The Robots Are Coming Home

Brett Adcock is clear about what it takes to make artificial general intelligence useful in the physical world. “You need a high-dimensional robot that can navigate and perform real-world tasks,” he says. “You can’t strap AGI onto a vacuum cleaner.”

While most of the AI industry is chasing model architecture breakthroughs or consolidation, Figure AI is building full-scale humanoid robots designed to perform real labor autonomously. Founded in 2022, the company has raised 2.34 billion dollars to date, including a 1.5 billion dollar Series C in early 2025. Backers include Microsoft, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Jeff Bezos. PitchBook pegs the company’s current valuation at 2.6 billion dollars.

Adcock, who previously founded Archer Aviation and exited software firm Vettery, invested a significant portion of his own money into Figure during its early days. Within five months, the company was spending one million dollars a month. By the end of its first year, it had built and walked a humanoid robot designed almost entirely from scratch.

The company’s latest version, Figure 3, is optimized for mass production and is now being assembled at a dedicated facility named Baku. It is 90 percent cheaper to manufacture than earlier prototypes. Figure aims to ship 100,000 units over the next four years, starting with workforce deployment in logistics, manufacturing, and healthcare.