Meta has bought a startup that creates AI for robots. Will it compete with Tesla?

Meta Platforms, which owns social networks Instagram and Facebook, has bought Assured Robot Intelligence, a startup that creates artificial intelligence models for robots, Bloomberg reported. This is part of the company's massive initiative to develop technology for humanoid robots, the agency claims. Tesla is already targeting this market with its Optimus robots.

The takeover deal for Assured Robot Intelligence was closed on Friday, May 1 , Bloomberg reported, citing a Ma spokesman. The startup "is among the leaders in the field of robotic intelligence, designed to give robots the ability to understand, anticipate and adapt to human behavior in complex and dynamic environments," he said.

The Assured Robot Intelligence team, will join the research division of Meta Superintelligence Labs. There they will work together with Meta Robotics Studio, a team launched last year to create basic technologies for humanoid robots, Bloomberg notes.

Assured Robots co-founder Xiaolong Wang was formerly a researcher at Nvidia, and Lerrel Pinto co-founded Fauna Robotics, which he left in 2025. Amazon bought Fauna in March 2026.

Meta's robotics team is developing its own hardware for humanoid robots and the AI to power it: this includes various sensors, software and other components that the company intends to make available to other market participants, Bloomberg writes.

Meta's goal is to provide the humanoid robot market with the same platform that Google's Android and Qualcomm chips have become for the smartphone market, Bloomberg wrote in 2025. In other words, Meta wants to become not just a robot manufacturer, but a provider of the fundamental infrastructure for the entire industry.

The emerging sector of humanoid robots has attracted the attention of some of the largest technology companies, including Tesla, Google and Amazon, Bloomberg writes. The market for robots with artificial intelligence and autonomous cars could reach $1 trillion by 2035, Barclays analysts said in February.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk called the Optimus humanoid robot project a key element of the company's long-term strategy. According to the billionaire, in time this business may surpass the automotive business in terms of scale. Investors increasingly see Tesla as an AI company focused on robots and autonomous cars, Barron's wrote. Morgan Stanley noted in late 2025 that Tesla is the only publicly traded U.S. company to have unveiled a working model of a humanoid robot.

Hyundai Automobile Company unveiled in early 2026 the design of the Atlas robot developed by Boston Dynamics, whose controlling stake the Korean automaker acquired for $1.1 billion in 2021. The company plans to start commercial production of this type of robot in 2028

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor