TMTPOST -- Figure, a robotics company founded by Brett Adcock, has raised $1 billion in Series C funding, bringing its post-money valuation to an astonishing $39 billion.
The new funding round was led by Parkway Venture Capital, with participation from Brookfield Asset Management, NVIDIA, Macquarie Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, Tamarack Global, LG Technology Ventures, Salesforce, T-Mobile Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures.
This follows Figure’s $675 million Series B round in February 2024, with investments from heavyweights like Microsoft, the OpenAI Startup Fund, Jeff Bezos, and other leading names. Parkway Venture Capital and Intel Capital, both significant contributors to the Series C, were also part of the Series B round. Figure's rapid rise has made it a standout player in the robotics and AI space, attracting attention not only from investors but also from major tech companies.
What makes Figure unique and why have so many high-profile investors bet on it? A large part of the answer lies in its unique approach to vertical integration, which allows it to combine hardware and software development seamlessly. This approach mirrors strategies used by tech giants like Tesla, giving Figure a robust competitive edge and positioning it as a leader in embodied intelligence.
Founded in 2022 by Brett Adcock, the company has a bold mission: to solve global labor shortages and improve human well-being. Adcock has highlighted that manual labor accounts for about 50% of global GDP, making labor costs a major driver of the price of goods and services. By introducing robots into the workforce, Adcock believes labor costs can be drastically reduced, allowing humans to focus on safer, more meaningful tasks.
The company’s ambitious goal is outlined in Adcock’s Master Plan, which draws parallels to Tesla's long-term vision. His plan unfolds in three stages: First, build a fully functional humanoid robot; second, develop human-like control capabilities; and third, integrate robots into the workforce. With this roadmap, Adcock aims to transform the labor market, using robots to replace human workers in menial, unsafe, or undesirable jobs, thus reducing costs and improving the quality of life for people globally.
Brett Adcock is no stranger to success. He previously founded Archer, a company that went public with a valuation of $2.7 billion, and Vettery, which was acquired for $100 million. The team he’s assembled at Figure includes top AI and robotics experts from renowned companies such as Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Google DeepMind, and Archer Aviation. This mix of seasoned talent has undoubtedly played a crucial role in attracting investment and building confidence in Figure’s long-term prospects.
A key differentiator for Figure is its vertically integrated strategy, which combines hardware and software development in-house. Unlike other companies that may focus solely on one aspect of robotics—whether it’s perception, mobility, or dexterous hands—Figure handles every piece of the puzzle from the ground up. This allows the company to ensure seamless integration between its robots’ hardware and software, optimizing performance and efficiency.
Vertical integration has been a hallmark of companies like Apple and Tesla, both of which have built their dominance by controlling everything from the underlying hardware to the software ecosystem. For Apple, this means owning everything from chips to the App Store, ensuring that each component works together seamlessly to create a premium user experience. Similarly, Tesla’s fully self-developed autonomous driving system and electric vehicles form a self-reinforcing data flywheel that improves with each vehicle sold, further advancing the technology while generating cash flow to fuel continued innovation.
In the case of Figure, its vertical integration strategy allows it to develop both the robot hardware and the models needed to power them. In addition to designing the robots themselves, Figure has built its own computing infrastructure and possesses large-scale manufacturing capabilities, enabling the company to control every stage of its product development cycle. This level of control enables Figure to create a closed-loop system where its robots generate data that further improves their performance, creating a cycle of continuous improvement.
At the heart of Figure’s strategy is its closed-loop system, which combines in-house developed hardware, software, computing infrastructure, and large-scale manufacturing capabilities. This system creates a flywheel effect that drives the company’s long-term success. Figure’s robots are designed to build other robots, accelerating the production process while also generating valuable data that feeds back into the system to improve performance.
One of Figure's standout products is its Figure 02 robot, which already demonstrates the potential of this vertically integrated approach. The next-generation Figure 03 robot is already in the design phase and promises to build on the company’s progress. Key innovations in the Figure 03 include a new manufacturing process that dramatically reduces costs. While Figure 02 relied on complex CNC (computer numerical control) machining, which limited production to small batches, Figure 03 will leverage more efficient methods such as injection molding and die-casting, enabling faster production at scale.
In addition to the new manufacturing process, Figure has developed the F.03 battery system, a 2.3 kWh battery that enables its robots to operate for up to five hours at peak performance. This new battery is not only cheaper—its cost has been reduced by 78% compared to the previous generation—but it also meets both UN38.3 and UL2271 battery safety standards, making it one of the safest batteries for humanoid robots.
The intelligence that powers Figure’s robots comes from the Helix system, a general-purpose Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model. Helix incorporates a System 1 (fast thinking) and System 2 (slow thinking) architecture, which helps the robots perform a variety of tasks, such as sorting logistics, folding clothes, loading dishwashers, and navigating autonomously.
One of the most impressive aspects of Helix is its ability to enable zero-shot multi-robot coordination. This allows Figure’s robots to work together collaboratively without requiring task-specific fine-tuning. Helix is trained end-to-end, which means it can learn all behaviors using a single neural network, eliminating the need for separate training for different tasks.
This system makes Figure’s robots versatile, allowing them to perform a wide range of functions without requiring task-specific tuning or extensive programming. Additionally, Helix makes it possible for robots to learn new tasks by observing real-world data, without the need for human-labeled data. This unsupervised learning method unlocks a new scaling law for the embodied intelligence industry.
Figure’s vertical integration extends into its manufacturing capabilities through its BotQ factory, which is capable of producing up to 12,000 humanoid robots per year. In a significant innovation, Figure has integrated its own humanoid robots into the production line, allowing them to assemble key components and handle materials. This not only speeds up the manufacturing process but also provides valuable operational data that can be used to optimize the robots' performance.
In addition, Figure is working with Brookfield Asset Management to collect data from residential, commercial, and logistics facilities, further feeding this information into the Helix system. This two-pronged data collection strategy—robot-manufactured robots and real-world data—positions Figure to build an ultra-large-scale robotics dataset, which will help further advance the capabilities of its robots.
With its vertically integrated approach, cutting-edge technology, and large-scale manufacturing capabilities, Figure is well-positioned to dominate the embodied intelligence sector. The company’s $39 billion valuation underscores its significant potential in transforming the labor market and reimagining industries that rely on human labor.
As the embodied intelligence sector continues to evolve, Figure’s closed-loop system and innovative approach to robotics will likely be key drivers of its continued success. By solving the challenges of labor shortages, reducing costs, and improving the quality of life for people around the world, Figure represents a glimpse into the future of work and technology—one in which AI-powered robots become an integral part of our everyday lives, reshaping industries and the very fabric of society itself.
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