Figure, a Silicon Valley-based startup that builds humanoid robots, has announced Helix, a proprietary AI model that the company says enables robots to more easily pick up objects, collaborate on tasks with other robots,

Figure AI Inc., a startup developing humanoid robots, is in talks with investors to raise $1.5 billion at a valuation of $39.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter — a move that signals the tech industry’s intensifying interest in robots that look and move like humans.

Figure founder and CEO Brett Adcock Thursday revealed a new machine learning model for humanoid robots. The news, which arrives two weeks after Adcock