Figure, a robotics company, revealed that it has raised $675 million in a funding round from investors like Nvidia, Microsoft, and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos for a valuation of $2.6 billion.
Figure, a robotics business, announced on Thursday that it has raised $675 million in a funding round from investors including Nvidia (NVDA.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O), and Amazon.com (AMZN.O) founder Jeff Bezos, at a valuation of $2.6 billion.
Figure, based in Sunnyvale, California, also announced a collaboration with OpenAI to build generative artificial intelligence for humanoid robots.
The debut of ChatGPT by OpenAI has sparked interest in AI, with corporations investing millions of dollars to capitalize on the trend.
Other firms that contributed to the Figure investment include OpenAI Startup Fund, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures, and ARK Invest.
Adcock also confirmed that the startup will use Microsoft Azure for AI infrastructure and training.
According to Adcock, the AI models Figure builds will be based on OpenAI’s most recent GPT models and specially trained on robotics activity data that Figure has gathered so that its humanoid robots can communicate with people, sense things, and perform physical jobs.
“We’ve always wanted to get back into robotics, and with Figure, we see an opportunity to see what humanoid robots can do when powered by highly capable multimodal models,” said Peter Welinder, OpenAI’s vice president of product and alliances.
Investors have increased interest in humanoid robots as AI-powered software opens up new possibilities for how robots interact and collaborate with humans. Tesla (TSLA.O) opens a new tab. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, estimated that by the 2040s, there would be a billion humanoid robots on the planet.
It was reported last week that Figure was raising funds, with Bezos committing $100 million through his firm Explore Investments LLC, Microsoft spending $95 million, and Nvidia and an Amazon-affiliated fund each contributing $50 million.
Figure signed a deal with BMW Manufacturing last month to deploy its humanoid robots at the automaker’s US operation.
Figure raised $70 million in its first external round of funding last year, sponsored by Parkway Venture Capital.
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