Figure AI Raises Another $675 Million From Big Investors: Is Humanoid Robot Gonna Be The Next Big Thing?
2min read Humanoid robots appear to be the next investment trend. On Thursday, Figure AI, a startup dedicated to manufacturing humanoid robots capable of performing dangerous and heavy-duty tasks, announced that it has secured investment agreements with a host of big-name investors, including artificial intelligence industry leaders Nvidia and Microsoft.
The company reported that the funding round reached $675 million. After this round of fundraising, analysts estimate that Figure AI now has a value of $2.6 billion.
According to previously disclosed agreement details, Nvidia and a fund owned by Amazon each invested $50 million, Intel's venture capital organization contributed $25 million, LG Innotek (a subsidiary of LG) invested $8.5 million, and a Samsung investment organization put up $5 million. Moreover, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, through his investment company Explore Investments LLC, pledged to invest $100 million.
As part of the agreement, Figure will also collaborate with OpenAI to develop artificial intelligence (AI) models for the next generation of humanoid robots, and it can use Microsoft's Azure cloud service to establish AI infrastructure and store data.
Brett Adcock, founder and CEO of Figure, stated that the company would use this fund to develop large language models for robots, expand production scale, and hire more employees.
Founded in 2022, Figure AI has already developed a humanoid robot called "Figure 01" that resembles and behaves like a human. The company anticipates its robots may be applied in sectors such as manufacturing, shipping and logistics, warehousing, and retail, where a severe labor shortage exists, but has no plans to involve them in military or defense applications.
Earlier this week, the company released a video showing Figure 01 in action: in the video, the robot walks using two legs while attached to a towing cable. After picking up a plastic box with its five-fingered hand, it successfully moves to the designated conveyor belt edge and places the box in the right location.
Figure's ultimate goal is to make Figure 01 capable of autonomously performing routine tasks. However, the company stated that achieving this goal requires the development of more powerful AI systems.
Meanwhile, Figure is one of several companies racing to realize the vision of humanoid robots; for instance, Amazon-supported Agility Robotic also plans to build a factory capable of producing up to 10,000 units of its bipedal Digit robot per year. Tesla is also attempting to manufacture a humanoid robot named Optimus, while robot company Boston Dynamics has already developed several models. Recently, Norwegian humanoid robot startup 1X Technologies raised $100 million with OpenAI's support.
According to analysts, the humanoid robot market is in its infancy, but it also has a bright future: Based on a report by GGII published last May, it is projected that the penetration rate of humanoid robots in the service robot market will reach 3.5% by 2026, with a market size exceeding $2 billion, and by 2030, the global market size is expected to surpass $20 billion.
Goldman Sachs analysts also predict that the humanoid robot market will reach $38 billion by 2035, and by 2030, there could be over 250,000 humanoid robot shipments.
Tom Andersson, co-founder and chief analyst at STIQ Ltd., said: Right now we're at an early curve where there's loads of interest in humanoids, and I think that will continue for a while. However, Andersson also points out that humanoid robots still need to go through several step changes before they can truly expand their application range.
A key reason is the current high cost of components required for humanoid robots, such as drivers, motors, and sensors. Yet, Goldman Sachs researchers suggest that as production scales expand and technology continues to advance, these costs are expected to decrease in the coming years. The investment bank's analysts have noticed that the unit cost of these components has already dropped by almost 40%, from a range of $50,000 - $250,000 to a range of $30,000 - $150,000.
Nonetheless, according to Musk, these challenges are only temporary because humanoid robots could eventually outnumber humans .