Meta acquires Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI) to build humanoid robot foundation models
On 2026-05-01 Meta acquired Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI), a small startup building foundation models for whole-body humanoid control, founded by UC San Diego professor Xiaolong Wang (ex-NVIDIA) and ex-NYU roboticist Lerrel Pinto (also a Fauna Robotics co-founder); the team joins Meta's humanoid effort under Meta Superintelligence Labs. Terms were not disclosed.
Key facts
- Acquired: Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI); price undisclosed; ARI had an undisclosed seed round from AIX Ventures
- Founders: Xiaolong Wang (UC San Diego, formerly NVIDIA) and Lerrel Pinto (formerly NYU, Fauna Robotics co-founder)
- Meta: the team brings expertise in 'robot control and self-learning to whole-body humanoid control'
What happened
Meta, which has pursued humanoid robotics research for years (TechCrunch), bought ARI to strengthen its robot-control models. Wang and Pinto are well-known academic robot-learning researchers.
Why it matters
Frontier labs are buying robot-learning talent. Six weeks earlier Amazon had bought Fauna, which Pinto co-founded.
Changelog
- 2026-09-29: created (Meta's own announcement not located; based on TechCrunch)
Related events
- Amazon acquires Fauna Robotics, maker of the kid-sized Sprout humanoid ★★
- Altman says OpenAI will "definitely" build its own humanoid robots ★★★
Sources (1)
id: 2026-05-01-meta-acquires-assured-robot-intelligence · updated 2026-09-29 · open in the interactive timeline