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, there is a lot of work to do. Adcock, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of robot maker Figure, is riding high. 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.

The valuation makes Adcock, who owns about 50% of the Sunnyvale, California company, a new billionaire. With his Figure stake and shares from a previous startup, he’s worth an estimated $1.4 billion.

Even with all the money in the world, success is not assured.