{"title":"Figure vs TARS Robotics: General-purpose compared","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/compare/figure-vs-tars-robotics","comparison":"Figure ranks 5 on the Humanoids 100 with a score of 88; TARS Robotics ranks 51 with 64. Figure is ahead on deployment, production, commercials, technology, positioning and firepower. TARS Robotics is ahead on progress. Level on leverage. Figure is based in San Jose, United States, TARS Robotics in China. Figure: Private, founded 2022. Figure is named in 475 signals and TARS Robotics in 4.","companies":[{"name":"Figure","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/figure","city":"San Jose","country":"United States","stage":"Private","founded":2022,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Figure is a US humanoid maker that delivered 350+ Figure 03 units from its BotQ line by April 2026 (throughput of one robot an hour, a stated path to 100,000 a year) and ran Figure 02 at BMW Spartanburg for ~11 months (90,000+ parts at >99% placement accuracy, described as the first independently verifiable large-scale automotive humanoid deployment). It raised $1B+ Series C in September 2025 at a $39B post-money (a 15x step-up in 19 months; NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Intel, LG among participants), launched Figure 03 in October 2025, and exited its OpenAI collaboration for in-house Helix models. The negative signal: BMW chose Hexagon Robotics' wheeled AEON for its first European humanoid pilot at Leipzig (February 2026), so Figure went from BMW's singular humanoid partner to one supplier among several, and secondary shares traded below the $39B round price by August 2026. It is effectively pre-revenue at scale against that valuation.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Humanoids","list":"Humanoids 100","rank":5,"score":88,"tier":"member","scores":{"leverage":6,"position":8,"progress":9,"firepower":10,"commercial":6,"deployment":10,"production":8,"technology":10},"why":"Figure develops and manufactures general-purpose humanoid robots, including Figure 03, for industrial, logistics, and home applications.","segment":"General-purpose","layer":"Systems"},"signals_total":475,"facts_total":457},{"name":"TARS Robotics","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/tars-robotics","city":null,"country":"China","stage":null,"founded":null,"last_round":null,"positioning":"TARS is the capital story of Chinese embodied AI: a $122M angel+ round in July 2025 (a domestic record) followed by a $455M Pre-A in April 2026 co-led by GL Ventures, HSG and Meituan — described by Caixin as China largest single humanoid financing round — all before meaningful commercial deployment. Technically it targets precision manufacturing tasks, claiming its humanoid solves wire-harness assembly, one of the hardest unsolved dexterity problems in factory automation; if that claim holds at production quality, the valuation logic follows. Today it scores as maximal momentum and firepower on minimal deployed evidence.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Humanoids","list":"Humanoids 100","rank":51,"score":64,"tier":"member","scores":{"gate_ne":["firepower"],"leverage":6,"position":6,"progress":10,"firepower":8,"commercial":2,"deployment":4,"production":4,"technology":8},"why":"TARS Robotics is a humanoid robotics company, as indicated by its humanoid-focused wire-harness assembly capability and substantial financing for development and commercialization.","segment":"General-purpose","layer":"Systems"},"signals_total":4,"facts_total":12}],"note":"Assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence; facts and signals carry their sources."}