CMeta doesn't want to just show you ads anymore—it wants to put a robot in your kitchen.
MThe Next Web says Meta teamed up with a Shanghai firm called Fourier to build a humanoid named Max.
CAnd work on a second version started in September. That's product cadence.
MIt's still a prototype. Meta enters every hardware race late and then quietly kills it.
CThat's not fair. Quest headsets, Ray-Bans. They ship.
MName one Meta humanoid you can buy.
CThe point is they're building the software and the body at the same time with a real manufacturer.
MWhich is smart, but I want to know if Max does dishes or just walks across a stage.
CTechniahqrobot on X listed it among the week's bigger updates. I'd say it's real movement.
MThe prototype exists, and a second version started in September. That much checks out.
CSo Meta isn't just watching from the sidelines.
MThey're in the arena, maybe in the cheap seats.
CHarsh.
MI like the manufacturing play. Fourier already builds humanoids, so Meta brings AI and distribution.
CThat's exactly why it matters. China has the factories, America has the foundation models.
MBut I'll believe Max is coming to your house when there's a price and a return policy.
MA list on X from Bonduelle says ten people are deciding who builds the robot that will live in your house.
CIt names Brett Adcock at Figure and Deepak Pathak at Skild AI. I see the point.
MThe list throws around big valuations and crowd-sourced chore numbers, but those aren't solid.
CEven if the exact numbers are off, the concentration is real. A few founders and investors are choosing the winners.
MI'm less bothered by that. Founders should call the shots.
CBut when only a handful of people decide, you get groupthink. Every VC funds the same walking-torso demo.
MNo— Figure's actually trying to ship to factories. Skild is building a general-purpose brain, not a demo.
CI didn't say they're frauds. I said the selection is narrow.
MIt's always narrow at the start. Cars, phones, rockets all started with ten people.
CExcept now the robot might live in your house, know your schedule, watch your kids.
MThat's all the more reason the decision should sit with engineers, not a government committee.
CI'm not asking for a bureaucrat. I'm asking for more than two names on a list.
MThen help me name another American company that looks like it'll ship a humanoid this year.
CTesla keeps saying Optimus. Whether it ships is a whole other question.
MOptimus just walked slower than my grandmother at the factory tour. Mostly.
CYou did not just say that.
MThe point stands. Figure and maybe Fourier. That's the field.
CI think the list misses Chinese companies entirely. They're likely ahead on cost and scale.
MA comparison video this week shows an American humanoid and a Chinese one. Both move fine.
CThe post says the gap isn't in movement, it's in the numbers.
MExactly. Demos are equal, scale is where the race is won.
CI'd still bet on American software and Chinese hardware.
MThat combination is the whole Meta-Fourier play. Maybe the national line is already gone.
CHere's a sharper take from ElinaNotes on X: the race isn't about demos anymore.
MShe says it's about AI intelligence, manufacturing scale, and reliability.
CAnd she breaks it into three approaches. Figure is betting on the brain with its Helix model.
MI think Skild is the underrated one: general-purpose physical intelligence, not one robot.
CBut a general-purpose brain is the hardest problem in robotics. Easy to say, brutal to ship.
MIt's also the only thing that survives if hardware becomes a commodity.
CMaybe. I still think the company that owns the factory wins first.
MThat's the Chinese play: fine movement, cheap parts, huge volumes.
CAmerica can't out-scale Chinese EV makers at building motors.
MBut America can own the model that tells every robot what to do.
CSo we're back to Meta and Fourier: one side brings the brain, the other the factory.
MAnd maybe that's the first honest robot partnership: nobody pretends one company can do it all.
CFine. I just want one of them to do laundry before my kids learn to do dishes.
MYour kids will unionize before that happens.
COnly if the robot gives them ideas.