Nvidia in talks to invest another $1B in humanoid robot maker Figure

On October 7 local time, The Information reported, citing a person familiar with the matter, that NVIDIA had discussed investing another $1 billion in humanoid robot maker Figure — a plan the outlet said had not been reported before. Figure is seeking more funding at a pre-money valuation of roughly $38 billion, according to the report. NVIDIA was already an investor in Figure, having taken part a year earlier in a round of more than $1 billion at the same valuation. IT之家 carried the report the following morning, on October 8.

The same account said NVIDIA may also back two other kinds of startups: companies that help build its open-source Nemotron models, and companies developing other AI applications. NVIDIA has agreed to pay $6 billion for a software license from Poolside and to hire its staff, partly to advance Nemotron development; Poolside employees released the open-weight Laguna AI model this year.

Also on October 8, 华尔街见闻 placed the Figure talks in a broader investment push. NVIDIA has closed more than $140 billion in deals over the past several months and holds an equity portfolio of nearly $100 billion, with its next phase of investment focused on humanoid robots, autonomous driving and AI models that run on local devices, according to that report, which also said the company has acquired Hugging Face. It repeated the same Figure figures — about $1 billion in additional investment under discussion and a pre-money valuation near $38 billion — matching The Information.

The report added that NVIDIA disclosed three customers accounted for 44% of its total sales in the six months through July, and that its credit default swap spreads widened at one point in August. Neither report described what prompted the investment discussions.

So far the disclosed progress stops at the discussion stage: the $1 billion follow-on is described as having been discussed, and the material does not say whether the investment has been finalized or completed, nor does it give a final size for Figure's current round.