Meta Acquires Robotics AI Firm as $145bn Capex, 8,000 Job Cuts Loom

Meta Platforms has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a startup building artificial intelligence systems for humanoid robots, in an effort to develop humanoid technology.

Bloomberg reported that the firm sealed the deal on Friday; however, the financial terms have not been disclosed.

Assured Robot Intelligence was founded by researchers Lerrel Pinto and Xiaolong Wang, both of whom will join Meta as part of the transaction. The company describes itself as working "at the frontier of robotic intelligence designed to enable robots to understand, predict and adapt to human behaviours in complex and dynamic environments" — capabilities that sit at the heart of what makes humanoid robots genuinely useful rather than merely impressive.

The team will join Meta Superintelligence Labs and work closely with Meta Robotics Studio, an internal division launched last year to develop foundational technology for humanoid robots. A Meta spokesperson told the news agency that the group would bring "deep expertise in how we can design our models and frontier capabilities for robot control and self-learning to whole-body humanoid control."

The Vision and Cost

Meta is building humanoid hardware in-house alongside the AI that would power it — including sensors, software and core systems it intends to make available across the broader industry. The long-term goal, as per reports, is for Meta to do for humanoid robotics what Google's Android and Qualcomm's chips did for smartphones: build the foundational platform on which the rest of the market runs.

The Assured Robot Intelligence deal landed two days after Meta raised its 2026 capital expenditure guidance by $10bn, lifting the range to between $125bn and $145bn. The company attributed the increase to higher component prices and additional AI data centre costs. Investors responded with scepticism — Meta shares fell following Wednesday's earnings release and had declined 9.4% over the following five days, closing the week at $608.75.

Layoffs

The spending surge also has a human cost that Mark Zuckerberg addressed directly in an internal company meeting on Thursday, a recording of which was reported by the Wall Street Journal. He told employees that the company's rising AI investment was directly linked to its decision to reduce headcount.

"Compute and infrastructure and people-oriented things are the main cost drivers," he said, adding: "That means that we do need to take down the size of the company somewhat." Meta is expected to cut approximately 8,000 employees — around 10% of its workforce — in the coming weeks.