Meta Built a Humanoid Robot Prototype Called Max to Give Muse a Body, Report Says
The Information reports Meta built a humanoid prototype with Shanghai-based Fourier in about three months and has started work on a second version,…
By Icarus3 min read
Meta built a humanoid robot prototype in about three months with Shanghai-based robotics company Fourier, and the two companies have already started work on a second version, according to a report from The Information. The robot, known internally as Max, is the company’s first detailed step toward giving its Muse personal agent a physical body.
The Information’s report, published November 1 and based on people familiar with the project, describes Max as roughly 1.5 meters tall and about 48 kilograms, running on Nvidia’s Jetson Thor chip. It has five-fingered hands designed to grip small objects, built-in speakers, and a display for a face that can mimic human expressions. Reuters carried the report but said it could not independently verify it.
Max was shown to a group of Meta employees at an internal robotics summit in late August. According to the report, Meta set specific requirements for how the robot should read a home environment: it can recognize human voices from 5 meters away, interpret gestures or waving from 3 meters away, maintain eye contact, and signal its state (listening, thinking, speaking, or uncertainty) through status cues.
Meta robotics vice president Li-Chen Miller spent close to two months at Fourier’s factory in Shanghai working with the company’s team on the prototype, the report said. Work on Max 2 began in September, with a redesigned torso, improved hands for manipulating objects, a projector, and additional sensors to help it navigate stairs.
A Meta spokesperson told The Information that the Fourier collaboration is focused on internal research and experimentation, and that the company has no plans to sell the robots. Meta has disclosed no launch date for any consumer product.
Why a robot, and why now
Inside Meta, the robot is framed as the physical form of Muse. Chief technology officer Andrew Bosworth has described humanoid robots internally as the “physical embodiment” of the company’s consumer AI agent, and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has described Max in similar terms. Muse already acts on users’ behalf on screens (shopping, booking, filling in forms), and a body would let it take on household chores a phone-bound agent cannot, like loading a dishwasher or fetching an item from another room.
Meta set up a dedicated humanoid robotics team inside Reality Labs in early 2025, and Bosworth announced the effort in a February 2025 internal memo. Max is the first concrete hardware to emerge from that team in public reporting.
The timing also connects to Meta’s infrastructure bets. Nvidia announced a $3 billion equity investment in Meta on October 27 as part of a broader partnership covering work on Muse models and agents, and Max runs on Nvidia’s Jetson Thor chip, the same hardware line Meta is deploying across its next generation of AI infrastructure.
The China complication
The Fourier partnership carries a complication Meta has not resolved publicly. Fourier is a Chinese company operating under Chinese law, and the United States government has formally determined that Chinese-made humanoid robots pose unacceptable national security risks. Rather than designing key hardware components itself, Meta leaned on Fourier’s existing technology and manufacturing expertise, a shortcut that also creates dependence on a Chinese partner in an area with significant security implications.
For now, the company distinguishes research from product. Max and Max 2 are prototypes, and Meta says it has no plans to sell either. The open question is whether the research program produces a consumer robot at all, or on what timeline. The report answers neither.
The robot exists, a second version is underway, and Meta has not said publicly how a household machine built with a Shanghai partner fits the security scrutiny attached to Chinese-made humanoids.
Source reporting: The Information, via Reuters and Notebookcheck.
