From Illinois farms to a $19 billion empire of humanoid robots
In short: Born on a third-generation farm in Illinois, Brett Adcock has become a central figure in the artificial intelligence revolution. From talent marketplaces to electric aviation, his rapid ascent through the tech landscape suggests a future where humanoid robots are a common household fixture.
Brett Adcock’s trajectory from a rural upbringing to the heights of Silicon Valley is marked by a series of ambitious ventures. Raised on a family farm outside Moweaqua, Illinois, Adcock began his career in web development at sixteen. After graduating as valedictorian of Central A&M High School and earning a business administration degree from the University of Florida in 2008, he entered the startup world through NYU's Varick Street Incubator.
His business portfolio spans several critical technological sectors. In 2013, he co-founded Vettery, a talent marketplace that was eventually acquired by the Adecco Group for $100 million in 2018. He then moved into the aerospace sector by co-founding Archer Aviation in 2018, an eVTOL company that went public on the New York Stock Exchange in February 2021. His ventures have expanded into security and hardware, including the founding of Cover in 2023—an AI security firm utilizing technology from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory—and Hark in 2025, which focuses on AI models and hardware interfaces.
Currently, Adcock is the CEO of Figure AI, a Sunnyvale-based startup developing general-purpose humanoid robots. To build this team, he recruited experts from major players like Tesla, Google DeepMind, Apple, and Boston Dynamics. Adcock believes these robots will address labor shortages, predicting that within a decade, every home will possess one. His influence in the field was recognized by Time, which included him on its 2024 list of influential people in AI. By February 2026, both The New York Times and Forbes value his wealth at US$19 billion.
Adcock's vision for the future appears heavily influenced by the science fiction of Isaac Asimov, particularly his Robot series.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Brett Adcock
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