Figure AI Inc. has successfully secured over $1 billion in a recent funding round, significantly boosting its valuation to $39 billion—15 times higher than its previous assessment just a year ago. The Series C funding, led by Parkway Venture Capital, attracted notable investors including Nvidia Corp., Intel Capital, Qualcomm Ventures, Salesforce Inc., LG Technology Ventures, and T-Mobile Ventures.
The company specializes in the development of humanoid robots designed to automate repetitive tasks in industrial settings and household environments. Notably, its flagship model, Figure 02, launched last year, boasts hand functionality described as having "human-equivalent strength," equipped with 16 degrees of freedom—a key metric indicating the range of motion, though human hands feature 27 degrees of freedom.
In March, Figure AI revealed its latest robot, the Figure 03, which was developed almost entirely from the ground up, incorporating custom actuators and motors. This new model is powered by a specialized battery pack capable of delivering 2.3 kWh, allowing for operation up to five hours per charge. To meet rising demand, Figure AI aims to manufacture 12,000 units annually at its newly announced BotQ factory, with ambitions for considerable growth in production capacity over time. The facility will utilize advanced custom software to enhance manufacturing workflow and efficiency, enabling parts to be produced in approximately 20 seconds—an improvement from the previous weeks-long timeframe.
Furthermore, the newly acquired funding is earmarked for the enhancement of Helix, the artificial intelligence model that underpins Figure’s robotic systems. This vision-language-action (VLA) model excels in processing visual data, executing tasks from natural language commands, and facilitating collaborative actions between multiple robots. Figure AI aims to bolster Helix’s perception and reasoning capabilities by implementing advanced infrastructure supported by Nvidia’s graphics technologies, as well as enriching its multimodal datasets for model training.
Key Highlights:
- Funding and Valuation: Over $1 billion raised; valuation reaches $39 billion.
- Investor Participation: Major backers include Nvidia, Intel, and Salesforce.
- Robotics Innovation: Focus on humanoid robots for automation in various sectors.
- Production Capacity: Targeting annual output of 12,000 robots at BotQ.
- AI Development: Enhancements planned for Helix AI model to improve robot efficiency and collaboration.
