By Lora Kolodny
Publication Date: 2025-11-21 23:52:00
The startup Figure AI develops humanoid general-purpose robots.
Figure AI
Figure AI, a Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots has been sued by the startup’s former head of product safety, who claimed he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots were “strong enough to fracture a human skull.”
Robert Gruendel, a senior robotics safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s lawyers describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, just days after he filed his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”
The lawsuit comes two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation since early 2024, when the company raised a round of funding from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia and Microsoft.
In the lawsuit, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett…
