Meta has built a prototype humanoid robot with Chinese robotics company Fourier in about three months, and the two are already working on a second version. Jyoti Mann reported the project for The Information on Saturday, citing people familiar with it. The robot is known inside Meta as Max and weighs about 48kg (106 pounds).

Meta told The Information that the work with Fourier is for internal research and experimentation, and that it has no plans to sell the units. TNW has not independently verified the report.

What the Meta humanoid can do

Max stands about 1.5 metres tall and runs on Nvidia’s Jetson Thor chip, according to The Information. It has a screen that mimics facial expressions, built-in speakers and five-fingered hands for picking up small objects.

Meta’s robotics team travelled to China to work with Fourier. Li-Chen Miller, Meta’s vice president of product for robotics, spent almost two months at Fourier’s factory in Shanghai, the report said. Meta then showed Max to some staff at an internal robotics summit in late August.

Work on Max 2 began in September. It is due to get a new torso, better hands, a projector and extra sensors to help it handle stairs.

A body for Muse

Meta sees humanoids as a physical form for Muse, its AI agent, and hopes they can do household tasks, The Information reported. Nvidia, whose chip runs Max, agreed this week to invest $3bn in Meta and expand their work on Muse.

Meta has been building up its robotics team. In May it bought Assured Robot Intelligence, a San Diego start-up that makes AI software for robots. Its team joined Meta Superintelligence Labs, home to the group that leads Meta’s humanoid work, Maria Deutscher reported for SiliconANGLE.

Fourier is based in Shanghai. In August 2025 it unveiled GR-3, a 165cm humanoid it calls a “care-bot”. It is built as a companion, for example for older adults.

A crowded field

Meta joins a long list of companies chasing home and factory humanoids. Tesla has started building Optimus robots, and Agility’s Digit 5 humanoid will run on Nvidia hardware. In China, rival maker Unitree is working on AI that lets its robots improve themselves.

Meta has not set a launch date for a humanoid product, one of The Information’s sources said.