Competition and Figure's bar for autonomy

Brett Adcock is the Founder & CEO of Figure, the $39 billion company tackling one of the most ambitious challenges in technology — building a general-purpose humanoid robot that can do the work of a human, both on the factory floor and inside the home.

About 50% of global GDP is human labor. In this episode of Sourcery, we go inside Figure's headquarters for a full tour and sit-down interview on the future of robotics, AI, and jobs.

Brett shares why humanoid robots are already working today, how Figure plans to scale from thousands of units this year to 1 million per year, and why he believes this could become the biggest business in the world. Backed by nearly $2B across rounds — including investment from Jeff Bezos, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Amazon — Figure 15x'd its valuation to $39B in just 18 months. We also cover Brett's decision to part ways with OpenAI, the challenges of building physical intelligence, and what it takes to solve one of the hardest problems in engineering.

We cover:• Why humanoid robots are finally real• The roadmap to millions of robots• Figure’s production ramp and demand• Why robotics is an intelligence problem• The OpenAI partnership — and breakup• The risks of building physical AI (Capital, Economics, Valuation)• Brett’s vision for general robotics

If humanoids work, they will reshape the global economy.

Brett Adcock: https://x.com/adcock_brett 

Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea 

Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 

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𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒

(00:00) Brett Adcock, Founder & CEO at Figure

(01:13) Hot take on Humanoids

(04:09) Race to a Million Robots

(06:24) Building Figure From Scratch

(08:15) Leaving Archer aviation

(09:25) Post-IPO move

(12:54) Cover, Hark & NASA's IP

(16:06) How Figure Outgrew OpenAI

(19:18) Founder performance playbook

(24:24) Learning from Bezos and Jobs

(29:19) Biggest risks to the business

(31:26) Building the World's First Physical AGI