Figure AI Inc, a tech start-up building autonomous artificial intelligence-driven humanoid robots for commercial applications, has received sizeable investments from major tech companies like OpenAI, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Nvidia Corp and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos through his firm Explore Investments LLC, Bloomberg reports.
The humanoid robot start-up is raising about $675 million in funding according to Bloomberg’s sources, who declined to reveal their identities.
Meet Figure 01 pic.twitter.com/mQa2b59Vju— Figure (@Figure_robot) October 18, 2023
Bezos is apparently fronting $100 million, Microsoft $95 million and a fund affiliated with Nvidia and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is investing $50 million.
Figure AI’s founder Brett Adcock believes autonomous robots will eliminate the need for unsafe and undesirable jobs, and could potentially address the problem of a global ageing population and labour shortages.
A who’s who of tech
Joining some of the biggest names in tech were more standouts – Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC), LG Innotek and Samsung (KS:005930) also made sizeable investments of between $5 and $25 million.
Alongside them were several capital venture firms like Parkway Venture Capital, Align (NASDAQ:ALGN) Ventures, ARK Venture Fund and Aliya Capital Partners.
OpenAI at one point considered acquiring the company, but instead invested $5 million as an initial lead investor alongside Microsoft.
Given Figure AI has received commitments for $675 million while only seeking $500 million in capital, humanoid robots may be the next big AI-related tech venture.