CMeta is building a humanoid robot with a Shanghai company, and the prototype already has a name: Max.
MMeta? The company that just spent a fortune on glasses now wants a robot in your kitchen?
CA one and a half meter, forty-eight kilogram prototype. Reports say they started a second version back in September.
MOkay, that's actually real. The Next Web has the details on Fourier, the Shanghai robotics startup. Not vaporware.
CThe account Techniahqrobot on X posted the roundup. The same post mentions some Trump proclamation, but the bullet got cut off, so we'll skip that.
MTypical aggregation account. One real story, one cliffhanger.
CFair. But Meta and Fourier building a humanoid is the story.
MI'll give it this: Meta's AI stack plus Fourier's hardware. That's a serious combination.
CAnd it puts Meta directly against Tesla's Optimus, Figure, all the names.
MSo the robot wars are real. Wonderful.
CBut a prototype is a prototype. Meta's last hardware pivot didn't exactly set the world on fire.
MDifferent team, different money. And they're not doing this alone; Fourier already builds robots.
CThat's the part I like: they're buying hardware expertise instead of pretending software solves everything.
MExactly. That's why I'm not writing this off.
CSpeaking of names in that race, here's a list that'll start a fight.
MBonduelle on X posted the list that actually worries me: ten people deciding who builds the robot in your house.
CTen people? That's a very specific number.
MThe account claims Figure is valued at thirty-nine billion dollars, Skild at fourteen billion plus. And forty-four thousand people a week film their own chores to train Figure's robots.
CForty-four thousand people filming themselves loading a dishwasher? Either brilliant or insane.
MIt's the future of training data. But here's where I pump the brakes: those numbers aren't confirmed.
CCome on, Figure raised billions. The company has real backing.
MReal backing, yes. But Physical Intelligence is reportedly in funding talks around twenty billion, so that post listing it at eleven is already stale.
CStale by a week. Doesn't mean the whole list is garbage.
MIt means when you post valuations as if they're price tags, you're chasing the latest funding rumor, not a product.
CI'm not saying the companies are garbage. I'm saying the scoreboard is moving too fast to read.
MAnd if nobody actually ships a robot, all those billions are just expensive slide deck.
CYou don't think a robot in every home is worth that? The first company that gets it right changes labor forever.
MI think valuations are not sales. I can love the tech and still say the numbers are unhinged.
CSo what's the right number?
MI don't know, and neither do the people posting it. That's my point.
CFine. You be the fact-checker, I'll be the one excited about robots doing laundry.
MDeal. But if Figure shows up at my door asking me to film my mop, I'm invoicing.
CDifferent angle on the same race. Krosh on X put up a clip of an American humanoid and a Chinese one moving side by side.
MLet me guess, they both do backflips now?
CNot quite. Krosh wrote: 'The winner in this comparison isn't the one who jumps higher.' Then says the gap is in the numbers.
MRight. The US has the fancy demos, China has the factories and the scale.
CThe post points to an Omdia figure around thirteen thousand, but it cuts off what that number counts.
MSo we're left with a mystery stat. Classic.
CIt's still a real point. American companies are raising billions; Chinese ones are already being built at volume.
MMaybe, but until that Omdia stat says thirteen thousand robots in homes instead of thirteen thousand press releases, I'm not calling a winner.
CYou just don't want to admit the US might be behind on hardware.
MI want to admit the market is a bubble with great choreography. Those are different things.
CYou're impossible.
MI'm right. If China wins the home robot market, the reason won't be a video of one jumping higher. It'll be cost.
CAnd if the US wins, it'll be because we built the brain, not just the legs.
MThat's the whole race. Now we watch.