Figure AI has raised $675 million in another round of funding and plans to use the funds to accelerate the development of its humanoid robot Figure 01. Investors include Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, OpenAI, and Microsoft, CNBC reports.
Founded in 2022, Figure AI has developed a universal robot called Figure 01 that looks and moves like a human. In the future, similar robots are planned to be supplied for use in manufacturing, delivery and logistics, warehouses, and retail — wherever there is «the greatest labor shortage». According to the US Chamber of Commerce, in In August 2023, 616,000 vacancies were recorded in manufacturing.
The startup emphasizes that their cars are not intended for military or defense purposes.
This week, Figure AI released a new demonstration where Figure 01 walks on two legs, picks up plastic boxes, and places them on a conveyor belt:
The startup’s ultimate goal is to make» robots perform everyday tasks automatically, for which they plan to develop «more reliable AI systems».
On Thursday, Figure announced that it is partnering with OpenAI to «develop next-generation artificial intelligence models for humanoid robots» and will use Microsoft Azure cloud services.
Figure AI — is just one of many companies trying to create efficient humanoid robots. Agility Robotics, backed by Amazon, has already is planning to open a factory that will be able to produce up to 10,000 of its bipedal Digit robots per year. Tesla, meanwhile, tries to build his own humanoid robot Optimus well as the robotics company Boston Dynamics, which has developed several models at once. The Norwegian robotics startup 1X Technologies also recently raised $100 million in investment with the support of OpenAI.
Goldman Sachs analysts expect the humanoid robot market to reach $38 billion by 2035 and predict that more than 250,000 units could be shipped as early as 2030.