Humanoid robot developer Figure AI raises $675M series B

General purpose humanoid robot developer Figure AI recently announced that it has raised $675M in Series B funding at a $2.6B valuation.

Series B investors came from Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos (through Bezos Expeditions), Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, and ARK Invest. Both Microsoft and OpenAI will collaborate with Figure to develop its robots.

Figure said this investment will accelerate its timeline for commercial deployment of its humanoid robot.

OpenAI collaboration aims to enhancing humanoid language processing

In conjunction with its Series B investment, Figure and OpenAI have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop AI models for humanoid robots, combining OpenAI's research with Figure's robotics hardware and software.

The collaboration aims to help accelerate Figure's commercial timeline by enhancing the capabilities of humanoid robots to process and reason from language, said Figure.

"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” said Peter Welinder, VP of product and partnerships at OpenAI. “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."

Microsoft Azure to provide AI infrastructure for deployment support

Figure will leverage Microsoft Azure for AI infrastructure, training, and storage.

"We are excited to collaborate with Figure and work towards accelerating AI breakthroughs,” said Jon Tinter, Corporate Vice President of Business Development at Microsoft. “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."

Figure recently announced commercial agreement with BMW

The Figure team is made up of individuals knowledgeable in AI-enabled robotics from Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Google DeepMind, and Archer Aviation. Figure said its team has made remarkable progress in the past few months in the 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.

"Our vision at Figure is to bring humanoid robots into commercial operations as soon as possible,” said Brett Adcock, Founder and CEO of Figure. “This investment, combined with our partnerships with OpenAI and Microsoft, ensures that we are well-prepared to bring embodied AI into the world to make a transformative impact on humanity."

New capital from Figure’s series B will be used for scaling up AI training, robot manufacturing, expanding engineering headcount, and advancing commercial deployment efforts.

Qatalyst Partners provided strategic and financial advice to Figure on its transaction.