Jeff Bezos, Microsoft Invests in Humanoid Robot Startup


Figure AI, a robotics startup that is engineering human-like bipedal robots that could one day take over human tasks, DECLARING on Thursday that it raised $675 million from high-profile investors, including Jeff Bezos. The company, which was founded in 2022, is now valued at $2.6 billion.

Figure AI The main plan appears to be transforming various industries, “from corporate work roles (3+ billion people), to helping individuals at home (2+ billion), to elder care (~1 billion) and to building worlds of clouds on other planets,” according to the company.

For now, the startup aims to get involved in industries like manufacturing, transportation and retail, “where labor shortages are the most severe.”

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Figure 01 in action. Credit: Figure AI

The startup's first offering is the Figure 01, a general-purpose robot that walks on two legs and has five-fingered hands. A video showing the robot in action notes that it can walk up to a stack of crates, pick one up and place it on a conveyor belt.

A status update slide before the footage showed that the bot's speed when compared to a human is currently 16.7%.

“Figure 01 is completing fully autonomous tasks,” wrote Figure AI in the video.

Figure AI said as part of the deal Thursday that it will partner with OpenAI, the nonprofit behind ChatGPT, to incorporate generative AI into its human-like bots. Microsoft has made one multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI, and also invested $95 million in Figure AI, according to Bloomberg.

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Nvidia and an Amazon-related fund are investing $50 million each in Figure AI, and Amazon founder Bezos has donated $100 million through his firm Explore Investments LLC. Amazon has seven different robotics companies in it $1 billion innovation fund portfolioBY Dexterity robotics THE Bionic Hive.



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