Robotics startup Figure raises $675 million

Apart from Nvidia and Microsoft, other contributors to Figure’s funding round include OpenAI Startup Fund, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, and ARK Invest

On Thursday, the robotics startup Figure announced that it secured $675 million in funding from investors like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, resulting in a valuation of $2.6 billion.

Based in Sunnyvale, California, Figure also revealed a partnership with OpenAI to advance generative artificial intelligence for its humanoid robots. The introduction of ChatGPT by OpenAI has sparked enthusiasm in the field of AI, leading companies to invest millions of dollars to capitalize on the growing trend.

Brett Adcock, Figure’s founder and CEO, said the company will use the funding to develop large language models for robotics, ramp up manufacturing and hire more people.

The startup will also move to Microsoft Azure for AI infrastructure and training, Adcock said.

The AI models Figure develops will be based on OpenAI’s latest GPT models, and specifically trained on robotics actions data that Figure has collected so that its humanoid robots can talk with people, see things and perform physical tasks, according to Adcock.

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, vice president of product and partnerships at OpenAI.

Reports from Bloomberg last week unveiled details about Figure’s fundraising efforts, mentioning commitments of $100 million from Bezos’ Explore Investments LLC, $95 million from Microsoft, and $50 million from both Nvidia and an Amazon-affiliated fund. Furthermore, Figure recently announced a partnership with BMW Manufacturing to implement its humanoid robots at the car manufacturer’s facility in the United States.

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