Figure Valued at $2.65 Billion With $675 Million Round

<p><strong><span class&equals;"legendSpanClass"><span class&equals;"xn-location">SUNNYVALE <&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;strong>&&num;8212&semi; Figure&comma; an AI robotics company developing general purpose humanoid robots&comma; has raised <span class&equals;"xn-money">&dollar;675 million<&sol;span> in Series B funding with investments from Microsoft&comma; OpenAI Startup Fund&comma; NVIDIA&comma; Jeff Bezos &lpar;through Bezos Expeditions&rpar;&comma; Parkway Venture Capital&comma; Intel Capital&comma; Align Ventures&comma; and ARK Invest&period; The new round values Figure at &dollar;2&period;65 billion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In conjunction with this investment&comma; Figure and OpenAI have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop next generation AI models for humanoid robots&comma; combining OpenAI&&num;8217&semi;s research with Figure&&num;8217&semi;s deep understanding of robotics hardware and software&period; The collaboration aims to help accelerate Figure&&num;8217&semi;s commercial timeline by enhancing the capabilities of humanoid robots to process and reason from language&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;ve always planned to come back to robotics and we see a path with Figure to explore what humanoid robots can achieve when powered by highly capable multimodal models&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re blown away by Figure&&num;8217&semi;s progress to date and we look forward to working together to open up new possibilities for how robots can help in everyday life&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said <span class&equals;"xn-person">Peter Welinder<&sol;span>&comma; VP of Product and Partnerships at OpenAI&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Figure team&comma; made up of top AI robotics experts from Boston Dynamics&comma; Tesla&comma; Google DeepMind&comma; and Archer Aviation&comma; has made remarkable progress in the past few months in the key areas of AI&comma; robot development&comma; robot testing&comma; and commercialization&period; This new capital will be used strategically for scaling up AI training&comma; robot manufacturing&comma; expanding engineering headcount&comma; and advancing commercial deployment efforts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Figure will leverage Microsoft Azure for AI infrastructure&comma; training&comma; and storage&period; &&num;8220&semi;We are excited to collaborate with Figure and work towards accelerating AI breakthroughs&period; Through our work together&comma; Figure will have access to Microsoft&&num;8217&semi;s AI infrastructure and services to support the deployment of humanoid robots to assist people with real world applications&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Jon Tinter&comma; Corporate Vice President of Business Development at Microsoft&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Our <u>vision at Figure<&sol;u> is to bring humanoid robots into commercial operations as soon as possible&period; This investment&comma; combined with our partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft&comma; ensures that we are well-prepared to bring embodied AI into the world to make a transformative impact on humanity&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Brett Adcock&comma; Founder and CEO of Figure&period; &&num;8220&semi;AI and robotics are the future&comma; and I am grateful to have the support of investors and partners who believe in being at the forefront&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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