Robotics startup Figure AI confirms raising $675M at a $2.6B valuation and is partnering with OpenAI to “develop next-generation AI models for humanoid robots”
we're collaborating with @Figure_robot to expand our multimodal models to robotic perception, reasoning, and interaction. https://www.prnewswire.com/... Adam Cochran / @adamscochran : ChatGPT with arms seems fine. But can we all agree to not give Microsoft Copilot arms until it solves the whole “tell me not to use emojis and I will tell you I want to murder you” bug? @figure_robot : Figure will leverage Microsoft Azure for AI infrastructure, training, and storage We are excited to partner with OpenAI and Microsoft to bring embodied AI to the real world Brett Adcock / @adcock_brett : if not obvious yet, Figure's humanoid robot is the ultimate deployment vector for AGI Jeff Weinstein / @jeffreyw5000 : This is definitely *not* a marketplace, but we are ecstatic to back @adcock_brett for a 5th time across 3 different companies. We first backed him in the jobs marketplace Vettery that he sold to Adecco for $100M+ and then in Archer Aviation, that he took public on the NYSE for... Corey Lynch / @coreylynch : Excited to be able to talk about this finally! We are working directly with researchers at OpenAI to put next generation multimodal models on our robots. We're going to build a lot of learning humanoids together 💙🚢 Matthew Pines / @matthew_pines : It's all about the data—robots are the only real way to get the quantities of real-world physics and task-based training data needed to keep scaling multimodal models. @bryan_johnson : Excited to be an investor and am going to upload myself into many of them so that I can begin living multiple lifetimes at the same time. @can : once their robots can change a duvet cover, it's over Greg Brockman / @gdb : Expanding our multimodal models for robotics: Brett Adcock / @adcock_brett : Excited to share: Figure raises $675M at $2.6B Valuation + OpenAI & Figure signed a collaboration agreement to develop next generation AI models for robots Below are the details: [image] Brett Adcock / @adcock_brett : @Figure_robot @OpenAI $675M Series B investments from: - Microsoft - OpenAI Startup Fund - NVIDIA - Jeff Bezos (through Bezos Expeditions) - Parkway Venture Capital - Intel Capital - Align Ventures Brett Adcock / @adcock_brett : In addition, OpenAI & Figure signed a collaboration agreement to develop next generation AI models for humanoid robots The collaboration aims to help accelerate Figure's commercial timeline by enhancing the capabilities of humanoid robots to process and reason from language LinkedIn: Chris G. : Happy to share that Align Ventures has invested $95 million in Figure AI's Series B round! This is an exciting opportunity for our investors … Taejoon Park : I'm excited to announce our investment in Figure - now the best-funded humanoid robotics start-up! We expect to see rapid advancement in robotic AI … Phil Hintze : Happy to announce Align Venture's $95 million investment in this round for Figure AI which you are likely seeing in the media today. … Forums: r/artificial : One-Minute Daily AI News 2/29/2024 r/Futurology : Robot startup ‘FigureAI’ valued at $2.6 billion by Bezos, OpenAI, Nvidia
Context & Ripple Effects
Figure’s confirmed round closes the loop on earlier reports that it was seeking up to $500M and on reporting that Microsoft, Nvidia and Bezos were among the prospective backers. The financing joins capital, cloud infrastructure and a frontier-model partner around one humanoid-robot developer.
The OpenAI collaboration makes Figure’s robotics effort more than a hardware funding story: it explicitly connects multimodal models to perception, reasoning and interaction, while Azure becomes the stated training and storage base.
First-order effects
- Figure gains $675M of operating capital and a $2.6B valuation, alongside access to OpenAI collaboration and Azure infrastructure for its humanoid-robot program.
- OpenAI, Microsoft and the other Series B investors become financially and operationally tied to Figure’s attempt to adapt multimodal AI to embodied tasks; the reported investor group had already been outlined in the round’s earlier investor disclosures.
Second-order effects
- Other humanoid-robot developers will face a higher bar for raising capital and securing model, compute and cloud partnerships, as Figure combines all three in one financing.
- Azure gains a potential embodied-AI workload spanning training, storage and deployment development, extending the commercial importance of cloud relationships beyond standalone model labs.
Third-order effects
- If comparable partnerships proliferate, humanoid robotics could increasingly be organized around a small number of well-capitalized stacks that combine robot builders, frontier-model providers and hyperscale cloud platforms.
- The arrangement also tests whether multimodal models can become a reusable software layer for physical machines; progress would shift differentiation toward data, integration and reliable deployment rather than robot hardware alone.
The trend: Humanoid robotics is becoming a capital-intensive extension of the frontier-AI stack, with startups pairing hardware development with foundation-model and cloud-platform alliances.