Figure AI Retires Its F.02 Robots by Having Them Jump Into Molten Steel

Why Figure chose to melt its robots

In a post dated September 30, 2026, Figure AI said it no longer makes sense to maintain the F.02 fleet as its F.03 fleet grows. The company called F.02 "an incredible robot" and listed several firsts for the model: its first deployment at BMW, the birth of Helix, its first robot doing household chores, and its first logistics deployment.

Retiring the fleet created a practical problem. According to Figure, the robots contain custom-built actuators and other intellectual property, so they had to be disposed of in a way that protected the proprietary hardware. The company said disassembling each unit would take its technical staff so much time that it would delay the launch of F.04.

Figure says it asked the internet for ideas, and the answer that stood out came from Arnold Schwarzenegger, who told the company to melt the robots. Figure reached out to him, and when he said he wanted to be involved, the company put the plan in motion.

Finding a foundry and training the robots

The plan was harder to carry out than to announce. Figure said none of the metal foundries it contacted in the US and Mexico would allow a robot with lithium-ion batteries to be placed into their expensive equipment. The company also reached out to former MythBusters to help with the search. In the end, it says the only place in the world it found willing to take the job was a foundry in Imatra, Finland.

Training began at Figure's campus in San Jose. The team set up large airbags and taught the robots to jump off the second floor of one of its buildings. Using movements from stunt artists as a reference, the team trained a new AI model in simulation. The model was meant to let the robots jump accurately into a bucket of molten steel at a foundry the team had never visited.

The melt in Finland

Figure described the foundry setup as three massive graphite electrodes powering a 75-ton electric arc furnace that melts solid steel scrap. The team had 24 hours and six melts to get it right. Each melt offered only a 20-minute window before the molten steel cooled and formed a hard crust.

According to Figure, the robots ran their AI policies seamlessly despite the extreme heat and electromagnetic fields, even as camera equipment and other electronics failed in that environment.

Afterward, the resulting metal bars were sent back to the US. Figure says the metal is being machined into a limited series of artifacts commemorating F.02. Only a small number will be made, which the company describes as preserving a piece of its history "in a compact package that you can own." The post links to a purchase page for the limited-edition artifact, but gives no price or quantity.

What remains of the F.02 fleet

Figure said most of the F.02 fleet is gone, with just a few units remaining in storage at its headquarters. The company also addressed the question of authenticity directly. "In an age of AI-generated footage," it wrote, it wanted to be clear that it really trained robots to jump autonomously, shipped them to Finland, and had them leap into a vat of molten steel.

The episode is partly a marketing film and partly a disposal exercise. For the robotics industry, it shows one company's approach to retiring hardware packed with proprietary components, and it signals that Figure is moving its focus to the F.03 fleet and the upcoming F.04.