Monday, July 17th 2023
Intel Capital Invests in Figure, a Humanid Robotics Company
Figure, an AI Robotics company building general purpose humanoid robots, today announced a $9 million equity investment made by Intel Capital. This funding from Intel Capital helps strengthen Figure's balance sheet and will accelerate the development of Figure 01 (the company's autonomous humanoid robot), build out Figure's AI data pipeline for autonomous operations, and drive the Company towards commercialization. This announcement follows the Company's most recent achievement of the Figure 01 robot taking its first steps.
Intel Capital is a notable addition to Figure's Series A funding round and is joining other top-tier investors such as Parkway Venture Capital, Brett Adcock, Aliya Capital, Bold Capital Partners, Tamarack Global, FJ labs, and former KUKA Robotics CEO Till Reuter.
In addition to this capital investment, Figure 01 entered the testing phase a few months ago and reached many technical milestones led by a best-in-class engineering team. Most notably, the robot took its first walking steps in May - less than one year from the Company's inception. This is a momentous achievement for Figure and is one of the quickest turnarounds in humanoid history.
"Intel Capital is at the forefront of making big, bold frontier bets and we are excited to share the same vision of a better future," said Brett Adcock, Founder and CEO of Figure. "This investment along with the global resources and expertise of the Intel team will help accelerate the growth and success of Figure."
"Intel Capital is constantly searching for companies that push the boundaries of innovation, and we believe that Figure has the potential to shift the way the world thinks about artificial intelligence," said Mark Lydon, Managing Director at Intel Capital. "Figure's focus on enhancing the labor economy is an essential part of our future, and we look forward to being at the forefront to support humanoid development."
Source:
Figure
Intel Capital is a notable addition to Figure's Series A funding round and is joining other top-tier investors such as Parkway Venture Capital, Brett Adcock, Aliya Capital, Bold Capital Partners, Tamarack Global, FJ labs, and former KUKA Robotics CEO Till Reuter.
"Intel Capital is at the forefront of making big, bold frontier bets and we are excited to share the same vision of a better future," said Brett Adcock, Founder and CEO of Figure. "This investment along with the global resources and expertise of the Intel team will help accelerate the growth and success of Figure."
"Intel Capital is constantly searching for companies that push the boundaries of innovation, and we believe that Figure has the potential to shift the way the world thinks about artificial intelligence," said Mark Lydon, Managing Director at Intel Capital. "Figure's focus on enhancing the labor economy is an essential part of our future, and we look forward to being at the forefront to support humanoid development."
9 Comments on Intel Capital Invests in Figure, a Humanid Robotics Company
The difference here is yet another one of those that needs to look like a human being....and that future....seems like a poor investment.
Do you expect AI to replace you and will it help you? If AI and automation is actually used effectively to replace people wherever possible, money will stop flowing and the economy will become increasingly funneled into the hands of a 5-10% and the rest will either die or depend. of government credits/money which is the same or worse than dying.
All that farming equipment to, as you say, pick crops, they have wheels and big containers for whatever they pick, and large pincers etc, nothing humanoid.
That is my problem, this is such a silly future vision to invest in...AI for robotics like those that put cars together, sure, but a walking talking man-bot....yeah no.
The world is changing very fast, the fact a single country like the Ukraine can dramatically raise crop prices around the entire world is alarming. We need the capability of mobility farming, so if an area becomes war torn, drought hits, storms hit, entire massive crop areas destroyed... we will need the ability in the future to be able to launch robots to go planting and harvesting in other areas to make up for such disasters, 8 billion humans is not sustainable unless we embrace robotics... tumultuous times await us.
Robots lifting boxes:
Robots that are planting crops:
None of these look like humans because human shapes are very, very inefficient at doing these jobs.
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The only time I ever heard of autonomous human-shapes being useful is in Hollywood robots, who need human-shaped robots to pretend to be humans for various films.