(Bloomberg) – Meta Platforms Inc. (META) has identified the next big bet after pushing into augmented reality and artificial intelligence. A humanoid robot equipped with AI.
The company has invested heavily in this category – futuristic robots that behave like humans and can assist with physical tasks – working within the real-life lab hardware department, according to people with knowledge of the problem We are forming a new team to carry out the project.
Meta will be working with its own humanoid robot hardware, which initially focuses on housework. Its big ambition is to create AI, sensors and software that will be the basis for robots manufactured and sold by various companies, said those who called for the initiative not to be identified because the announcement has not been announced.
Meta has begun discussing plans with robotics companies such as Unitree Robotics and Figure AI Inc. At least initially, there are no plans to build Metabrand robots. This could be directly comparable to Tesla Inc.’s Optimus, but consider doing so in the future, people added.
Humanoid efforts reflect other tech giants exploration projects, such as Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google Deepmind Division. A Meta spokesman declined to comment.
Mehta confirmed with employees on Friday that the new team will be founded, and reported that it will be led by Mark Witten, who resigned as chief executive of General Motors’ cruise autonomous vehicle division earlier this month. He was previously an executive at Gaming Company Unity Software Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
“The core technologies we have already invested in and built in reality labs and AI complement the development of the advances needed in robotics,” said Andrew Bosworth, chief technology officer at Meta. This is written in a note reviewed by Bloomberg News. He mentioned the company’s advances in low bandwidth, hand tracking with always-on sensors, and computing.
Meta executives believe that while humanoid robot companies are making progress in hardware, Meta’s artificial intelligence advances and data collected from expanded virtual reality devices can accelerate early industrial advances. Masu. Current humanoids can fold clothes, carry a glass of water, place plates on racks, clean other household chores that can be interested in the category of consumers, or plates on plates on plates It’s not as useful as it would be to put it on.
“We believe that expanding our portfolio to investments in this sector will only bring value to meta AI and mixed and expanded reality programs,” Bosworth writes. Reporting to Bosworth, Witten will acquire personnel this year to hire about 100 engineers, one of the people said.
The goal of Meta is to provide what Google’s Android operating system and Qualcomm Inc. chips have done to the phone industry by building the foundation for the rest of the market.
According to one of the people involved in the project, the software, sensors and computing packages Meta is already developing for the devices are the same technology needed to run humanoids.
Meta has long invested billions of dollars in the reality lab hardware division, which sells products such as Quest VR headsets and the increasingly popular Ray-Ban smart glasses. Meta is expected to spend $65 billion this year on related products, including artificial intelligence infrastructure and new robotics work.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., says his company’s Optimus Robot will eventually be sold to consumers and could cost around $30,000. Tesla has begun production restricted this year. Other businesses are also moving forward. Boston Dynamics, for example, is already offering products to the market for warehouse automation. While some companies focus on selling to businesses and manufacturers, Meta’s intention is to sell to homes.
Humanoids are the evolution of the working companies that have been carried out in self-driving cars. It uses similar underlying technology, requiring a large amount of data and AI processing. But it’s not safe – rather than travelling 50 mph on open roads, they roam people’s houses, but Meta executives say that every person’s house has a different layout and the city streets are We believe that humanoids are more challenging because they are fairly standardized.
Meta will build some of its own hardware, use off-the-shelf components and work with existing manufacturers as soon as possible, people with knowledge of the project said. They added that building prototypes and hardware to test prior to platform deployment is important, even if the meta itself does not ultimately release branded products.
The company is pitching its job as a platform for choice for robot development, one of the people added that the goal is to make Meta’s llama software the foundation for robotics researchers around the world.
Meta also seeks to develop tools for robot safety, addressing the dangers of actuators and human hands caught up in other parts of humanoid robots. There are also issues related to power safety. For example, how to stop the task central function if the robot is turned off.
The official push to humanoid robots is new to the meta, but the company’s fair, or basic AI research group, has been exploring and publishing papers on robotics work for several months. Apple recently began publishing AI papers related to robotics work.
One person with knowledge of the project said that Meta believes it is several years away from the fact that humanoids are still widely available. But that will become a big focus for the meta and the broader tech industry, the person said.
©2025 Bloomberg LP
