Nvidia Reportedly Eyes Another $1B Investment in Figure AI's Humanoid Robots

Nvidia is reportedly considering another $1 billion investment in Figure AI, potentially deepening its involvement in the race to bring humanoid robots into factories, warehouses, and other workplaces.

According to The Information, Nvidia has discussed the investment as Figure seeks additional financing at a reported pre-money valuation of approximately $38 billion. The discussions have not resulted in an announced agreement, and neither company has publicly confirmed the proposed investment.

The potential deal would strengthen Nvidia's financial ties to a robotics developer already relying on its computing technology, highlighting how humanoid robots could become an increasingly important market for advanced AI hardware.

Nvidia's reported $1 billion investment could deepen its robotics ties

The reported investment would add to Nvidia's existing financial relationship with Figure, which is developing general-purpose humanoid robots for commercial applications.

Figure previously announced a Series C funding round in September 2025, securing more than $1 billion in committed capital at a $39 billion post-money valuation. Nvidia was among the investors.

Its newly reported $38 billion pre-money valuation uses a different measure, making a direct comparison difficult without knowing the terms of the proposed financing.

Nvidia's interest would also fit its broader ambitions in physical AI, a field focused on enabling AI systems to understand and interact with the physical world. Unlike conventional AI applications that primarily generate text, images, or software code, humanoid robots must translate AI-generated decisions into physical movements while responding to changing environments.

Figure has demonstrated some of those capabilities. In August, the company showed its Figure 03 robot autonomously climbing a ladder, although the demonstration did not establish how reliably the robot could perform the task across different environments.

Figure's compute expansion underscores Nvidia's opportunity

The reported investment discussions follow Figure's September announcement of a major infrastructure partnership with AI cloud provider Nscale.

It includes an initial $3.5 billion commitment for computing capacity, with plans to expand beyond $6 billion. Under the arrangement, Nscale said it would make a strategic equity investment in Figure and serve as its preferred compute provider. The companies did not disclose the size of that investment.

The partnership announced by Figure targets access to up to 100,000 Nvidia Vera Rubin GPUs, with initial deployments planned for the second half of 2027. The planned infrastructure is intended to support Figure's Helix AI system, which helps robots interpret their surroundings and perform physical tasks.

The agreement also illustrates how Nvidia could benefit from future demand for AI computing technology even if its reported new investment in Figure does not proceed. However, the scale and timing of those benefits will depend on the partnership's actual deployment.

Figure is also expanding its training data and manufacturing capabilities. In August, the company reported more than 16 million videos uploaded by contributors through its Index initiative, although the effect of that dataset on real-world robot performance remains unproven.

In April, Figure reported a 24-fold improvement in manufacturing throughput at BotQ, demonstrating the one-robot-per-hour production cycle needed for its Figure 03 manufacturing targets, compared with one robot per day previously. The announcement did not establish that the facility could sustain continuous hourly production.

According to its manufacturing update, Figure also reported delivering more than 350 third-generation robots, with units allocated to internal research, data collection, household-task development, and commercial use-case development. The company did not provide a breakdown of commercial customer sales.

As eWeek previously covered Figure's manufacturing progress, increasing production capacity is an important step toward commercialization. However, higher output alone does not establish sustained customer demand or profitability.

What eWeek found: Nvidia's robotics ambitions extend beyond a $1 billion investment

Nvidia's reported investment discussions with Figure suggest that humanoid robotics could become an increasingly important part of its physical AI strategy, particularly as developers seek to move beyond technical demonstrations.

Three implications stand out:

• Nvidia could benefit as both an investor and technology supplier. Nvidia's technology is central to Figure's plans for AI training, simulation, and robot deployment. Another equity investment could increase Nvidia's financial exposure to Figure's commercial success while strengthening its relationship with a potential long-term customer for advanced computing infrastructure.
• The potential investment could reinforce Nvidia's physical AI ecosystem. Robotics developers need computing resources to train models, simulate physical environments, and run AI systems. Nvidia's involvement with Figure illustrates how its technology could become embedded across multiple stages of humanoid robot development.
• Commercial execution remains the biggest uncertainty. Figure has announced substantial computing commitments and manufacturing milestones, but these do not establish that humanoid robots can operate reliably, economically, and at scale across customer environments. That distinction will ultimately determine whether the industry's growing investment produces sustainable business returns.

The broader challenge is already becoming visible across industrial robotics. As eWeek examined in its coverage of BMW's humanoid robot deployments, introducing AI-powered machines into factories requires more than advanced hardware. Enterprises must also consider integration with existing systems, operational reliability, and the infrastructure needed to support deployment.

For enterprise technology leaders evaluating humanoid robots, the key questions are whether the machines can consistently perform useful work, how much human oversight they require, and whether the productivity gains justify their deployment and operating costs.

If completed, Nvidia's reported investment would further connect one of the world's leading AI computing companies with an emerging humanoid robotics developer. The larger test is whether that combination of capital, computing power, and robotics technology can produce commercially practical machines.

Also read: For more on Nvidia's expanding role in robotics, see how the company is backing AI-powered robot development by investing in platforms that accelerate training, simulation, and real-world deployment.