Meet The New AI-Robot Billionaire
Armed with more than $750 million in funding, Brett Adcock vows that Figure will become one of the most important businesses in the world. First, he has a lot of work to do.F
igure 01, can you choose a healthy snack for me from that basket?” Brett Adcock asks the humanoid robot lurking behind a table close by. Its options are an orange and a bag of chips. The robot–a.ka. Figure 01–picks up the orange using dextrous, human-like hands and gives it to Adcock.
Then Adcock asks the robot what color shirt he’s wearing. There’s a 30 second pause before the robot replies, in a slow, deep voice: “You’re wearing a dark colored shirt.” It’s correct–if not very specific (his tee is dark gray).
Adcock, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of robot maker Figure, is pumped about his robot, and for good reason. In January, the company announced a collaboration with BMW, with the goal of putting Figure’s robots to work at the German automaker’s Spartanburg, South Carolina manufacturing plant. Six weeks later, Figure raised $675 million at a $2.6 billion valuation from the likes of Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI Startup Fund and Jeff Bezos. At the same time, Figure signed a collaboration agreement with OpenAI to develop next generation AI models for humanoid robots.
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