Figure – an AI robotics company developing general-purpose humanoid robots – recently announced that it had raised $675 million in Series B funding at a $2.6 billion valuation with investments from Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos (through Bezos Expeditions), Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, and ARK Invest. And this investment will accelerate Figure’s timeline for humanoid commercial deployment.
With this funding, Figure and OpenAI have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop next-generation AI models for humanoid robots, combining OpenAI’s research with Figure’s deep understanding of robotics hardware and software. And the collaboration aims to help accelerate Figure’s commercial timeline by enhancing the capabilities of humanoid robots to process and reason from language.
The Figure team – which is made up of top AI robotics experts from Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Google DeepMind, and Archer Aviation – has made remarkable progress in the past few months in the key areas of AI, robot development, robot testing, and commercialization (Figure recently announced its first commercial agreement with BMW Manufacturing to bring humanoids into automotive production). And this new funding round will be used strategically for scaling up AI training, robot manufacturing, expanding engineering headcount, and advancing commercial deployment efforts.
Figure will utilize Microsoft Azure for AI infrastructure, training, and storage.
Qatalyst Partners provided strategic and financial advice to Figure on this deal.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’ve always planned to come back to robotics and we see a path with Figure to explore what humanoid robots can achieve when powered by highly capable multimodal models. We’re blown away by Figure’s progress to date and we look forward to working together to open up new possibilities for how robots can help in everyday life.”
– Peter Welinder, VP of Product and Partnerships at OpenAI
“We are excited to collaborate with Figure and work towards accelerating AI breakthroughs. Through our work together, Figure will have access to Microsoft’s AI infrastructure and services to support the deployment of humanoid robots to assist people with real world applications.”
– Jon Tinter, Corporate Vice President of Business Development at Microsoft
“Our vision at Figure is to bring humanoid robots into commercial operations as soon as possible. This investment, combined with our partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft, ensures that we are well-prepared to bring embodied AI into the world to make a transformative impact on humanity. AI and robotics are the future, and I am grateful to have the support of investors and partners who believe in being at the forefront.”
– Brett Adcock, Founder and CEO of Figure
