Tech giant Meta has begun taking steps toward its long-touted plan of making humanoid robots.

The social media firm has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence and folded its team into the company’s Superintelligence Labs unit, according to reports on Friday. The financial terms were not disclosed.

At its core, Assured Robot Intelligence has been working on a difficult problem, like teaching machines to better understand people. Its AI models are designed to help robots interpret human behavior and respond to it in real-world, often unpredictable environments.

The startup’s co-founders, Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang, will now join Meta’s robotics push, working alongside its Robotics Studio, which was set up in 2025 to develop the building blocks of humanoid machines.

Both founders bring deep research experience. Wang previously worked at Nvidia. Pinto co-founded Fauna Robotics, which was acquired by Amazon earlier this year as part of its own robotics ambitions.

Meta says the new team will focus on improving how robots move, learn, and interact, particularly when it comes to full-body humanoid motion. 

Meta is betting on robots next

Meta disclosed its plan to build humanoid robots in February last year. People familiar with the matter noted the company was forming a dedicated team from the hardware division of Reality Labs, which was initially focused on building the company’s metaverse ambitions. 

In 2025, Reality Labs reported operating losses exceeding $19 billion. The company has now ditched its metaverse dream and is channeling its resources toward building humanoids. 

Meta will initially focus on robots that will take on household chores, according to reports. As of last year, the people said Meta had no intention of immediately building Meta-branded robots to compete with Tesla’s Optimus. However, they may take on that direction later in the future.

Why Meta acquired Assured Robot Intelligence

Last year, Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth mentioned that the software to power the robots is the biggest bottleneck for the company, not necessarily the hardware. 

“I don’t think the hardware is the hard part,” Bosworth said during Meta’s recent Connect conference. “I’m not saying the hardware isn’t also hard, but it’s not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is the software.”

Assured Robot Intelligence is focused on building AI models that drive robots. 

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