Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a humanoid robotics startup, for an undisclosed sum on Friday, adding the team to its Superintelligence Labs research division as it advances its humanoid robotics ambitions.
The deal positions Meta directly in a rapidly commercializing humanoid robotics sector, where big tech, automakers and well-funded startups are competing to deploy physical AI at scale.
Founders With Deep Robotics Pedigree
ARI co-founder Lerrel Pinto previously taught at New York University and co-founded Fauna Robotics, a startup specializing in developing approachable, small-scale humanoid robots, which Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) acquired in March.
Co-founder Xiaolong Wang is an associate professor at UC San Diego and was previously a researcher at Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA).
Meta Superintelligence Labs head Alexandr Wang welcomed the ARI team on X, underscoring the division’s push into physical AI, an area Meta has been building toward for years.
“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 wrote on X.
Wang added the team aims to achieve “physical AGI,” saying scaling “will come from learning directly from human experience, not teleoperation alone.”
A Trillion-Dollar Race Takes Shape
The ARI and Fauna acquisitions reflect a broader industry push.
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) projects the humanoid robotics market will reach $38 billion by 2035, while Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) estimates it could grow to $5 trillion by 2050.
Xiaomi Corp (OTC:XIACY) (OTC:XIACF) deployed humanoid robots at its EV assembly plant in March, achieving a 90.2% task success rate over three hours of autonomous operations.
Figure AI, backed by Nvidia, OpenAI and Jeff Bezos, is targeting 100,000 humanoid robot deployments over four years.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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