‘Squid Game’ has been watched by two-thirds of all Netflix users but hasn’t moved the needle on U.S. subscribers

Published

4 years ago

October 19, 2021

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Scene from “Squid Game” by Netflix

Source: Netflix

It may seem like every American you know has watched “Squid Game,” but the show’s popularity has not yet created a surge of new Netflix subscribers in the U.S.

142 million Netflix subscribers have seen at least two minutes of the wildly popular South Korean drama, Netflix revealed in its shareholder letter Tuesday. That’s exactly two-thirds of the company’s 213 million global customers.

But while Netflix gained 4.4 million net subscribers in the third quarter, topping average analyst estimates of 3.5 million, the growth didn’t come from the U.S. or Canada. Netflix added just 70,000 users from the region in the quarter.

While it’s possible Netflix may have added more American or Canadian subscribers from “Squid Game” in the fourth quarter, which began Oct. 1, the company didn’t alter its preexisting 8.5 million global forecast for the period.

It’s becoming clear that Netflix’s growth has stalled in the U.S. and Canada. Netflix has added less than one million subscribers in the region in the past 12 months. That’s part of the reason why Netflix is beginning to dabble in video games. It will be interesting to see if Netflix does anything surprising in the coming months to jumpstart growth in the U.S. and Canada, or if it’s content with its growth plateau in the region as long as it’s still charging ahead internationally.

The company’s 74 million U.S. and Canada subscribers also serves a de facto ceiling for Netflix’s streaming competition. Netflix still dominates Disney+, Hulu, AT&T‘s HBO Max, NBCUniversal‘s Peacock and other, newer streaming services in terms of overall subscribers. Cowen & Co. published survey results earlier this month in a note to clients that showed 25% of respondents said they used Netflix more than any other video service — including standard cable and broadcast TV. That dwarfed other subscription streaming services. Amazon Prime Video was the next highest at 7.3%.

If “Squid Game” can’t bring in millions of new subscribers, it’s fair to wonder if any new content can truly move the needle in the region.

Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of both CNBC and the Peacock streaming service.

Technology

Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup’s robots could ‘fracture a human skull’

Published

6 hours ago

November 21, 2025

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$Figure AI sued by whistleblower who warned that startup's robots could 'fracture a human skull'$

Startup Figure AI is developing general-purpose humanoid robots.

Figure AI

Figure AI, an Nvidia-backed developer of humanoid robots, was sued by the startup’s former head of product safety who alleged that he was wrongfully terminated after warning top executives that the company’s robots “were powerful enough to fracture a human skull.”

Robert Gruendel, a principal robotic safety engineer, is the plaintiff in the suit filed Friday in a federal court in the Northern District of California. Gruendel’s attorneys describe their client as a whistleblower who was fired in September, days after lodging his “most direct and documented safety complaints.”

The suit lands two months after Figure was valued at $39 billion in a funding round led by Parkway Venture Capital. That’s a 15-fold increase in valuation from early 2024, when the company raised a round from investors including Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft.

In the complaint, Gruendel’s lawyers say the plaintiff warned Figure CEO Brett Adcock and Kyle Edelberg, chief engineer, about the robot’s lethal capabilities, and said one “had already carved a ¼-inch gash into a steel refrigerator door during a malfunction.”

The complaint also says Gruendel warned company leaders not to “downgrade” a “safety road map” that he had been asked to present to two prospective investors who ended up funding the company.

Gruendel worried that a “product safety plan which contributed to their decision to invest” had been “gutted” the same month Figure closed the investment round, a move that “could be interpreted as fraudulent,” the suit says.

The plaintiff’s concerns were “treated as obstacles, not obligations,” and the company cited a “vague ‘change in business direction’ as the pretext” for his termination, according to the suit.

Gruendel is seeking economic, compensatory and punitive damages and demanding a jury trial.

Figure didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did attorneys for Gruendel.

The humanoid robot market remains nascent today, with companies like Tesla and Boston Dynamics pursuing futuristic offerings, alongside Figure, while China’s Unitree Robotics is preparing for an IPO. Morgan Stanley said in a report in May that adoption is “likely to accelerate in the 2030s” and could top $5 trillion by 2050.

Read the filing here: