A startup focused on developing general-purpose humanoid robots, Figure AI, which is supported by Nvidia, has recently been sued by its former product safety director, Robert Gruendel. Gruendel claims to be a whistleblower, who was wrongfully terminated after warning company executives about potential safety hazards associated with their robots.
Figure AI’s valuation skyrocketed to approximately $39 billion between 2024 and 2025, coinciding with the company’s rapid expansion and heightened public scrutiny.
Warnings of the Robot’s ‘Lethal Capabilities’
Robert Gruendel was the chief robot safety engineer at Figure AI. According to a lawsuit filed last Friday (November 21, 2025) in the Northern District of California, Gruendel was terminated in September of this year shortly after making “the most direct and documented safety complaints”.
The lawsuit states that Gruendel warned the company’s CEO, Brett Adcock, and chief engineer, Kyle Edelberg, that Figure AI’s robots possess enough force to ‘crush a human skull’.
His safety concerns were not unfounded: the complaint mentions that during a malfunction, a robot had already ‘carved a quarter-inch deep cut into a steel refrigerator door’.
Valuation Surge and Conflicts in Safety Roadmap
This lawsuit comes two months after Figure AI secured significant funding. The company was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. This valuation represents a 15-fold increase from early 2024, when investors included Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.
However, it was the backdrop of this funding that raised Gruendel’s strong concerns about the company’s safety priorities.
The lawsuit points out that Gruendel had warned company leaders not to ‘downgrade’ the ‘safety roadmap’ he presented to two potential investors. He feared that the ‘product safety plan’ he showcased to investors, which could facilitate their investment, was ‘gutted’ in the same month the company concluded its investment round, a move he believed could ‘be interpreted as fraud’.
Gruendel’s attorney stated that his concerns about safety were viewed by the company as ‘an obstacle rather than an obligation’. The company ultimately cited a vague ‘change in business direction’ as the reason for his termination.
Legal Recourse and Industry Milestone
Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory, and punitive damages, and is requesting a jury trial.
In response, a spokesperson for Figure AI stated in an email that Gruendel was terminated for ‘poor performance’ and claimed that his ‘allegations are false; Figure will thoroughly refute these claims in court’.
However, Gruendel’s attorney, Robert Ottinger, emphasized that California law protects employees who report unsafe practices. Ottinger noted that this case involves significant emerging issues, “potentially one of the first whistleblower cases related to humanoid robot safety”. He stated that Gruendel looks forward to revealing the obvious dangers posed to the public by this ‘market-grabbing approach’ through judicial proceedings.
The Future of the Robot Market and Safety Challenges
Although the humanoid robot market is still in its infancy, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic products, China’s Unitree Robotics is also preparing for an IPO. However, a report from Morgan Stanley in May predicted that the application of humanoid robots ‘could accelerate in the 2030s’ and may exceed a market size of $5 trillion by 2050.
In such a rapidly evolving context, the safety lawsuit surrounding Figure AI undoubtedly serves as a wake-up call for the entire emerging industry, highlighting the importance of product safety and public responsibility alongside the pursuit of innovation and high valuations.