Meta 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 frontier of robotic intelligence designed to enable robots to understand, predict and adapt to human behaviors in complex and dynamic environments,” a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch.
The ARI team, including its co-founders, will join Meta’s AI unit, the Superintelligence Labs research division. ARI had raised an undisclosed round from AI seed firm AIX Ventures.
The startup was building basic models for humanoid robots to perform all types of physical work, such as housework. Co-founder Xiaolong Wang was previously a researcher at Nvidia and an associate professor at UC San Diego, with list of prestigious awards in his name. Co-founder Lerrel Pinto, who previously taught at NYU and co-founded children’s startup Fauna Robotics before Amazon bought it last month, also won a series of prestigious awards.
ARI will help Meta with his humanoid aspirations. “This team, led by Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang, will bring deep expertise in how we can design our models and our frontier capabilities for robot control and self-learning in humanoid full-body control.”
Post-researchers have worked in humanoid robotics technology for years. A leaked memo a year ago discussed Meta’s ambitions to build such a robot, including AI and hardware models, aimed at consumers.
Even if Meta never releases a consumer humanoid product, many AI experts these days believe that the path to artificial general intelligence (AGI) — the theoretical point at which artificial intelligence reaches or surpasses human-level intelligence in all domains — will require training AI models in the natural world, where robots learn through direct interaction rather than just data.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco, California
|
13-15 October 2026
The ARI and Fauna deals reflect a broader industry sprint — a point where forecasts vary widely, from Goldman Sachs’ view 38 billion dollars until 2035 according to Morgan Stanley’s estimate $5 trillion by 2050 — a difference that reflects both the enormous potential and the uncertainty surrounding the technology that is still finding its footing.
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
