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Meta is making another push to expand its humanoid robotics efforts with the acquisition of a small robotics intelligence startup, Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI), according to the company and ARI’s cofounder.
Xiaolong Wang, ARI’s cofounder, said in a post on Friday that Meta acquired the San Diego-based startup. Wang said ARI has about 20 employees. Bloomberg first reported the acquisition, and Meta and AIX Ventures confirmed the news to Business Insider.
Meta described ARI as a company focused on robotics intelligence. A Meta spokesperson said: “We acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a company at the frontier of robotic intelligence designed to enable robots to understand, predict, and adapt to human behaviors in complex and dynamic environments.”
ARI is developing AI models intended to power humanoid robots. Nick Crance, a partner at AIX Ventures, said the startup focuses on high-precision dexterity and manipulation in robotics. Dexterity and manipulation refer to a robot’s ability to physically interact with real-world objects—capabilities that are important for usefulness in both industrial settings and at home.
Crance said ARI is led by two roboticists. Cofounders Xiaolong Wang and Lerrel Pinto have academic backgrounds. Wang was a researcher at Nvidia and is a member of the electrical and computer engineering faculty at the University of California, San Diego. Pinto, who is also CEO of ARI, cofounded Fauna Robotics and is a computer science professor at New York University.
ARI is not the only startup working on robotics intelligence. Other companies cited in the report—Physical Intelligence, Generalist AI, and Genesis AI—focus on the “intelligence layer,” or the brains, of robots rather than the hardware. Their AI systems are designed to help robots across different form factors, including humanoids, operate in varied environments.
Meta’s acquisition of ARI adds to indications of the company’s broader move into robotics. In 2025, Meta formed a robotics group within its Reality Labs division, according to a memo obtained by Business Insider.
Since then, Meta has tapped new leadership and expanded its hardware team for Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL). MSL is described as a separate division from Reality Labs, though the report says the two are increasingly intertwined through AI hardware and robotics.
AIX Ventures and Meta declined to comment on the size of the acquisition.
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