A geometric formalism is developed which allows to describe the non-linear regime of higher-spin gravity emerging on a cosmological quantum space-time in the IKKT matrix model. The vacuum solutions are Ricci-flat up to an effective vacuum energy-momentum tensor quadratic in the torsion, which arises from a Weitzenböck-type higher spin connection. Torsion is expected to be significant only at cosmic scales and around very massive objects, and could behave like dark matter. A non-linear equation for the torsion tensor is found, which encodes the Yang-Mills equations of the matrix model. The metric and torsion transform covariantly under a higher-spin generalization of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms, which arises from the gauge invariance of the matrix model. known as UV/IR mixing [2][3][4]. They cancel only in the maximally supersymmetric IKKT matrix model [5], which should thus have the best chance to describe physics, leading to an unexpected link with string theory. However, it is not obvious how to obtain gravity from Yang-Mills-type matrix models such as the IKKT model. There are intriguing hints such as non-local gauge transformations and Ricci-flat propagating metric fluctuations [6][7][8], but the presence of an anti-symmetric tensor θ µν in space-time leads to a dangerous breaking of Lorentz invariance. This problem can be overcome by considering a higher-spin generalization, where θ µν is replaced by a twisted bundle of such tensors over space-time. This is realized in a simple solution of the IKKT model with a mass term interpreted as cosmological FLRW space-time M, based on the doubleton representations of so(4, 2) [9, 10], cf. [11]. It leads to a higher spin gauge theory which is invariant under a higher spin generalization of volume-preserving diffeomorphisms, ghost-free at the linearized level, and includes spin 2 gravitons. A linearized Schwarzschild-like solution was also found [12]. The theory has intriguing structural similarities with Vasilievs higherspin gravity [13,14], but also crucial differences 2 : it is defined through an action, both IR and UV scale parameters are present, and there are 5 propagating metric modes which could be interpreted as "would-be massive" gravitons. In the present paper, we study that higher-spin theory at the non-linear level. This is not straightforward because the model is of Yang-Mills type, there is no Einstein-Hilbert action, and everything is based on Poisson brackets (or commutators). The gauge symmetry corresponds to generalized diffeomorphisms rather than local Lorentz transformations 3 , hence it is not some reformulation of GR in the spirit of MacDowell-Mansouri [23]. A more appropriate approach can be found in a paper by Langmann and Szabo (LS) [24], who pointed out that a dimensional reduction of a gauge theory in 8-dimensional phase space with suitable constraints can be interpreted in terms of 4-dimensional teleparallel gravity through torsion. Although their setup does not provide a complete theory, a similar strategy provides a geometric unders...