Figure's $39B humanoid robot

PLUS: a faster and cheaper Grok, and Microsoft's powerful AI datacenter

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Gen AI Art
September 21, 2025

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Robotics startup Figure AI has just received a major vote of confidence from investors, reportedly securing over $1B in new funding. This latest round brings the company's valuation to a staggering $39B.

This new capital, backed by industry giants like Nvidia and Intel, solidifies Figure's position at the front of the pack. With such intense investment, how quickly will we see humanoid robots become a common sight in factories and warehouses?

Today in AI:

  • Figure's $39B humanoid robot bet

  • xAI's faster and cheaper Grok

  • Microsoft's new AI super-datacenter

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What's new? Robotics startup Figure AI has reportedly secured over $1B in new funding, pushing its valuation to an astonishing $39B.

What matters?

  • The Series C round attracted industry heavyweights like Nvidia, Intel Capital, and Brookfield Asset Management, signaling strong confidence from the top of the tech world.

  • Figure will use the funds to scale its fleet of humanoid robots for commercial use in warehouses and factories and to build out its advanced robot training infrastructure.

  • This brings Figure's total funding to $2B since 2022, highlighting the incredible speed and investor demand fueling the race for commercial humanoid robots.

Why it matters?

This massive valuation shows investor confidence is shifting heavily toward AI applications in the physical world. The new capital solidifies Figure's position as a leading competitor, intensifying the race to deploy humanoid robots in the workforce.

What's new? Elon Musk's xAI has launched Grok 4 Fast, a new model that balances high performance with greater efficiency and lower costs.

What matters?

  • The new model uses reinforcement learning to increase its reasoning capabilities.

  • This release significantly lowers operational expenses by delivering a 40% cost reduction in tokens.

  • It highlights a major industry shift where the race is now about efficiency and scale, not just pure capability.

Why it matters?

This move makes powerful AI more accessible and affordable for developers and businesses to integrate into their products. It also puts pressure on competitors to optimize their models for cost, signaling a new phase of competition in the AI market.

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What's new? Microsoft has unveiled a new AI super-datacenter built to handle the next wave of AI workloads. The facility is reportedly 10 times more powerful than today's leading supercomputers.

What matters?

  • The project highlights the immense capital investment required for companies to compete at the forefront of AI development.

  • The facility is equipped with Nvidia GPUs, underscoring the chipmaker's continued dominance in providing the core hardware for advanced AI training.

  • This level of computing power is essential for training increasingly complex models, enabling them to tackle more demanding tasks and accelerate new breakthroughs.

Why it matters?

This move signals a massive escalation in the AI infrastructure arms race, putting immense pressure on competitors. Access to this level of proprietary computing power creates a significant competitive advantage for Microsoft and its partners.

The Shortlist

Google forged a multiyear partnership with PayPal, introducing a new AI-backed payments protocol designed to become a central part of the online commerce ecosystem.

Waymo received the green light to operate its robotaxi service at San Francisco International Airport, marking a major milestone for its expansion into high-traffic commercial areas.

Dyna Robotics closed a $120M funding round backed by Nvidia and Amazon to scale its foundation model for general-purpose commercial robots.

OpenAI reignited its robotics division by quietly hiring researchers, signaling a renewed focus on training AI to interact with the physical world in the race toward AGI.

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