Figure and Nscale have signed a multi-year strategic partnership committing an initial $3.5 billion in AI cloud compute to train Figure's next-generation humanoid robot models, with intent to scale the deal beyond $6 billion1,2,6.
The agreement calls for deployment of up to 100,000 GPUs on NVIDIA's Vera Rubin platform, with initial systems targeted for the second half of 2027 at Nscale's site in Barstow, Texas3,4. Under the terms, Nscale becomes Figure's preferred compute provider and a Figure shareholder through an undisclosed strategic investment. The two companies will also explore using Figure's humanoid robots to scale Nscale's own supply chain operations9.
The compute is earmarked for Helix, Figure's AI model for humanoid robotics. "Our AI model, Helix, becomes more capable the same way every learned system does: with more data and compute. Today we're excited to partner with Nscale to bring the compute required to make this vision a reality," said Brett Adcock, Founder and CEO of Figure.
Figure framed the deal as addressing a binding constraint on its progress. The company said it is "largely bound by data and compute needed to train Helix". Alongside the compute partnership, Figure recently announced Index, a continuously expanding dataset of real-world human activity that the company said is generating 35 minutes of training data every second. Index has surpassed 264,000 downloads across 108 countries, with more than 44,000 weekly active users, and Figure has paid $15 million to contributors.
"We're excited to partner with Figure as physical intelligence becomes AI's next frontier," said Josh Payne, CEO and Founder of Nscale. "We've seen incredible growth with inference and agentic AI and Figure is pushing the boundaries of AI even further".
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang described the arrangement as activating "the robotics flywheel," with Figure's models trained on NVIDIA Vera Rubin through Nscale's AI cloud, validated in NVIDIA Isaac Sim, and deployed on NVIDIA GPUs inside Figure's robots.
The deal arrives amid a capital surge into humanoid robotics. Startups in the sector have raised $8.6 billion so far in 2026, already 1.8 times the total raised across all of 2025. Skild AI raised $1.4 billion in January at a valuation above $14 billion, led by SoftBank with NVIDIA and Jeff Bezos also investing. Physical Intelligence was reported in March to be in talks for roughly $1 billion at a valuation above $11 billion. Apptronik closed a $520 million Series A extension in February, pushing its total past $935 million.
Figure itself closed a Series C exceeding $1 billion at a $39 billion valuation in September 2025, led by Parkway Venture Capital with NVIDIA, Intel Capital, Salesforce, and Qualcomm Ventures among the backers. Its earlier $675 million Series B in 2024 included Microsoft, NVIDIA, Amazon's Industrial Innovation Fund, and Jeff Bezos through Bezos Expeditions.
Nscale, for its part, closed a $2 billion Series C at a $14.6 billion valuation in March, and secured roughly $3 billion in debt financing weeks before this deal. The London-based company told prospective investors it has secured roughly $51 billion in contracted revenue. Its other infrastructure commitments include a collaboration with Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Caterpillar to deliver 1.35 GW of Vera Rubin NVL72 GPUs at a campus in West Virginia8.
ANALYSIS The deal structure, in which Nscale takes equity in its own customer and explores deploying that customer's robots in its facilities, creates mutual lock-in that goes beyond a standard cloud-compute contract. For Figure, the arrangement converts a capital expenditure problem into a managed-service relationship backed by a compute provider with a direct financial stake in the robotics company's success.