Figure AI vs Sanctuary AI

Figure AI has a disclosed valuation of $39B, while Sanctuary AI's valuation is not publicly available, making a direct size comparison difficult. Figure AI employs 450 people.

Figure AI has raised more in total funding at $1.9B, compared to Sanctuary AI's $140M — a gap of $1.8B. Combined, the two companies have completed 3 known funding rounds.

Figure AI holds the higher Awaira Score at 95/100, compared to Sanctuary AI's 65/100. The Awaira Score is a composite metric factoring in valuation, funding, stage, team size, and market presence — a 30-point gap that reflects meaningful differences in scale or traction.

Figure AI was founded by Brett Adcock in 2022. Sanctuary AI was founded by Geordie Rose in 2018. Visit each company's profile on Awaira for a full founder biography.

Figure AI: Figure AI is a robotics company founded in 2022 that develops humanoid robots designed for industrial and commercial applications. The company focuses on creating general-purpose robots capable of performing complex physical tasks in real-world environments. Figure AI's primary technology centers on advanced robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning systems that enable autonomous operation and human-robot collaboration. The company has raised $1.9 billion in funding across multiple rounds, achieving a valuation of $39 billion as of its Series C stage, reflecting significant investor confidence in the humanoid robotics sector. This valuation places Figure AI among the most valuable robotics startups globally. The company's approach emphasizes practical deployment in industries facing labor shortages and operational challenges. Figure AI competes in the growing humanoid robotics market alongside companies developing similar technologies. The company's competitive positioning is strengthened by substantial capital resources enabling rapid research and development. Figure AI has demonstrated prototypes and engaged with potential enterprise customers across manufacturing, logistics, and service sectors, though specific customer details remain largely confidential. The company's growth trajectory reflects the broader acceleration in AI-enabled robotics investment. Figure AI's development timeline suggests advancement toward commercial deployment, with the robotics industry expecting increased real-world implementations in the coming years. Figure AI has achieved unicorn status within two years of founding, indicating rapid progress in humanoid robotics commercialization despite the sector's technical complexity. Sanctuary AI: Sanctuary AI develops Phoenix, a general-purpose humanoid robot designed to perform a wide range of physical labor tasks in human-centric environments including manufacturing, warehousing, and retail operations. The robot is controlled by Carbon, an AI system designed to generalize task learning across diverse physical manipulation challenges without task-specific programming for each new application.\n\nThe company raised approximately 140 million USD and has announced commercial deployments with enterprise partners in structured industrial environments, demonstrating early progress toward robots that can be retrained for new tasks without significant engineering effort. Sanctuary is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, and operates its AI research team across North America.\n\nGeneral-purpose humanoid robotics represents one of the largest potential markets in the AI economy, addressed by a new generation of well-funded companies including Figure AI, Physical Intelligence, and Tesla Optimus. Sanctuary focus on the cognitive AI layer, specifically the ability to rapidly teach robots new tasks through a combination of imitation learning and reinforcement learning, positions it as a company where long-term value accrues to the AI system rather than the hardware platform alone.

Sanctuary AI was founded first in 2018, giving it 4 years of additional market experience. Figure AI was founded later in 2022. In AI, even a year or two of head start can translate into significantly more training data, customer relationships, and institutional knowledge.

Figure AI has approximately 450 employees, while Sanctuary AI has approximately 200-500. A larger team often signals higher revenue or venture backing, but in AI, smaller teams are increasingly capable of building at scale.

Yes, Figure AI and Sanctuary AI are direct competitors — both operate in the AI Robotics space and likely target overlapping customer segments. This comparison is especially relevant for buyers evaluating both platforms.