Figure AI, a startup building AI-powered humanoid robots, recently ended its partnership with OpenAI. CEO Brett Adcock said Figure had a breakthrough in robot AI, making OpenAI’s technology unnecessary. This came as a surprise since Figure had just raised $675 million in funding with OpenAI’s support to develop its Figure 02 robot.
Adcock explained that using OpenAI’s language models (LLMs) no longer made sense because LLMs are becoming more common and less important to Figure’s overall AI development. Figure now builds all its AI in-house.
This decision happened as OpenAI is expanding its own robotics efforts, including building a team and filing trademarks related to humanoid robots.
Some people think Figure might be reacting to the “DeepSeek effect,” where open-source AI models like DeepSeek are forcing companies like OpenAI to lower their prices. Figure may be developing its own foundational AI model to avoid relying on expensive external providers like OpenAI.
It sounds like Figure AI is making big moves in the world of humanoid robots! Not only have they broken away from OpenAI to develop their own AI, but they’re also lining up some major customers.
They’ve already got a deal with BMW to use their robots in car manufacturing, and now they’ve landed another big client in the U.S. This means they could be producing a lot of robots very soon—Adcock mentioned a potential of 100,000 robots in the next four years!
This is a clever strategy because selling more robots will help them bring down the cost of production and gather more data to improve their AI.
Figure’s focus on “embodied AI” is also interesting. This means their robots can learn and adapt in real-time using data from both the cloud and their own onboard systems. Combining language processing with vision and movement allows the robots to understand and respond to complex commands.
It seems like Figure AI is positioning itself to be a major player in the future of robotics. Their advancements in AI, combined with these new partnerships, could really shake things up in the industry.
“We’re working on training the robot on how to do use case work at high speeds and high performance,” Adcock said. “Learning the use case with AI is the only path.”
OpenAI still maintains investments in other robotics ventures, including Norwegian startup 1X.
Adcock promised to reveal the fruits of Figure’s “breakthrough” within 30 days, and he wasn’t subtle with his words. He promised the announcement would be “something no one has ever seen on a humanoid.”