Meta is buying a robotics startup to boost its human AI ambitions

Meta has acquired humanoid robotics startup Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI) for an undisclosed sum, the social media giant said.

“We have acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a company at the forefront of machine intelligence designed to enable robots to understand, predict, and adapt to human behaviors in complex and dynamic environments,” a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch in an emailed statement.

The ARI team, including the co-founders, will join Meta’s AI unit, Superintelligence Labs’ research division. ARI has raised an undisclosed seed round from AI seed company AIX Ventures.

The startup has been building basic prototypes of humanoid robots to perform all types of physical labor such as household chores. Co-founder Xiaolong Wang was previously a researcher at Nvidia, and an associate professor at UC San Diego, with a list of prestigious awards to his name. Co-founder Lyril Pinto, who previously taught at New York University and co-founded human-sized startup Fauna Robotics before it was acquired by Amazon last month, also won a series of prestigious awards.

ARI will help Meta in her human ambitions. “This team, led by Lirel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang, will bring deep expertise in how we design our leading models and capabilities for robot control and self-learning to control the entire human body.”

Meta researchers have been working on humanoid robotics technology for years. A leaked memo a year ago discussed Meta’s ambitions to build such a robot, including artificial intelligence models and devices, aimed at consumers.

Even if Meta never releases a human consumer product, many AI experts these days believe that the path to artificial general intelligence (AGI) — the theoretical point at which AI reaches or exceeds human intelligence across the board — will require training AI models in the physical world, where robots learn through direct interaction rather than from data alone.

The ARI and Fauna deals reflect a broader industry push — forecasts vary widely, from Goldman Sachs’ forecast of $38 billion by 2035 to Morgan Stanley’s estimate of $5 trillion by 2050 — a spread that reflects the enormous potential and uncertainty about the technology still finding its footing.