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Microsoft and OpenAI were exposed at the beginning of the year to throw a large amount of money into a humanoid robot startup.
Among them, Microsoft plans to spend $95 million, and OpenAI will follow with $5 million.
According to Bloomberg, the company is expected to raise a total of $500 million in this round, and the pre-investment valuation may reach $1.9 billion.
What attracted them? Let's take a look at the company's robotics work first.
I saw that this robot was silver and black, and its appearance resembled the image of a robot in a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster:
Right now, he's putting a coffee capsule in the coffee machine:
If it is not corrected, it will be adjusted independently, without any human remote control:
In just a few moments, a cup of coffee can be served away and enjoyed
Youmu and your family have recognized it.,That's right.,This robot is Figure 01 that exploded some time ago.,The company behind it is also a robot start-up figure.。
Founded in 2022, the company raised $70 million in funding led by Parkway Venture Capital in May last year, and Intel invested $9 million two months later.
However, the latest round of funding has not yet been finalized, and the investment amount may change and the deal may not go through.
Even so, netizens have already begun to shout Musk:
Optimus and Figure 01 had to be given a cage fight.
Some netizens seem to feel a sense of crisis:
OpenAI intends to influence blue-collar jobs in a variety of ways.
Construct a figure with a long-term perspective of 30 years".
As mentioned above, Figure is a start-up robotics company based in the United States that specializes in general-purpose humanoid robots.
The founder and CEO of the company is named Brett Adcock.
Prior to founding Figure, Brett founded Archer**iation, a company that makes all-electric VTOL aircraft. Archer**iation is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange at a valuation of $2.7 billion and has a $1.5 billion commercial agreement with United Airlines.
Going further back, at the age of 26, Brett founded Vetery, a headhunting firm. In 2018, Vettery was awarded 1$100 million acquisition.
Now, Brett writes in his profile on the company's homepage:
The only focus is on building a figure with a 30-year perspective to positively impact the future of humanity.
The first humanoid robot, Figure 01, was released in October last year.
According to reports, its power lies in its ability to learn and completely handle tasks such as making coffee with only 10 hours of end-to-end training through **human demonstration**.
As for the specific implementation details, the official did not disclose.
OpenAI also supports another company.
In addition, OpenAI has also made a lot of deployments in humanoid robots.
They also support 1x Technologies, a Norwegian humanoid robotics company.
1X Technologies, formerly known as Halodi Robotics, was founded 10 years ago by Bernt Ivind B Rnich. In 2022, 1X Technologies entered into a partnership with OpenAI to use AI models to add intelligence to robots.
In March last year, 1X Technologies raised $23.5 million in funding led by OpenAI Ventures**.
Earlier this year, 1X Technologies raised $100 million in Series B funding with participation from EQT Ventures, Samsung Next, Nistad Group, Sandwater, Skagerak Capital, and others.
Their wheeled robot, Eve, has been deployed in several industrial tasks.
In addition, the company is also developing a bipedal humanoid robot for everyday household use, NEO. Household chores such as cleaning, tidying, or running errands can be done.
Recently, humanoid robots have become very popular, and many netizens have said that "2024 will be the first year of humanoid robots", what do you think?