Forbes on Figure: "Sold investors a humanoid future. Now he has to build it" — $39B, still pilots, partners correcting claims
From the Robots digest for 2026-10-05
What happened: Forbes' Anna Tong profile (Oct 5): Brett Adcock "sold investors a humanoid future. Now he has to build it" — Figure's robots are still in pilots, the valuation has hit $39B, and "Brett Adcock's partners keep correcting his claims" (partner-company corrections are the piece's method). Around it, the Oct 3 end-of-life theatre recirculates — the F.02 fleet's Terminator-style molten-steel sendoff, with a Schwarzenegger consult now in wire capture (Deseret: Schwarzenegger advised a company on how to destroy its old robots) — and the Japanese read calling the video "a robot funeral, and also a prelude to a new product announcement."
What's genuinely new: mainstream-press scrutiny with named method — partner companies publicly correcting the pitch is a new accountability layer for the demo-driven-rival side of the reality-check war; and the disposal video's second read (pre-product-announcement marketing) names what it is.
Watch: the "prelude" — what Figure announces next; whether partner-corrections become a pattern (à la Hyundai's Atlas candor); the $39B valuation's next priced event (Figure is private; watch for a round or a filing).
Links: Forbes · Deseret (Schwarzenegger)