Meta Acquires Humanoid Robot Startup Assured Robot Intelligence

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Meta has acquired the startup developing humanoid robots, Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI), to strengthen the development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the field of robotics.

Citing TechCrunch on Friday (1/5), Meta did not disclose the transaction value in the acquisition.

“We are acquiring Assured Robot Intelligence, a company at the forefront of robotic intelligence to enable robots to understand, predict, and adapt to human behaviour in complex and dynamic environments,” said a Meta spokesperson.

ARI develops foundational models for humanoid robots to perform various tasks, such as household chores.

One of its founders, Xiaolong Wang, was previously a researcher at Nvidia and a lecturer at the University of California San Diego, United States. Meanwhile, the other founder, Lerrel Pinto, has taught at New York University and was involved in developing the humanoid robot startup Fauna Robotics.

The acquisition is said to strengthen Meta’s ambitions in humanoid robot development, particularly in motion control and AI-based self-learning capabilities.

Meta itself has long been developing humanoid robot technology. In leaked internal documents, the company is said to have plans to develop humanoid robots targeted at consumers, complete with hardware integration and AI models.

In the industry context, the acquisition of ARI and similar steps taken by other companies indicate an acceleration in robotics technology development.

Market projections vary, with several institutions estimating that the value of the humanoid robot industry could reach tens of billions to trillions of US dollars in the coming decades, though it is still accompanied by high uncertainty.