Figure AI just revealed its lofty goal for mass producing advanced humanoid robots.
On the X social media platform, Figure founder Brett Adcock said the Silicon Valley startup has signed its second commercial customer. The Figure CEO did not name the customer, but said it’s one of the largest companies in the United States. OpenAI-backed Figure is running an end-to-end neural network for the new client’s use case, which will be used for AI training.
With the development, Adcock said he sees a path for shipping up to 100,000 humanoid robots over the next four years. The target is significantly lower than Elon Musk’s vision of manufacturing a million Tesla Bots by 2028. However, Musk has admitted the target is aspirational.
Figure would need to produce around a thousand humanoids in 2025 to stay on the road to 100,000 units. That is possible as evidenced by Agibot, a younger Chinese startup that says it manufactured an initial thousand robots in 2024.
Figure is developing a next-generation robot, presumably called the Figure 03, that is optimized for high-rate manufacturing.
This January, a fleet of Figure 02 robots started working full-time at the BMW plant in Spartanburg, SC, which is the automaker’s largest manufacturer by volume. Adcock said Figure’s focus is on vertical growth within a few key accounts rather than aggressive expansion.
The startup also just announced the creation of its Center for the Advancement of Humanoid Safety. According to Figure the initiative focuses on testing for key safety factors like stability, human pet interaction, AI behavior, and autonomous navigation.
Figure says it’s also finalizing plans with an OSHA-recognized independent testing lab to certify their robots’ batteries, functional safety control systems, and electrical systems to industrial standards.