Meta has built a prototype humanoid robot with Shanghai-based robotics startup Fourier in about three months and has already started work on a second version, The Information reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the project. The prototype, internally named Max, weighs about 106 pounds and stands roughly 1.5 meters tall.
Max runs on Nvidia's Jetson Thor chip. It has a display that can mimic facial expressions, built-in speakers, and five-fingered hands built to handle small objects. Meta showed the robot to some employees at an internal robotics summit in late August.
Development of Max 2 began in September. The second version is expected to get a redesigned torso, improved hands, a projector, and additional sensors to help it navigate stairs.
Key facts
- 01Meta built humanoid prototype Max with Shanghai-based Fourier in about three months, The Information reported Oct. 31.
- 02Max weighs about 106 pounds, stands roughly 1.5 meters tall and runs on Nvidia's Jetson Thor chip.
- 03Work on Max 2 began in September, adding a redesigned torso, better hands, a projector and stair-navigation sensors.
- 04Li-Chen Miller, Meta's VP of product for robotics, spent almost two months at Fourier's Shanghai factory.
- 05Meta says the work is internal research and experimentation and it has no plans to sell the units.
Meta's robotics team did the work in China alongside Fourier. Li-Chen Miller, Meta's vice president of product for robotics, spent almost two months at Fourier's factory in Shanghai during the build.
Meta sees humanoid robots as a possible physical extension of Muse, its AI agent, with a long-term goal of having them help with household tasks. The company told The Information that the Fourier work is focused on "internal research and experimentation" and that it has no plans to sell the units.
The prototype builds on a robotics effort Meta has been assembling inside Reality Labs. A February 2025 internal memo from CTO Andrew Bosworth described a robotics group there aimed at "consumer humanoid robots" that would maximize the capabilities of Meta's Llama platform. Marc Whitten, the former CEO of Cruise, was hired to lead it. In May, Meta acquired Assured Robot Intelligence, a startup developing AI models that help robots understand and adapt to human behavior.
Fourier was founded in 2015 and started out building rehabilitation exoskeletons before unveiling its GR-1 humanoid in 2023.
Neither Meta nor Fourier has published an announcement, specifications, or images of Max. The robot's cost and how the engineering work was split between the two companies have not been disclosed. Tesla with Optimus, Nvidia-backed Figure AI, and OpenAI are among the other companies building humanoid robots.
The report arrived a day after S&P Global moved Meta's credit rating outlook to negative over the company's AI spending.
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