Insider Brief
- Meta has acquired humanoid robotics startup Assured Robot Intelligence, according to TechCrunch, as the company expands its efforts in robotics and physical AI.
- ARI was developing foundation models for humanoid robots designed to perform physical tasks and adapt to human behavior in dynamic environments, with the team joining Meta’s Superintelligence Labs AI division.
- The acquisition adds robotics researchers Xiaolong Wang and Lerrel Pinto to Meta as technology companies increasingly pursue physical-world AI systems tied to long-term AGI development.
Meta has acquired humanoid robotics startup Assured Robot Intelligence as the company expands its push into robotics and physical AI, according to TechCrunch. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Meta told TechCrunch that ARI’s team, including co-founders Xiaolong Wang and Lerrel Pinto, will join its Superintelligence Labs AI research division. ARI had been developing foundation models designed to help humanoid robots understand and adapt to human behavior in dynamic environments.
The startup focused on training humanoid systems for physical tasks such as household labor and general-purpose manipulation. Wang previously worked as a researcher at Nvidia and served as an associate professor at the University of California San Diego. Pinto previously taught at New York University and co-founded humanoid robotics startup Fauna Robotics, which was acquired by Amazon last month, according to TechCrunch.
Meta said the ARI team will contribute expertise in robot control, self-learning systems and whole-body humanoid motion. The acquisition adds to Meta’s broader robotics ambitions, which have been under development internally for years. TechCrunch noted that previously leaked internal documents outlined Meta’s interest in building consumer-focused humanoid robotics hardware and AI models.
