Engineer says he was fired after warning Figure AI’s robot could 'fracture a human skull'

Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, filed the lawsuit in a federal court in the Northern District of California on Nov. 21. The suit was filed two months after the U.S. robotics firm was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. This valuation marked a 15-fold increase from early 2024, when the company secured investments from major backers, including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.