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The Bay Area firm is raising $675M from Microsoft, OpenAI, Amazon, Nvidia, Intel Capital and more
TodayFigureconfirmed long - put up hearsay that it ’s been raising more money than God . The Bay Area - based robotics firm foretell a $ 675 million Series B stave that values the startup at $ 2.6 billion post - money .
The batting order of investor is evenly impressive . It includes Microsoft , OpenAI Startup Fund , Nvidia , Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund , Jeff Bezos ( through Bezos Expeditions ) , Parkway Venture Capital , Intel Capital , Align Ventures and ARK Invest . It ’s a mind - boggling aggregate of money for what remain a still - unseasoned startup , with an 80 - person head count . That last snatch will almost certainly commute with this rung .
Figure already had a lot to act with . Founder Brett Adcock , a consecutive enterpriser , bootstrapped the companionship , commit in an initial $ 100 million to get it started . Last May , it tot $ 70 million in the grade of a Series A. I used to think “ Figure ” was a mention to the golem ’s humanoid design and perhaps an homage to a startup that ’s calculate things out . Now it seems it ’s might also be a citation to the galactic funding figure it ’s raised thus far .
When Figure launched in 2022 , it put out an challenging goal of creating a walk biped robot within a year . The company told TechCrunch that it hit that date . We did n’t see walking video at the time , but it has since surfaced .
The inauguration is very much a product of its time : humanoid golem are having a minute . Examples have been showcased by Tesla ( though I ’d anneal your expectation fairly on that ) , Apptronik and 1X , among others . Amazon recently lead off a small pilot with Agility ’s Digit robot , which seems to have found its vallecula supplementing human labor movement in brownfield warehouse and fulfillment center .
Most of these efforts — include Figure ’s — are working toward that same goal of build up robots for industry . Upfront costs are just one understanding it puddle a flock more signified to focus on the workplace before the rest home . It ’s also one of many ground it ’s important to properly graduate your prospect of what a system like this can — and ca n’t — do .
Some fellowship ( namely Tesla again ) have perhaps set unrealistic expectations about the current state of the nontextual matter . I ’m speaking primarily about artificial cosmopolitan intelligence , which many roboticists conceive is about five years out — though that could well turn up affirmative .
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“ oecumenical purpose ” gets thrash around a good deal when discuss these golem . In essence , it refers to systems that can rapidly piece up a miscellany of tasks the elbow room man do . Traditional robotics systems are single intent , intend they do one thing really well a number of times . Multipurpose systems are certainly out there , and APIs like the sort provided by Boston Dynamics for Spot will go some way of life toward expanding that functionality .
The eventual goal of generalized AI is , in fact , a self-aggrandising driver for the humanoid form factor . Robots built for a undivided function are difficult to adapt , while , in hypothesis , a golem construct to think like us can do anything we can .
When I visitedFigure ’s military headquarters last year , the companionship had recently built a demonstration area in the center of its office .
The distance ’s master enjoyment was showcasing the robot for likely customer and investor . Tellingly , it was localise up to resemble a warehouse or factory .
Most people trust that warehouse study is the first pace to broader adoption and is perhaps the eventual arrival of a home golem . After all , bay window will blithely indue a good ball of money into a Cartesian product they consider will preserve them money in the long run . Also , it ’s much easier to fill a twenty-four hour period ’s piece of work with one or two exceedingly repetitive labor . Consumers will almost certainly demand something indistinguishable from abstraction before paying the equivalent weight of a Modern gondola to buy one .
It ’s deserving noting that today ’s news also finds Figure signing a partnership with generative AI trailblazer OpenAI .
The goal of the deal is to “ develop next generation AI models for humanoid robots , ” allot to Figure . The near - term app for Large Language Models will be the ability to create more natural methods of communicating between robot and their human colleague . “ The quislingism aim to help accelerate Figure ’s commercial-grade timeline by enhance the capability of humanoid robot to process and reason from words , ” the society notes .
raw speech communication tolerate people to give the organization commands and gives humans a better understanding of what the robot is doing ( hence the power to “ rationality ” in linguistic communication ) . These are , after all , much more complex organisation than a homo - piloted forklift , for example . If they ’re going to operate autonomously , you ’re pass to want a more direct method acting of communicating — peculiarly on a busy storage warehouse or factory story . Language process allows for human help in correcting mistakes .
“ We ’ve always design to come in back to robotics and we see a itinerary with Figure to explore what humanoid golem can reach when power by highly capable multimodal models , ” OpenAI VP , Peter Welinder , said in a statement . “ We ’re blown off by Figure ’s progress to date and we take care forward to working together to open up new possibility for how automaton can avail in unremarkable life . ”
Another thing that take a leak the deal interesting is OpenAI ’s investment in unmediated competitor , 1X. One admiration whether such a good deal is OpenAI rethinking its investments , or if this is simply the company play the field . My supposition at the moment is the latter . If you ’re in OpenAI ’s position , you might as well go with as many hopeful company as you’re able to , and Figure has sure as shooting demonstrated some real progress in the eight calendar month since it took its first step .
Take the video below , posted a little over a week ago . Figure says the robot ’s operations are or so 16.7 % the hurrying of a human doing the same job . That is , it ’s very slow and methodical — measured , even . That much is clear from the television . And it ’s always good to see a robot operating at actual speeding in a demonstration video , no matter how well produced it happens to be . People have say me in hushed tone that some folk music sample to overhaul off speed up videos without disclosing as much . It ’s the kind of thing that feeds into consumers ’ already unrealistic expectations of what automaton can do .
Microsoft ’s investing observe Figure employ Azure for computer memory , training and ‘ AI infrastructure .
“ We are worked up to collaborate with Figure and work towards accelerate AI breakthroughs , ” said Microsoft Corporate VP , Jon Tinter in a statement . “ Through our workplace together , Figure will have access to Microsoft‘s AI substructure and services to support the deployment of humanoid robot to assist people with real earth applications . ”
moderately interestingly , Figure was not include inBill Gates ’ recent listof exciting robotics startups , though two other humanoid companies ( Agility and Apptronik ) were .
The Amazon Innovation Fund ’s engagement in this round is also particularly notable , as it can often serve as a word of mouth to real - world deployment in fulfillment centers — take Agility as a key object lesson .
The autonomous part is important as well , give the propensity to make pass off tele - op for self-reliance . One of the grounds autonomy is so hard in case like this is all the variation you ca n’t account for . While warehouse tend to be fairly structured environments , any number of things can take place in the existent humankind that will ping a task off - kilter . And the less structured these tasks become , the larger the potential for error . A lot of questions stay , include how many occupy it take on to get this right . One matter this absolutely has going for it is the fact that the action is captured in one continuous blastoff , meaning the company did n’t cobble together a serial of natural process through originative editing .
Mechatronics are easier to judge in a brusque TV than AI and self-reliance , and from that perspective , the Figure 01 golem appears quite dexterous . In fact , if you look at the angle and positioning of the weapon system , you ’ll point out that it ’s performing the carry in a personal manner that would be quite uncomfortable for most people . It ’s important to note that just because the robot looks like a person does n’t think that it has to behave exactly like one . My enlightened hypothesis is that the emplacement of the tote has to do with the automaton ’s center of gravity and perhaps the fact that it looks like extremely top sound .
Figure say the money will go toward speed up its go - to - market . The company has already ratify a deal with BMW for robotics deployment .
