Meta reportedly built humanoid Max with China's Fourier in three months
Meta built a 106-pound humanoid prototype called Max with Shanghai's Fourier in about three months and began a second version in September, The Information reported on Oct 31, citing people familiar with the project.
Meta told the outlet the work is internal research and that it has no plans to sell the units. Neither company has published the robot, and MEKAWIRE read the report through relays, so the details stay unconfirmed.
The American company with the most to say about AI agents in the home has reportedly gone to a Shanghai factory for the body. Meta built a humanoid prototype called Max with China's Fourier in about three months and began a second version in September, The Information reported on Oct 31, citing people familiar with the project. Reuters carried the report and, according to relays of its item, said it could not immediately verify it.
The Information's article is paywalled. MEKAWIRE read the details through the Investing.com summary of it, so every specification below is outlet-reported and unconfirmed. Meta's newsroom had no post on Max on Nov 1, Fourier's website showed no statement, and an SEC full-text search for Fourier and humanoid returned nothing relevant.
What the report says about Max
Max weighs about 106 pounds and stands about 1.5 metres tall, according to the report. It reportedly runs on NVIDIA's Jetson Thor computer and has a display that mimics facial expressions, built-in speakers and five-fingered hands for small objects. Meta's vice president of product for robotics, Li-Chen Miller, reportedly spent almost two months at Fourier's Shanghai factory, and Max was shown to some Meta employees at an internal robotics summit in late August.
Max 2, begun in September, is expected to get a redesigned torso, better hands, a projector and more sensors for stairs, the report said. Meta told The Information that the work is internal research and experimentation and that it has no plans to sell the units. The report also describes humanoids as a possible physical extension of Meta's Muse agent, the product line behind the Muse Wonder models announced on Oct 28.
Max does not match Fourier's catalogue
MEKAWIRE compared the reported figures with the specifications in our robot database. At about 48 kg, Max would be about 32% lighter than Fourier's GR-3 and about 60% heavier than 1X's home humanoid NEO.
- Max
- Meta with Fourier
- About 1.5 m
- About 48 kg (106 lb)
- Outlet-reported
- GR-3
- Fourier
- 1.65 m
- 71 kg
- Company product page
- NEO
- 1X Technologies
- 1.68 m
- 30 kg
- Company specification
106 lb converted at 0.4536 kg per lb. Differences are MEKAWIRE calculations against the 71 kg and 29.94 kg rows in our robot database.
As of Nov 1, 2026
MEKAWIRE analysis
If the report holds, Meta bought speed from Shanghai's supply base, and the awkward part is the American rulebook, not the engineering.
The mass gap suggests Max is not a relabelled GR-3, though the report does not say how much of the body is new. A three-month build ending at the late-August summit would put the start around late May, the month Meta bought the robot-AI startup Assured Robot Intelligence, according to the same report. That date is our inference, not a reported fact.
The timing also ran across Washington's turn against foreign robots. Since July 28 a new foreign-produced advanced robotic device cannot get the FCC authorization it needs to be imported, marketed or sold in the US, as our FCC explainer sets out. On Oct 28 the White House found that robot imports threaten national security, and a 180-day negotiation clock is now running under Section 232. Meta's statement that it will not sell the units keeps Max away from the sales route those rules police. The report, as relayed, does not say where the units are kept or whether any has entered the US.
The counter-argument is that a research prototype proves little, and big companies often commission hardware they never ship. What would change our view is a Meta supplier disclosure, an FCC filing or a Max 2 built outside China.
The next question is where Max 2 gets built.
- The Information, Oct 31, citing people familiar with the project
- Unconfirmed; no Meta or Fourier publication found on Nov 1
- NVIDIA Jetson Thor, per the report
- Max, about 106 pounds and 1.5 metres
- About three months with Fourier
- Max 2, begun in September
- Internal research, no plans to sell the units