Following 'FigureAI' Investment, Tesla Releases Additional Video of 'Optimus'
Optimus 2nd Generation Walks Like a Human
Competitor Figure AI Raises 900 Billion Won in Investment
Additional footage of Tesla's humanoid robot 'Optimus' has been released. This comes the day after news of investment in competitor 'FigureAI' was announced. The competition among big tech companies in humanoid development is accelerating.
Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, posted a video of 'Optimus' on his X (formerly Twitter) account on the 24th. The video titled 'Optimus strolling around the lab' shows Optimus walking around the lab on two feet without assistance from others. This video was posted about a month after Musk shared a video of Optimus on the 16th of last month.
The Optimus introduced in the recent two videos is the '2nd generation' version, evolved from the model Tesla unveiled in December last year. Tesla stated last month that "the 2nd generation Optimus walks about 30% faster than before and can move its five fingers smoothly."
Tesla first announced plans to develop a humanoid robot in 2021 and unveiled a prototype of Optimus at the end of September 2022. CEO Musk assured that the robot would create a prosperous and poverty-free future. He also stated that Tesla plans to mass-produce millions of units by enhancing Optimus's performance and aims to sell it for under $20,000 (approximately 26 million KRW) within 3 to 5 years.
Notably, Musk's recent video drew attention as it was posted just one day after news broke that big tech companies are heavily investing in 'FigureAI,' a competitor in the humanoid robot field.
Bloomberg reported on the 23rd that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Nvidia are investing $100 million (about 130 billion KRW) and $50 million (about 6.6 billion KRW) respectively in FigureAI. Additionally, Intel's venture capital (VC) promised $25 million (about 3.3 billion KRW), and LG Innotek and Samsung's investment arms pledged $8.5 million (about 1.13 billion KRW) and $5 million (about 660 million KRW) respectively, according to the report.
FigureAI is a startup founded in 2022 by engineers formerly from Tesla and Boston Dynamics. It is known that Microsoft (MS) and OpenAI have invested $95 million (about 12.6 billion KRW) and $5 million (about 660 million KRW) respectively. The total investment raised by FigureAI is estimated to be $675 million (about 900 billion KRW).
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In addition, the Norwegian startup '1X Technology' is developing a bipedal robot equipped with ChatGPT, and the Canadian startup 'SanctuaryAI' is developing a humanoid robot named Phoenix.
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