The figure HTML tag or element is often used to represent self-contained content. It is frequently with a caption (figcaption), and is typically referenced as a single unit to describe or caption an image. Google's John Mueller was asked how Google treats content in a figure tag.
John said that Google simply reads the contents within the tag but doesn't do anything special with it because it is a figure tag. John said on Twitter "AFAIK we can use the contents [within the figure tag], but otherwise we don't do anything special with that."
Here are the tweets:
AFAIK we can use the contents, but otherwise we don't do anything special with that.
— John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) June 28, 2018
Forum discussion at Twitter.