Meta Acquires Robotics AI Startup to Advance Humanoid Ambitions

Meta Platforms Inc. has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence Inc., a San Diego-based developer of artificial intelligence software for robots, as part of its push into humanoid robotics.

The company did not disclose financial terms of the deal.

Meta said the acquisition will strengthen its capabilities in robot control systems and AI model development.

The startup was founded by AI researchers Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang, both known for their work in robotics and machine learning.

Pinto previously co-founded Fauna Robotics, which was acquired by Amazon earlier this year, while Wang has held roles at Nvidia Corp. and is currently an academic at the University of California, San Diego.

Although details of Assured Robot Intelligence’s technology remain limited, Wang has previously demonstrated systems enabling users to control robots through virtual reality headsets. Such systems allow robots to mirror human head movements in real time, suggesting potential applications in remote operation.

"We believe this agent will be humanoid — and that scaling will come from learning directly from human experience, not teleoperation alone. Meta’s ecosystem brings together the key components needed to make this vision possible. We will be joining Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) to help bring personal superintelligence into the physical world," Wang said.

"We have the potential to transform AI that can think and talk to AI that can do, assisting humans safely and reliably in the physical world," Pinto added.

The acquisition could complement Meta’s broader hardware ambitions, including its smart glasses initiative. The company’s Meta Ray-Ban Display and Neural Band wrist interface may, in future iterations, be adapted to control humanoid robots through visual feeds and gesture-based inputs.

The acquired team will join Meta Superintelligence Labs, the company’s AI research division, which also houses its robotics initiatives. Meta has indicated it may not directly manufacture humanoid robots but instead focus on supplying AI models, control systems, and hardware components to other companies—similar to the role played by Qualcomm Inc. in the smartphone ecosystem.

Earlier this year, Meta acquired Moltbook, an experimental social network designed for AI agents to interact with each other. The acquisition brings Moltbook’s creators, Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr, into Meta’s Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL).

In December last year, Meta acquired Singapore-based AI startup Manus, a developer of general-purpose autonomous AI agents.