← STARTUPSEMBODIED AI · BASELINE 2026-04-20

Figure AI

confidence: high · 3 watch questions · 6 evidence citations

01 TEAM & SIZE

HQ San Jose, CA. Founded 2022 by Brett Adcock (prior: Vettery, Archer Aviation). Wikipedia lists ~180 employees (citation-flagged; unverified). Careers page active across controls, ML, manufacturing, ops. Vertically integrated: hardware + in-house VLA (Helix) + own factory (BotQ).

02 FUNDING & STAGE

  • Seed (2022): ~$100M from Adcock personally (per press accounts).
  • Series A (May 2023): $70M.
  • Series B (Feb 2024): $675M @ $2.6B post. Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, NVIDIA, Bezos Expeditions, Intel Capital.
  • Series C (Sep 16, 2025): >$1B @ $39B post-money. Lead Parkway Venture Capital; Brookfield, NVIDIA, Intel, Qualcomm, Macquarie, Salesforce, T-Mobile. ~15× valuation step in 18 months. Total raised ~$1.9–2B [S-4-001, S-4-003].

03 PRODUCT STATE

  • Hardware: Figure 02 (Aug 2024) — deployed. Figure 03 (Oct 9, 2025) — redesigned for mass manufacturing + home; launch unit.
  • Model: Helix VLA (vision-language-action), in-house. Helix 02 announced Jan 27, 2026 with "full-body autonomy." Demos through Mar 2026 show laundry folding, dishwasher loading, living-room tidy [S-4-002].
  • Factory: BotQ announced early 2025, stated capacity target 12,000 units/yr (aspirational, unverified actual throughput).

04 GTM MOTION

Two vectors: (1) industrial — BMW Spartanburg, SC pilot ran ~11 months, concluded Nov 19, 2025; Figure reports 2 units on 10-hr shifts M–F, 90,000+ sheet-metal parts handled, contribution to 30,000 BMW X3 vehicles (Figure's own deployment report — treat as company claim, not independent audit). (2) Strategic — Sep 2025 Brookfield partnership (real-estate/commercial pilot access). Adcock public target: 1,500 units in 2025, scaling to 20,000 by 2026 (aspirational, unverified). No disclosed revenue. No home GA.

05 CORE THESIS

Vertical-integration bet: owning hardware + VLA model + factory is required to ship humanoids at consumer scale. Feb 2025 OpenAI split formalized this — Adcock: "we can't outsource AI for the same reason we can't outsource our hardware" [S-4-004]. Distribution wedge = industrial uptime proof → home consumer unit via Figure 03.

06 PUBLIC SIGNALS INVENTORY

Blogfigure.ai/news (active; ~monthly cadence, demo-heavy)
RSSnot prominently linked; news page scrapeable
GitHubno public repo of substance (closed model)
Twitter@Figure_robot (company), @adcock_brett (CEO, very active — hype/claim stream)
LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/figure-ai
Careersfigure.ai/careers
YouTubeFigure channel — demo videos (Helix folding, dishwasher, BMW)
Press20VC, No Priors appearances; TechCrunch / Bloomberg / Reuters regular coverage

07 52-WEEK QUESTIONS

  1. Q1
    Does BotQ ship a verifiable annual unit count by Q3 2026 (independent photo/shipment evidence, not Adcock tweet)? Target to beat: 1,500 cumulative.
  2. Q2
    Does a second paying industrial customer beyond BMW get disclosed with named site + duration (UPS rumored but unconfirmed as of 2026-04-20 — unverified)?
  3. Q3
    Does Figure 03 ship to any paying home-pilot household (not staged demo) before Week 52?

08 WEEKLY TIMELINE

0 signals

TIMELINE EMPTY · WEEK 0

Auto-feed fetcher ships Month 2. Manual diffs via Friday script start Week 2.

09 EVIDENCE

6 items · expand
  1. S-4-001
    Intel Capital press release, "Figure Exceeds $1B in Series C at $39B Post-Money" (2025-09-16)
  2. S-4-002
    figure.ai/news timeline: Helix 02 (2026-01-27), F.03 (2025-10-09), BMW report (2025-11-19)
  3. S-4-003
    TechCrunch, "Figure reaches $39B valuation" (2025-09-16)
  4. S-4-004
    TechCrunch, "Figure drops OpenAI in favor of in-house models" (2025-02-04)
  5. S-4-005
    Wikipedia: Figure AI (timeline corroboration)
  6. S-4-006
    The Robot Report coverage of Series C

10 CONFIDENCE & UNKNOWNS

expand

Confidence: high on funding/valuation/model+hardware timeline (multi-source, primary PR). Medium on deployment impact (BMW metrics are Figure-reported, not independently audited — flagged). Low/unverified: 180 employee count, 1,500/20,000 unit shipment targets (founder claims), actual BotQ output, any revenue figure, 2025 home customer. Adcock's X account skews hype — separate observable deployment from aspirational tweets throughout 52-week tracking.

11 RELATED