Humanoid RobotStartups Figure AI (also known as Figure) is getting more love from tech giants after getting backing from OpenAI and Microsoft Corp. People familiar with the matter say Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, NVIDIA and other big tech companies are bankrolling Figure, Bloomberg reported today.It's part of the competition to find new applications for AI.
Sources close to the situation say thatBezos invested $100 million through his own company, Explore Investments LLC.(IT Home note: Currently about RMB 720 million), NVIDIA and Amazon affiliated funds provided $50 million each (currently about RMB 360 million).
current,Figure AI is in the midst of a funding round of approximately $675 million at a valuation of approximately $2 billion(currently about 14.4 billion yuan). Not only that, but Intel's venture capital arm put in $25 million, LG Innotek provided $8.5 million, and Samsung's investment group pledged $5 million.
OpenAI reportedly considered acquiring Figure AI, but later invested $5 million as well.Engineers at Figure AI are working on a robot that looks and moves like a human.The company hopes the machine, called Figure 01, will be able to perform jobs that are dangerous for humans to doand provide support to alleviate labor shortages.