Shanghai's Fourier now builds humanoid hardware for a top US AI spender, showing Chinese robot makers can win foreign design work while US rules restrict Chinese robot imports.
Meta has built a humanoid robot prototype with Shanghai robot maker Fourier and has started work on a second version, The Information reported on October 31, citing people familiar with the project. The two companies built the robot, known internally as Max, in about three months, according to reports by The Next Web and others that cite The Information. Max stands about 1.5 meters tall, weighs roughly 48 kilograms and runs on Nvidia’s Jetson Thor chip. Meta told The Information the work is for internal research and that it has no plans to sell the units.
The report gives the clearest view yet of how Meta is turning its robotics ambitions into hardware. Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, has described humanoids internally as a physical body for Muse, the company’s consumer AI agent, according to Humanoids Daily. The company wants robots that can help with housework and daily tasks.
For Fourier, the project puts a Chinese humanoid maker inside the product development of a major US technology company. What is not known is the commercial shape of the arrangement: none of the reports gives financial terms, and none includes a comment from Fourier.
Max was built on Fourier hardware to Meta’s specifications
Meta’s vice president of robotics product, Li-Chen Miller, spent almost two months at Fourier’s Shanghai factory working on the prototype. Meta showed Max to some employees at an internal robotics summit in late August, the reports said.
The robot has a face that shows expressions through its eyes and mouth, two speakers in its chest and five-fingered hands that can pick up small bottles and toys. Meta’s design requirements included hearing a voice from five meters away, recognizing a wave or gesture from three meters, holding eye contact and signaling whether the robot is listening, thinking, speaking or unsure, Humanoids Daily reported. According to Zhidx (智东西), in a report published on NetEase, the companies changed the height, body proportions, head, display and cameras of Fourier’s base design and added hands and shoes.
Max is a customized platform rather than a rebadged Fourier product. Fourier’s own GR-3, a companion "care-bot," stands about 1.65 meters tall, weighs about 71 kilograms and offers up to 55 degrees of freedom, according to Humanoids Daily. Fourier was founded in 2015 in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang area and makes the GR-1, GR-2 and GR-3 humanoids, a wheeled dual-arm robot and dexterous hands, Zhidx reported.
Meta’s robotics push leans on Chinese supply while Washington tightens robot rules
Work on Max 2 began in September. The planned changes include a redesigned torso, better hands for manipulation, a built-in projector and extra sensors to help the robot climb stairs. Meta is also recruiting supplier development engineers in Shanghai and product design engineers and technical project managers in Shenzhen, Zhidx reported, roles associated with moving hardware from prototype toward production.
A Meta spokesperson also addressed the China connection, saying that sourcing parts that are difficult to obtain domestically is a reality the whole industry faces, according to DigitalToday. The project sits awkwardly with US policy. In July, the FCC moved against new Chinese humanoid and quadruped robots, as EastFrontier reported when the regulator banned imports of new Chinese humanoid robots. Meta’s statement that the units are only for internal research keeps the prototypes outside the commercial channels those rules target.
Meta has backed its robotics push with acquisitions and capital. In May, Meta bought Assured Robot Intelligence, a San Diego startup that builds AI software for robots, and its team joined Meta Superintelligence Labs, The Next Web reported. Nvidia agreed in late October to invest US$3 billion in Meta’s share offering and to expand the two companies’ work on Muse, The Next Web reported separately.
A consumer product is not scheduled, and a Fourier disclosure would add detail
Meta has not set a launch date for a humanoid product, one of the sources told The Information. If it does try to sell humanoids to consumers, it will face established competition: Tesla’s Optimus is in its third generation, Figure is testing robots in homes and 1X is taking preorders for its NEO robot, Zhidx noted. Chinese companies are already producing humanoids in volume.
Fourier stands to gain credibility from the work whether or not Meta ships a product. Its humanoids are designed for close contact with people in homes, rehabilitation and elder care, the same setting Meta has in mind for Max.
The next concrete signals would be Max 2 appearing at a Meta event or in a regulatory filing, or Fourier confirming the partnership and its terms. A shift in Meta’s position from internal research to a product plan would also raise the question of how a Chinese-built robot would clear US import rules.