Figure AI Inc., a Sunnyvale, California-based startup developing humanoid-styled bipedal robots, said today it raised $625 million in new funding, increasing the company’s valuation to $2.6 billion.

The Series B round sees participation from technology investing giants, including Microsoft Corp., Open AI Startup Fund, Nvidia Corp., Jeff Bezos (through Bezos Expeditions), Parkway Venture Capital, Intel Capital, Align Ventures and ARK Invest.

The funding follows a report from last month that the company was in talks to raise about $500 million led by Microsoft and OpenAI. The company previously raised $70 million led by Parkway Venture Capital in May.

Founded in 2022, Figure has a vision to disrupt the market for industrial robots by developing bipedal robots that can work in the same environments as humans can. Although humans already work alongside robots, many of them are purpose-built for specific roles and either fixed or made with tracks and wheels that make them less safe in spaces designed for people.

To allow robots to work in any space designed for people, the company developed Figure 01, a robot that looks and moves like a human. The company says that it sees robots as safely being used in manufacturing, shipping, logistics, warehouses and retail – anywhere humans can work. Because the robot looks and works exactly like a human, these spaces do not need to be retrofitted or changed to work with the robot.

In conjunction with the funding, Figure entered into a collaboration agreement with OpenAI to develop next-generation artificial intelligence models for its humanoid robots. The company said that OpenAI’s research combined with Figure’s understanding of robotics hardware and software will be used to accelerate the company’s commercial timeline by helping make robots that can autonomously interact with environments and understand commands in natural language.

The company also said that it intends to use Microsoft Azure’s cloud infrastructure for training and storage to help build, develop and support the AI models for the humanoid robots.

“Our vision at Figure is to bring humanoid robots into commercial operations as soon as possible,” said Brett Adcock, founder and chief executive of Figure. “This investment, combined with our partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft, ensures that we are well-prepared to bring embodied AI into the world to make a transformative impact on humanity.”

Humanoid-style robots may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but Figure exists in a competitive field of companies beginning to develop their own. Tesla Inc. demonstrated the prototype of the second generation of the Optimus bipedal robot in December, and Amazon-backed Agility Robotics Inc. is already testing humanoid robots in warehouses.

Not willing to fall behind, the company released a video of Figure 01 completing a warehouse task on a tether earlier this week. In the video, the robot can be seen walking and using its hands to pick up a plastic crate, then taking the crate over to a conveyor belt.

Figure has signed a deal with luxury car maker BMW Manufacturing Co. LLC to deploy its robots for automotive manufacturing where they would be used to automate difficult, dangerous or tedious tasks. The German automaker said it will trial the robots in a South Carolina factory, according to the announcement.

Image: Figure