Faraday Future's $2,490 FF Nova brings a humanoid robot to developers and classrooms
The entry-level FF Nova pairs a $2,490 biped with an open SDK and a Skills Store; the $299 Nova Mini targets K-12 physical-AI education.
Faraday Future and its Nasdaq-listed robotics arm FFR have unveiled two new embodied-AI humanoids: FF Nova, an entry-level biped priced at $2,490, and FF Nova Mini, a $299 humanoid aimed at early physical-AI education. The launch pairs the hardware with the Physical AI Spark Program curriculum, a reinforcement-learning developer program, and an invitation-only developer community.
Nova is built for developers, labs and schools rather than consumers. The 20-degree-of-freedom biped walks, turns, waves and gets back up after being knocked over; it moves either on two legs or on a detachable base for autonomous navigation. Its sensor stack combines LiDAR, wide-angle vision, depth sensing and a circular microphone array with an edge-compute platform, and it connects to a large voice model for conversation and voiceprint recognition. A $390 developer skills package adds a fully open SDK, a ROS 2 workflow and over-the-air updates, with a sim-to-real reinforcement-learning pipeline feeding a Skills Store where developers can share and eventually monetize capabilities.
The rollout comes in three phases. Phase one is a 100-unit invitation-only release — the first 20 units ready for immediate delivery — limited to invited developers and educational institutions. Phase two opens ordering to all developers and institutions, and phase three is a full consumer launch. The Nova Mini, available now, weighs under a kilogram on an aluminum-alloy frame, walks with human-like gait, rights itself and supports block-based programming; its $499 curriculum bundles 16 live small-group classes over two months with lesson plans and teacher training for ages eight and up.
The hardware launch sits on top of a corporate reshuffle: FF and FFR signed definitive agreements on October 12 for FFR to acquire FF's robotics business in an all-stock deal valuing the robotics assets at about $200 million, with FFR issuing shares at $2.246 — roughly a 50% premium to its $1.50 close on the signing date. FF would hold about 65.7% of FFR on a fully diluted basis, alongside an up-to-$10 million PIPE round. The companies say the leaner structure should accelerate the operating business, which already claims commercial deliveries of humanoid and biomimetic robots and runs a RoboShare robot-sharing service.
Whether a company that has yet to prove manufacturing scale can deliver developer hardware on a meaningful timeline remains the open question. But the pricing is a signal in itself: sub-$2,500 bipeds are moving from research curiosities into the developer-tools aisle, and FF is betting the curriculum and community layer — not just the body — is where the moat forms.