoid the quality control issues that plagued its predecessors. The ability to buy existing restaurant brands and instantly scale them across 120 (and eventually 400) kitchens offers a significant arbitrage opportunity, as Lore pointed out.
The broader implications for the food industry are substantial. If Wonder succeeds, it could lower the barrier to entry for new culinary concepts, reduce food waste through centralized ingredient management, and change the economics of restaurant ownership. However, questions remain about consumer acceptance of AI-generated recipes and robot-cooked food, as well as the long-term viability of a model that relies heavily on delivery. As Lore continues to build out Wonder's infrastructure, the next few years will be critical in determining whether AI-powered restaurant creation is a passing trend or the future of dining.
Source: TechCrunch News