Robotics Meta Just Bought Pinto and Wang's ARI Into Superintelligence Labs — Pitching Itself as 「the Android of Humanoid」 the Same Day 8,000 Get the Layoff Memo
On May 1, Meta acquired Assured Robot Intelligence — the foundation-model humanoid startup founded by NYU's Lerrel Pinto and UCSD's Xiaolong Wang — into Superintelligence Labs. Per Bloomberg, Meta wants to be the Android of the humanoid market. The same May 1, the May 20 layoff calendar invite landed in 8,000 Meta inboxes. The capex line gets the people; the headcount line loses them.