Meta built a humanoid prototype with China's Fourier in three months, The Information reports

Meta Platforms has built a prototype humanoid robot with Chinese robot maker Fourier and is already working on a second version, The Information reported on Oct. 31, citing people familiar with the initiative. The two companies built the robot, which weighs roughly 106 pounds and is known inside Meta as Max, in three months. Its job is to help Meta's robotics unit develop a more polished robot it could eventually release as a product, one of the people said; no launch target has been set.

Fourier solved Meta's speed problem, not its supply problem. A Chinese partner got a US platform company a working body in one quarter. A home robot that Meta sold in the US with a Chinese maker behind it, though, would be a new model of Chinese robot, and the Federal Communications Commission barred imports of new models of Chinese robots in July, Reuters reported; the rule still lets existing humanoid and quadruped models in. The second version is where Meta has to show who builds the robot.

Meta first planned to supply other robot makers

When Bloomberg revealed the group in February 2025, Meta set it up inside its Reality Labs hardware division under Marc Whitten, the former CEO of Cruise, TechCrunch reported. The plan then was not a Meta-branded robot, at least at first: executives including CTO Andrew Bosworth saw a chance to build a foundation for the rest of the robotics market, as Android did for smartphones, and Meta was in talks with Unitree and Figure AI about partnering on prototypes. Max points somewhere narrower: a body Meta can iterate on, aimed at a product of its own.

Fourier brings a care robot to the work. Its GR-3, introduced in August 2025 and shown at CES in January, is the company's first full-size "Care-bot," built for conversation, touch and companionship, according to Fourier.

LG took the same shortcut for CES 2026. With about six months to prepare, it had AgiBot build about 20 CLOiD robots, then handed the work to Robostar, and it now builds them itself in Seoul, ZDNet Korea reported on Oct. 31. Meta is at LG's first step, and it got there in three months against LG's six.