Meta secretly built a humanoid robot in China in just three months

Meta looks serious about robots. Working with Shanghai robot maker Fourier, the company built a humanoid prototype codenamed Max, and the whole thing took about three months. People familiar with the project described it today. Meta has not shown the robot publicly and says it has no plans to sell these units.

Max reportedly stands just under five feet tall and weighs about 106 pounds. It runs on an Nvidia Jetson Thor chip, has expressive eyes and a mouth, and its five-fingered hands can pick up small objects. To move fast, Meta's robotics vice president spent nearly two months on site at Fourier's Shanghai factory.

CTO Andrew Bosworth reportedly sees humanoids as a physical body for Meta's Muse AI agent, the same assistant Meta is building glasses and an AI pendant around. The idea is a robot that handles everyday chores at home.

A second prototype, Max 2, is already in the works, with better hands, extra sensors for climbing stairs and a built-in projector. Meta is also hiring in China for roles that run from prototype builds to mass production, which sits a little oddly next to "internal research only".

There is no official announcement and nobody has independently confirmed the story yet. But if it holds up, Meta is now coming for your home from three directions at once: glasses, a pendant and a robot that brings you your coffee.