Meta has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI), a startup building foundation models that let humanoid robots understand and adapt to human behavior, folding the team into its Superintelligence Labs research division. Co-founders Xiaolong Wang (formerly Nvidia / UC San Diego) and Lerrel Pinto (formerly NYU / Fauna Robotics, which Amazon acquired in March 2026) bring expertise in robot control and whole-body humanoid locomotion. The deal reflects a widening industry view that grounding AI in physical-world interaction may be necessary for AGI; terms were not disclosed.