Figure AI CEO Brett Adcock appeared at the Bloomberg Tech conference to address mounting doubts about the startup’s partnership with BMW and its robot progress. The company has faced scrutiny over its claims and a few critical reports, prompting Adcock to threaten a lawsuit against one publication.
When pressed on the BMW deal, Adcock avoided details on whether it’s a pilot or commercial contract. Instead, he stressed the value of running robots daily in a BMW factory for performance data.
“We get a lot of value, and it’s really important that we need to figure out how to run robots every day. We get to see how well they perform. We get to track all the metrics,” Adcock said.
Figure released a YouTube video two months ago showing robots working in BMW’s factory.
Adcock also confirmed a second customer contract—widely reported to be UPS—for initial deployment of the robots.
The company claims its AI-powered humanoid robots have human-like fine motor skills, but true live demos are still missing. While competitors Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics brought robots to the conference, Figure stuck to video presentations.
“It kind of goes back to our whole philosophy around we don’t go to a lot of events,” Adcock said.
“I think it’s a giant waste of time. To be frank, I have to bring a team here to bring robots here. They could be at the office.”
Figure AI aims to manufacture and deploy about 100,000 units within four years.
The buzz comes as Figure tries to raise $1.5 billion at a $39.5 billion valuation, a massive jump from its $2.6 billion valuation just last February. The company also sent cease-and-desist letters to stop unauthorized secondary market share sales.
