Brett Adcock, the entrepreneur behind humanoid robotics company Figure AI, has quietly launched a new artificial intelligence venture called Hark, raising $700 million in Series A funding at a $6 billion post-money valuation. The mega-round, led by Parkway Venture Capital and backed by major investors including Intel Capital, Nvidia, Qualcomm Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures, signals that Adcock is betting big on the next frontier of AI beyond physical robots.

What makes Hark particularly intriguing is how little the company has revealed about what it's actually building. Founded in late 2025 with $100 million of Adcock's own capital, Hark is developing what the CEO describes as an "agentic AI system that serves as a universal interface with the digital world". In other words, Adcock is pursuing an AI personal assistant that could become the primary way people interact with technology, similar to how smartphones became the gateway to digital services.

Why Is Brett Adcock Splitting His Focus Between Robotics and AI?

The timing of Hark's launch reveals a strategic shift in Adcock's thinking about the future of automation. While Figure AI continues to make headlines with its humanoid robots, the company's recent livestream demonstrated the potential of physical automation in warehouse logistics. Figure AI's humanoid robots sorted over 204,000 packages in more than 163 hours during a continuous livestream that pulled in millions of views on social media. The robots used the Helix-02 model, an AI brain that powers Figure's humanoid systems.

However, Adcock appears to recognize that the real bottleneck in automation isn't just building better robots; it's creating smarter software that can understand and execute complex tasks across digital and physical environments. By launching Hark, Adcock is positioning himself at the intersection of embodied AI (robots that interact with the physical world) and digital AI (systems that manage information and decision-making). This dual approach could give Figure AI a competitive advantage if Hark's universal interface can seamlessly control both digital systems and physical robots.

What Does Adcock's Track Record Tell Us About Hark's Potential?

Adcock has a history of building ambitious companies across different sectors. Beyond Figure AI and Hark, he also founded Archer, an electric aircraft builder, demonstrating a pattern of pursuing moonshot technologies in transportation and automation. His ability to attract top-tier venture capital suggests investors believe he can execute on ambitious visions. The Hark Series A included participation from some of the most influential venture firms in AI and hardware, including ARK Invest, AMD Ventures, and Prime Movers Lab.

Figure AI itself has grown dramatically under Adcock's leadership. The company reached a $39 billion post-money valuation in its Series C round in September 2025, raising $1 billion across voting and non-voting shares. Major investors in Figure AI include Nvidia, Microsoft, OpenAI, Intel Capital, and Salesforce, indicating strong confidence in the humanoid robotics market. The company has filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO), suggesting it could go public in the coming years.

How to Understand the Difference Between Figure AI and Hark

• Figure AI's Focus: Building physical humanoid robots that can perform manual labor tasks in warehouses, manufacturing, logistics, and transportation. The company's Helix AI model powers robots that can sort packages, handle delicate objects, and perform complex physical tasks autonomously.
• Hark's Focus: Developing an agentic AI system that acts as a universal interface between humans and digital systems. The company is building both AI models and hardware devices to create a new category of AI personal assistant.
• Strategic Overlap: Both companies rely on advanced AI models and embodied intelligence. Hark's universal interface could eventually control Figure AI's robots, creating a vertically integrated automation ecosystem.

The distinction matters because it shows Adcock is thinking about automation holistically. Figure AI solves the "how do we automate physical tasks" problem. Hark solves the "how do we create an intuitive interface for AI" problem. Together, they could form a comprehensive automation platform.

What's the Market Opportunity for a Universal AI Interface?

The $700 million Series A valuation reflects investor confidence that a universal AI interface could become a massive market. Currently, people interact with AI through multiple fragmented interfaces: chatbots like ChatGPT, voice assistants like Siri, and specialized software tools. A truly universal interface that could seamlessly handle tasks across all these domains would be transformative. The fact that Hark has revealed so little about its product suggests the company is still in stealth mode, likely protecting proprietary technology or waiting for a breakthrough moment to announce its capabilities.

Adcock's willingness to invest $100 million of his own capital into Hark indicates he believes this is a generational opportunity. The Series A round values Hark at $6 billion, making it one of the most valuable AI startups founded in 2025. For context, Figure AI's Series C valuation of $39 billion suggests that investors see even greater potential in physical robotics, but Hark's valuation shows that digital AI interfaces are also attracting massive capital.

The convergence of these two companies under Adcock's leadership could reshape how automation unfolds over the next decade. If Hark succeeds in creating a truly universal AI interface, and Figure AI continues advancing humanoid robotics, the combination could accelerate the timeline for widespread automation across both digital and physical domains. For now, the robotics and AI communities are watching closely to see what Adcock reveals about Hark's actual capabilities.