Inside Meta’s push to put robots to work in data centers

Robots performing delicate tasks

Meta is testing robots to plug in cables, reset servers, power cycle equipment, and swap networking cables inside its data centers, according to Ars Technica. The work involves robotic arms from vendors such as Watney Robotics, Kinova, and ABB.

One robot being tested is a Kinova Gen3 arm for cutting electricity to servers. Another machine swaps networking cables. One facility has adopted a simpler device shaped like a finger or pointy stick that presses power buttons on devices like Mac Minis when remotely signaled by a human.

A person familiar with past trials told Ars Technica that earlier robots in the industry were expensive and sometimes crushed servers during simple operations, but the hardware has since become cheaper and more capable.

A push for automation

Ars Technica's sources, who asked to remain anonymous, said the effort could let Meta run its expanding data centers with fewer people, controlling labor costs as it spends heavily on artificial intelligence infrastructure. One data center worker estimated a successful cable-swapping robot could handle up to 80% of some employees' workloads.

Eric Xu, Meta's senior manager for robotics, said at a conference last year that the company's long-term goals include putting robots in data centers to speed incident response, monitor environments, and handle preventative maintenance. 'We have to start, otherwise we don’t have a chance to do this,' he said.

Meta's spokesperson, Francis Brennan, told Ars Technica the company is investing heavily in training and hiring data center workers, citing a major shortage of skilled labor in the U.S. infrastructure boom. 'We need more workers, not fewer,' he said.

2 independent outlets filed 3 reports over 16 days.

The engine identifies two strong, opposing forces behind Meta's move. First is an intense cost pressure: massive energy consumption forecasts for data centers are pushing the company to find ways to control runaway expenses. This gives the robotic effort strategic importance beyond simple automation.

Second is a high exploration drive, which means Meta is actively testing robots on technician tasks because the potential payoff in cost control justifies the research and development investment. Their push is a defensive maneuver against infrastructure costs.

However, high 'adaptive decay' creates significant friction. This represents the organizational drag from existing vendor contracts, trained workforce practices, and legacy processes. For robots to succeed, Meta must be willing to let these old operational models decay.

Given these forces, the engine's most likely path, at a 45% probability, is limited, niche integration by September 2026. This would settle as confirmed if independent reporting shows robots deployed only for narrow, repetitive tasks like swapping drives or patching cables, failing to achieve broader automation.

Transformational success, where robots become integral to widespread data center automation, is a less likely outcome at 30% by the same 2026 horizon. It would require early wins to build sufficient momentum to overcome the organizational friction and cost constraints.

The engine assigns a 25% probability to outright failure and abandonment by September 2026. This would be confirmed if robots prove impractical or too costly, leading to project cancellation. The high cost of being wrong at scale makes this a significant possibility.

• 45%Resolves YES if, by 2026-09-29 (UTC), at least two independent sources of the kind already tracked on this narrative report that limited, niche integration — specifically: Robots are deployed for a narrow set of repetitive, predefined tasks like swapping disk drives and patching cables, but fail to achieve broader data center automation.. Resolves NO if the horizon passes without such reporting. Resolves VOID if the underlying question stops being answerable (for example the event is cancelled or superseded).#276d9ff28b2a
• 30%Resolves YES if, by 2026-09-29 (UTC), at least two independent sources of the kind already tracked on this narrative report that transformational success — specifically: Robots become integral to data center operations, achieving widespread automation of maintenance, optimization, and energy management tasks across Meta's infrastructure.. Resolves NO if the horizon passes without such reporting. Resolves VOID if the underlying question stops being answerable (for example the event is cancelled or superseded).#e42c914c9483
• 25%Resolves YES if, by 2026-09-29 (UTC), at least two independent sources of the kind already tracked on this narrative report that outright failure and abandonment — specifically: Robotic systems prove impractical or cost-ineffective for data center environments, leading to project cancellation or indefinite shelving.. Resolves NO if the horizon passes without such reporting. Resolves VOID if the underlying question stops being answerable (for example the event is cancelled or superseded).#6c648c4858f7

The engine calculates that the most probable future is a pragmatic one where robots handle specific, repetitive jobs, not a full-scale automation revolution. This outcome balances Meta's high exploration drive against the immense cost pressures and organizational friction.

The stakes are high because success in broader automation could reshape how the company manages its physical infrastructure costs. The story remains provisional; watch for concrete evidence of specific tasks robots can reliably perform in live data centers to gauge which branch is materializing.