• Robert Gruendel, Figure AI's ex-safety chief, filed a federal lawsuit claiming wrongful termination after warning about lethal robot capabilities

Figure AI just got slammed with a federal whistleblower lawsuit that's sending shockwaves through the robotics world. The company's former head of product safety claims he was fired for warning executives their humanoid robots were "powerful enough to fracture a human skull" - allegations that come just two months after the startup hit a staggering $39 billion valuation.

The timing couldn't be worse for Figure AI. Just as the humanoid robotics startup was riding high on its meteoric $39 billion valuation, a bombshell lawsuit landed Friday that threatens to expose serious safety cracks in the company's rush to market.

Robert Gruendel, Figure's former principal robotic safety engineer, filed the suit in Northern District of California federal court, painting a disturbing picture of a company that allegedly treated safety warnings as "obstacles, not obligations." According to the complaint obtained by CNBC, Gruendel warned CEO Brett Adcock and chief engineer Kyle Edelberg that their robots possessed lethal capabilities - including one incident where a malfunctioning unit "carved a -inch gash into a steel refrigerator door."

The allegations strike at the heart of the AI safety debate that's been brewing across Silicon Valley. Gruendel's attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was terminated in September, just days...

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