Meet Unitree Robotics: The star of the first-ever World Humanoid Robot Games
Aug. 30, 2025 7:00 AM ET
By: Clark Schultz, SA News Editor
The inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games were held in Beijing earlier in the month. The event featured athletic challenges (such as track, football, and boxing), cognitive tests, and artistic performances, all designed to measure the agility, intelligence, and human-like traits of next-generation humanoid robots.
While the event showed the challenges of humanoid robotics in some viral moments, Unitree Robotics impressed industry watchers and largely dominated the headlines for its consistent performance in sporting events and dance. The company won 11 medals, including four golds. Its flagship H1 humanoid robot set records in the 400-meter dash, 1,500-meter race, 100-meter hurdles, and the 4×100-meter relay.
Unitree Robotics was founded in 2016 by Wang Xingxing, a robotics engineer whose early work focused on developing affordable and agile legged robots, starting with the XDog prototype during his graduate studies at Shanghai University. The company quickly gained attention for its quadruped robots and its stated goal to offer advanced robotics at a fraction of the cost of Western competitors.
 Unitree Robotics
Looking ahead, by 2026, Unitree expects a significant leap in humanoid robot performance, especially in perception, comprehension, and ability to perform useful tasks. The goal is for general-purpose robots that can serve across domains, not just in demonstrations or limited scenarios.
Unitree Robotics' largest shareholder is founder Wang Xingxing. Meituan ( OTCPK:MPNGF) is the second-largest shareholder with approximately 8.24%. Notable investors also include the state-owned Beijing Robot Industry Fund and Shoucheng Holdings. Tencent ( OTCPK:TCEHY), Alibaba ( BABA), ByteDance ( BDNCE), Ant Group, Geely ( OTCPK:GELYF), and China Mobile all participated in the most recent Series C round as key investors. Notably, Unitree Robotics began the early process for a potential initial public offering in China earlier this year.
The main players in humanoid robotics include Unitree Robotics, Tesla ( TSLA) Figure AI (BMW is an investor), Boston Dynamics (majority owned by Hyundai (HYMTF)), Agility Robotics, Apptronik (Google is an investor), Engineered Arts, Sanctuary AI, Fourier Intelligence, PAL Robotics, Hanson Robotics, Toyota Research Institute ( TM), Shadow Robot Company, Beijing HRIC, EngineAI, Kepler, and Agibot. |
