Figure AI is a US humanoid robotics company founded in 2022 and led by CEO Brett Adcock. It develops general-purpose bipedal humanoid robots paired with proprietary Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, of which its flagship is Helix.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Company type | Robotics (humanoid) |
| Founded | 2022 |
| HQ country | US |
| CEO | Brett Adcock |
| Flagship product | Figure humanoid robots (third generation: Figure 03) |
| Flagship model | Helix (Vision-Language-Action model) |
Models
Figure introduced Helix, described as "A Vision-Language-Action Model for Generalist Humanoid Control," on February 20, 2025. Helix unifies perception, language understanding, and motor action in a single model, analogous to how GPT-4V unifies modalities but extended to physical actuation. It is the first publicly announced VLA model specifically targeting generalist humanoid control, a direction distinct from domain-specific robotics controllers.
Hardware
Figure's robots have progressed through three generations, with Figure 03 the third-generation platform in deployment by mid-2026. The company positions Figure 03 both for industrial work and, prospectively, for the home, running on the Helix model for perception and control (Source: eletric-vehicles.com).
Partnerships and commercial status
Figure has announced a manufacturing partnership with BMW and run logistics pilots. At a technology conference in June 2025, Adcock skipped a live demo and sidestepped questions about the BMW partnership, which prompted skepticism about the real-world operability of Figure's platform at manufacturing scale (Source: https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/06/figure-ai-ceo-skips-live-demo-sidesteps-bmw-deal-questions/). The skipped-demo episode has been cited as evidence of over-promising, and commercial traction remains under scrutiny.
Through 2026 the company reported moving from pilots toward standing deployments. In early July 2026 Figure said it had deployed its third-generation humanoid to perform logistics work at a BMW Group plant in the United States, extending the earlier BMW relationship from pilot testing to production-line tasks (Source: eletric-vehicles.com). Separately, Figure robots were reported in May 2026 to be taking on work tied to retail and apparel operations associated with JCPenney, Aéropostale and Brooks Brothers (Source: forbes.com).
Public profile
In March 2026 the White House hosted a Figure humanoid robot, with First Lady Melania Trump appearing alongside it in what was reported as the first humanoid-robot guest at the White House — an indication of the visibility humanoid robotics had reached in US technology-policy discussion (Source: cnbc.com).
Industry context
Figure is described as one of four frontrunners in the humanoid-robotics sector, alongside Physical Intelligence, Tesla Optimus, and Clone Robotics.
Relationships
- deploys-in: industrial/manufacturing (BMW partnership and 2026 US-plant logistics deployment), plus retail/apparel and logistics pilots.
- related: The Industrial Explosion (Davidson, Hadshar) (the Davidson/Hadshar theory frames humanoid robotics as the industrial-explosion substrate), Physical Intelligence, Clone Robotics, Amazon (Amazon humanoid robot testing), Helix (Figure AI Vision-Language-Action model), AI Robotics.
Sources
- Figure / Helix: A Vision-Language-Action Model for Generalist Humanoid Control (2025-02-20)
- TechCrunch / Figure AI CEO skips live demo, sidesteps BMW deal questions (2025-06-06)
- CNBC / Meet Figure AI: the company behind the humanoid robot hosted by Melania Trump (2026-03-26)
- Forbes / Figure Humanoid Robots Get Jobs With JCPenney, Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers (2026-05-26)
- Electric-Vehicles.com / BMW Deploys Figure's New Humanoid for Logistics at US Plant (2026-07-01)