Humanoid Robots Are Coming—And Fast, Says Figure AI’s Brett Adcock
Founder of $2.6B Robotics Startup Predicts AGI-Driven Robots in Every Home
Brett Adcock, the founder of robotics company Figure AI, believes we are entering an age where humanoid robots will rival human populations in number—and it’s coming sooner than most think.
“The home is coming,” said Adcock on the Around the Prompt tech podcast. In his words, the average household is just “single-digit years away” from welcoming humanoid robots that can do “useful work.”
Hardware and Neural Networks Power the Push
According to Adcock, two things are making this vision possible: hardware that doesn’t break, and neural networks that learn like the human brain.
“You can’t get this done on mediocre hardware,” Adcock noted.
Last week, Figure AI’s humanoid robot, Helix, completed 60 minutes of uninterrupted logistics work—moving packages on a conveyor belt—demonstrating how far the company’s tech has come.
Helix now operates with touch capabilities and short-term memory, pushing its performance closer to human levels, Adcock said.
Big Money Is Betting on Humanoids
Founded in 2022, Figure AI has already raised a staggering $2.34 billion, with $1.5 billion pouring in during its Series C round in February 2025. The company’s current valuation stands at $2.6 billion, according to PitchBook.
Investors include a mix of heavyweights like:
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Microsoft
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OpenAI
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Nvidia
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Jeff Bezos
Adcock himself seeded the startup with a major portion of the early capital.
He added that “deep tech is finally having its moment,” with fully dedicated VC funds now betting on robotics and artificial general intelligence (AGI).
The Race for the Humanoid Future
Figure AI isn’t alone in the race to deliver a robotic workforce:
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Tesla’s Optimus: A 5-foot-8 humanoid that can dance, take out trash, and clean. Elon Musk aims to deploy Optimus in Tesla factories by year’s end.
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Boston Dynamics’ Atlas: Known for its gymnastic feats—cartwheels, running, and even break dancing.
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Agility Robotics’ Digit: Tested in Amazon warehouses but later replaced by the retail giant’s in-house bots.
Despite different designs, these machines all aim for the same goal: to augment the human labor force with autonomous helpers.
Robots for a Purposeful Future
Figure’s mission goes beyond automation. The company wants to build “general-purpose humanoids” that eliminate unsafe or repetitive jobs and free up people to “live happier, more purposeful lives.”
For Adcock, humanoids aren’t just machines—they’re the next major computing platform, much like smartphones and PCs once were.
“The humanoid robot,” he said, “will be the ultimate deployment vector for AGI.”
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