UPS reportedly wants to buy tens of thousands of humanoid robots from Figure AI to work in its logistics facilities.
That’s according to investors of the Silicon Valley startup who are pushing the development on social media on its behalf. Reports of Figure working with UPS have been around for about a year. Figure investor Fernando Varela said the imminent order is just the “tip of the iceberg.”
“Figure is about to have their ChatGPT moment,” Varela posted on X. “The UPS deal is just the tip of the iceberg for what will be announced this year. They are at least 2 years ahead of Tesla and BD (Boston Dynamics).”
Launched in 2022, Figure is a perceived leader in the race toward general-purpose robotics. The San Jose-based firm likely has the largest war chest among the hundreds of companies in the fray. The startup raised more than $1 billion in 2025 for a staggering valuation of $39 billion, which is more than giants like Ford Motor Company and Spotify.
Discussions between Figure and UPS reportedly began as early as 2023. Figure has since shared several demos showing its AI-powered humanoids performing logistics-style work like sorting parcels on a conveyor system. The robots performing home deliveries is likely a ways off.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently shared footage of Figure’s third-generation humanoid sorting packages at an unnamed logistics facility. The humanoid is powered by Figure’s in-house Helix vision-language-action (VLA) model. Benioff tried repeatedly to trip the robot up but it kept going. Salesforce is also an investor.
Figure founder Brett Adcock previously said the startup signed a major logistics company as its second paying customer, after BMW, that could necessitate 100,000 robots by 2029. The company has established a robot factory in San Jose, called BotQ, that Adcock has said is capable of manufacturing up to 12,000 humanoids per year.
As previously reported, UPS plans to eliminate up to 30,000 jobs in 2026. Like Amazon, Figure is looking to autonomous robots to fill replace human workers.