I don’t know if you remember last year’s video at the Chinese New Year Gala where Unitree robots were trying to do a folk dance.
They were staggering as if they had been drinking something, their arms were stiff, and it seemed that they were going to fall to the ground at any moment. Everyone shared it on social networks, and we laughed, but little else…
In just one year, those same robots have honestly wiped the smile off my face.
On February 16, at the same gala, watched by more than 700 million viewers, twelve Unitree robots did kung fu. Real kung fu. Flips three meters off the ground, jumps over tables, nunchucks, swords, alongside human masters of martial arts, synchronized, at four meters per second.
One year. That’s all that’s passed between “it’s wobbly” and “this is a little scary”.
The gala that turned into a technological showcase
This Spring Festival gala is not just anything. It is the biggest TV event in China, you could say it is like the American Super Bowl.
In it, four robotics companies: Unitree, Noetix, MagicLab and Galbot, spent between them about 14 million dollars to participate. And when nearly 700 million people are watching you, it’s definitely worth the investment.
Unitree was the main protagonist on that occasion. What their H1 and H2 robots did was the first autonomous martial arts performance with coordinated group robots in history. It sounds like a marketing phrase, but the technology behind it is real: a system that combines pre-trained motion models with AI localization using 3D LiDAR. Basically, each robot knows where the others are and coordinates itself.
What caught my attention when I read about this in Global Times is that they say the motion accuracy exceeds that of an average human. I don’t know if that’s exactly the case or if there’s some hype, but watching the video… It’s hard to argue with that.
Wang Xingxing and how Unitree ate up the market
Unitree’s story has something of those startup stories that sound like something out of a Hollywood movie. Wang Xingxing founded it in 2016 in Hangzhou, making four-legged robots like those of Boston Dynamics but at much lower cost. At the time, no one paid much attention to them.
And now it turns out that they are selling the most humanoid robots worldwide. More than 5,500 in 2025, a third of everything sold globally, according to IDC. This year they are aiming for 10,000 to 20,000 units.
Their financial numbers are not bad either: they have a turnover of more than 140 million dollars and have been profitable since 2020. Behind them are Tencent, Alibaba, Ant Group, China Mobile. And now they are preparing the IPO in Shanghai. There is talk of a $7 billion valuation. Not bad for a company that started ten years ago, making robotic puppies.
Price is what changes everything
There is one fact that changes everything: the Unitree G1 costs $13,500, less than a proper second-hand car, less than half the price of a new car in Spain.
And it turns out it’s not a toy, it’s a humanoid robot with 23 degrees of freedom, NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX processor, 100 TOPS of computing power, 3D LiDAR sensor and Intel RealSense camera. If you told me five years ago that it would cost the same as a Dacia Sandero… I don’t believe it.
The range goes further. The R1 for education starts at $8,990. The G1 in versions ranging up to $73,900. The H1 and H2 for research are between $29,900 and $128,900. And Bank of America says in a recent report that the cost of manufacturing a humanoid will drop to between $13,000 and $17,000 in ten years. What is now the cheap version will become the standard.
Tesla and the eternal promise of Optimus
And of course, this is where someone is going to ask me: what about Elon Musk? What about Optimus? Wasn’t he going to revolutionize everything?
As of today, Tesla has about 1,000 Optimus units. Running internally in their factories sorting batteries. No retail, no specific date. Musk is talking $20,000-30,000 when ready, and analysts say maybe late 2027. Maybe….
What is a fact: China controls 90% of the global humanoid robot market right now. Ninety percent. Unitree and Agibot, with 5,168 units sold, dominate this market. And there’s more behind all this.
The year-on-year market growth was 508% in 2025 with about 18,000 units. It is still small, but that curve reminds me, and a lot, of what happened with smartphones between 2007 and 2010. A “small” market that suddenly exploded.
They are already working in real factories
This is where it stops being theory and becomes reality.
BMW has humanoid robots in testing in South Carolina. Not to make pretty demos – to do tasks with fine dexterity that an industrial robotic arm can’t. Apptronik put its Apollo robot in Mercedes-Benz plants in Europe. In China, BYD and Geely, the electric car giants, already use Unitree robots in production.
Amazon has Digit from Agility Robotics in its warehouses, loading containers. There are rehabilitation centers testing humanoids as therapist assistants.
How far will this go? Deloitte ventures that, in 25 years, the humanoid market will be twice the size of the automobile market. That’s a wild figure, I grant you. But when you look at the trajectory – pilots now, commercial deployment between 2028 and 2032, real autonomy in the 30s – it starts to not sound so crazy.
Boston Dynamics enters a whole new league
I don’t want to finish without mentioning Boston Dynamics. At CES, they presented the electric Atlas: 56 degrees of freedom, 2.3 meters of reach, 50 kg of load capacity. Impressive in itself.
But what really struck me was the partnership with Google DeepMind to integrate Gemini Robotics. Boston Dynamics’ mechanics—they’ve been at this for decades—with Google’s AI. Robots that understand what you say to them and make decisions on the fly in real environments. Now that’s another level.
My personal reading of all this
I’ve been following the robotics world for a long time, and I don’t remember ever feeling anything like this. No doubt, this is a tipping point; it’s real. Humanoid robots are commercial products, industrial customers, and applications that work. Prices are dropping at full speed, and what these robots can do has changed dramatically in just twelve months.
This is the best visual example there is. China manufactures and sells, the U.S. researches and innovates in AI, and both are putting a lot of money into it. The G1 costs the same as a used car. It is the best-selling humanoid on the planet. In a couple of years, we will see whether this all scales up as many of us predict or stays more niche. My money is on it scaling up.
I’m sure we’re going to have to ask ourselves questions that we don’t even ask ourselves right now: are you more curious or more respectful to see how these robots advance? Because for me, honestly, I like a little bit of both. And another question on my mind: who do you think is going to win this race, China with Unitree or Tesla with Optimus?
Leave me your bet in the comments
Good week!
Sources: CNN, CNBC, Global Times, Al Jazeera, Tech Startups, CCTV, Caproasia, Bank of America Institute, IDC, Deloitte, Rest of World, Robozaps, BotInfo.ai
