Meta Buys Assured Robot Intelligence to Advance Humanoid Software

Meta acquired Assured Robot Intelligence and integrated the startup’s researchers and engineers into its Superintelligence Labs, the company announced Friday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Assured Robot Intelligence developed AI models intended to help humanoid robots interpret human behavior and improve full-body motion so machines can operate in real-world, unpredictable human environments. The team will focus on perception and behavior models that support safe interaction and movement around people.

Co-founders Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang will join Meta as part of the integration. Pinto previously co-founded Fauna Robotics, which was acquired by Amazon earlier this year, and Wang worked at Nvidia. The new hires will work with Meta’s Robotics Studio, a unit created in 2025 to develop core software and systems for humanoid machines.

Meta first disclosed plans to build humanoid robots in February of last year and has shifted personnel and budget from earlier metaverse projects into robotics. Reality Labs, the division that originally focused on the metaverse, reported operating losses of more than $19 billion in 2025, and the company has redirected resources to build humanoid capabilities.

Meta says the initial product focus is on robots that can perform household chores rather than an immediate consumer-branded robot to compete with existing projects such as Tesla’s Optimus. Company representatives have left open the possibility of broader product ambitions in the future.

At Meta’s Connect conference, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth described software as the main bottleneck: “I don’t think the hardware is the hard part. I’m not saying the hardware isn’t also hard, but it’s not the bottleneck. The bottleneck is the software.” The acquisition adds research expertise to Superintelligence Labs and Robotics Studio as Meta continues assembling the software stack it views as necessary for scaled humanoid systems.

The company reiterated that engineers and researchers from Assured will join internal robotics teams to accelerate work on how robots move, learn and interact. Financial details of the agreement were not released.