Figure has unveiled BotQ – its new factory built to mass-produce humanoid robots like never before. The facility can make up to 12,000 humanoid robots each year, and the company says they’re just getting started.
This output level positions Figure as a serious contender in the emerging humanoid robot market, and shows they’re ready to meet growing demand from enterprise clients.
Building Robots for Business, Not Just for Show
While flashy robot demos are impressive, Figure has been busy getting real customers and solving practical problems. BMW was their first major client, and they’ve just added a second big U.S. company to their roster.
Figure’s CEO Brett Adcock says these two deals alone could lead to “100,000 robots over the next four years” – these aren’t showpieces, they’re going to work.
The company has focused on creating machines that can handle real-world tasks in manufacturing, warehousing, and retail settings rather than just impressing audiences at tech conferences.
Figure recently gave us a sneak peek at their high-volume bot-building factory
Substance Over Style: Figure’s Industry-Focused Redesign
The new Figure 03 robot was completely redesigned with manufacturing in mind. Parts that once took over a week to make on CNC machines now take under 20 seconds using steel molds, injection molding, and die casting.
The company cut down part count and switched to faster production methods. As they put it, “high production rate starts at the early stage of engineering design.” This approach both speeds up production and drives down costs, making the robots more affordable for business use.
Figure also added dedicated safety and reliability teams at BotQ. The reliability team runs accelerated lifecycle tests to understand how long robots will last and identify potential failure points before they become problems in the field.
AI-Powered Performance for Business Applications
What makes these robots particularly useful in the real world is their “Helix” AI system. It uses two brain-like systems: a quick one for movements and a smarter one for understanding and reasoning.
This lets the robots understand speech, solve problems, and handle objects they’ve never seen before without special training. In tests, two robots worked together to unpack groceries and organize items – just like people would.
Brett Adcock, Figure’s founder and CEO, emphasized the importance of this AI breakthrough:
To bring robots into homes, we need a step change in capabilities. Helix can generalise to virtually any household item… Like a human, Helix understands speech, reasons through problems, and can grasp any object – all without needing training or code.
The system was trained on just 500 hours of human demonstrations, far less than traditional robots need to learn simple tasks. This efficiency, combined with its ability to run on standard hardware, makes the robots adaptable to many different business environments.
Vertical Integration and Robots Building Robots
Figure decided to make everything in-house instead of relying on outside suppliers. They’re building their own robot parts – from motors and sensors to batteries and electronics – because humanoid robots don’t have established supply chains like other industries.
This hands-on approach helps maintain quality while ramping up production. They’ve also built custom software to manage the manufacturing process from start to finish, including Product Lifecycle Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, and Warehouse Management Systems.
Figure has hired global supply managers to form partnerships with vendors who can produce their complex components at scale. Their supply chain is designed to handle up to 100,000 robots or 3,000,000 actuators in the next four years.
In a neat twist, Figure will use their own robots to help build more robots. This will start this year, and they plan to add more robot workers over time to increase automation on the production line.
These robots will put together components and move materials around the factory floor without needing conveyor belts – making the factory itself more flexible. This approach creates a “hybrid workforce” that combines AI-driven automation with human oversight for maximum efficiency.
Recent Figure demos have been visually striking, but the company now looks to be focused on solving real-world problems at scale
From Prototype to Production at Pace
Figure have gone from starting up to shipping working robots in just 31 months.
While early prototypes moved at just 17% of human speed, the latest Figure 02 is seven times faster. The company continues to improve speed and functionality with each new generation.
Now valued at nearly $40 billion with backing from Microsoft, OpenAI, NVIDIA, and Jeff Bezos, they’ve become leaders in the humanoid robot race. This massive investment shows that major tech players believe Figure’s approach to practical, business-ready robots has real potential.
With the robot market expected to hit $150 billion by 2030, Figure’s BotQ factory is a big step toward making robots that are useful, affordable, and available at scale.
The future of robots isn’t about looking cool – it’s about getting work done, and Figure is building the facilities to make that happen.
