Meta built 'Max' humanoid prototype with China's Fourier in about three months

Per Business Insider's summary of The Information's report, Max stands about 1.5 meters, weighs about 106 pounds and uses NVIDIA's Jetson Thor compute module. Fourier, a Shanghai-based humanoid maker, partnered on the hardware, which explains the speed: around three months from start to working prototype. A second prototype is reportedly underway.

Strategically, Meta is pursuing robotics without becoming a hardware manufacturer:

- It pairs Llama foundation models, for spatial reasoning and agentic control, with third-party bodies.

- That mirrors how it treats AR/VR silicon partners.

- It keeps capital focused on AI compute: Meta's 2026 capex plan runs $135–145B.

The Fourier partnership will draw scrutiny. It is a US tech giant prototyping with a Chinese robotics company while Washington tightens controls on AI hardware and on Chinese involvement in sensitive technology. Competitively, Tesla's Optimus, Figure, Agility and Google DeepMind's robotics models are all racing for the 'robot brain' layer. Meta's open-model distribution could make Llama the default for hardware makers without in-house AI.

The financial backdrop is shaky. S&P recently revised Meta's outlook to negative, citing an AI monetization lag and a possible 2027 funding shortfall, so investors will ask how robotics earns money. On Reddit, robotics enthusiasm is tempered by skepticism over consumer humanoids, including a r/singularity thread on a controversial companion robot debuting November 3. Watch for whether Meta formalizes a Llama robotics SDK or names additional hardware partners.