Robotics startup Figure exits its February 2024 OpenAI deal, which aimed to develop AI models for robots, to focus on in-house AI after a “major breakthrough”
Brian Heater / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
Figure's OpenAI partnership was part of its 2024 financing narrative, when the company said it had raised $675 million and would work with OpenAI on models for humanoid robots. The company had earlier progressed from a self-financed seed and Series A into building its general-purpose Figure 01 platform.
The split also lands as OpenAI was rebuilding a robotics research team to supply technology to robot makers, while its broader interest in robotics included investments and possible humanoid ambitions. Figure's decision therefore removes one prominent customer-partner relationship from an increasingly overlapping robotics ecosystem.
First-order effects
- Figure will take direct responsibility for the AI work previously contemplated with OpenAI, tying the value of its claimed breakthrough more tightly to its own engineering and product execution.
- OpenAI loses a formal development partner for robot AI, even as it continues to pursue a strategy of providing technology to robotics companies.
Second-order effects
- Figure's rivals will face sharper pressure to decide whether differentiated robot intelligence should be developed internally or sourced from a frontier-model provider—a version of the OpenAI partnership Figure highlighted alongside its 2024 funding.
- The move makes Figure's existing capital base more consequential: its earlier Series A and self-financed seed now sit behind a more vertically integrated effort rather than a shared-model-development arrangement.
Third-order effects
- If other humanoid-robot makers follow Figure's path, the market may divide between companies owning the robot-and-model stack and those integrating external AI services, reinforcing OpenAI's stated plan to build technology for robot makers.
- The outcome remains uncertain: in-house development could create differentiation, but it also shifts more research cost and execution risk onto individual robotics companies rather than a specialized AI partner.
The trend: Humanoid-robot developers are testing whether control of the full hardware-and-AI stack is a stronger competitive advantage than dependence on frontier-model partnerships.