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Inside the rise of robotics firm Unitree, glimpse into China’s tech ambitions
Inside the rise of robotics firm Unitree, glimpse into China’s tech ambitions Premium
It’s been an eventful week for the Chinese robotics firm Unitree, which has managed to find itself at the centre of national conversations both in China and in India.
First, in the country where it is based, Unitree’s latest humanoid robots made a stunning splash on February 16, performing complicated martial arts on China’s most watched television spectacle, the annual Chinese New Year gala that is watched by more than half a billion people.
Then, days later, one of Unitree’s older robotic models, a quadruped “robo dog”, unwittingly found itself in the headlines because of a display by the private Galgotias University at the ongoing AI Impact Summit in New Delhi. The university was forced to close its stall after it emerged that, what some of its representatives claimed was a home-grown design, turned out to be a Unitree Go2 quadruped. A model of the Go2 can be purchased online for $1,600.
WATCH | Humanoid robots steal the show during China’s 2026 Spring Festival gala
Unitree, a private company started by tech entrepreneur Wang Xinxing (36) who designed his first robot at university, said this week it plans to sell as many as 20,000 humanoid robots this year, an almost four-fold rise from 2025. The company’s name derives from “universe” and “tree”, according to a South China Morning Post report, taken from a popular Chinese phrase “lighting up the technology tree”.
The February 16 display of its latest fully autonomous G1 robot stirred wide attention in China, representing a significant improvement from a display only one year ago where robots performed largely stiff hand-waving motions. This year, they displayed martial arts and punched and kicked with flexibility. Mr. Wang’s latest kung fu-performing humanoid robots, he told state media this week, “lay the groundwork for future robot deployment” in a range of scenarios.
Unitree, in fact, is only one among many robotics firms reshaping the country’s tech landscape. As thePost reported, the country’s share of the global robotics market last year was 40%, and the domestic market is expected to grow from $47 billion in 2024 to $ 108 billion in 2028. Unitree and AgiBot lead the pack of a stunning 7,40,000 reported firms in the robotics field in a highly competitive marketplace. The competition is so fierce that Chinese media reported that Unitree and AgiBot had entered a bidding war to showcase their products in the New Year programme offering more than $10 million to do so (reports the companies have denied).
Also Read | Robot dogs and AI drone swarms: How China could use DeepSeek for an era of war
As with China’s congested Electric Vehicles market, Chinese analysts are concerned that the rapid and unbridled expansion may see many of these firms struggle to compete or even survive. Robotics is among industries prioritised in the country’s fifteenth five-year plan (2026-2030), set to be approved next month. In October, the Communist Party Central Committee approved recommendations for the plan, calling for “faster progress in securing breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields” and to “redouble efforts to develop emerging pillar industries”.
“We should launch industrial innovation projects and make integrated moves to construct innovation facilities, advance technological research and development (R&D), and promote product upgrading,” the document said, also calling to “accelerate the development of industrial clusters in strategic emerging fields”. It also called for exploring “market regulation rules and work to foster new drivers of economic growth such as quantum technology, biomanufacturing, hydrogen and nuclear fusion power, brain-computer interfaces, embodied artificial intelligence (AI), and 6G” and also for state support to “nurture unicorn companies.”
Unitree’s rise reflects how quickly China’s tech space is evolving. Its founder, Mr. Wang, developed his first prototype only ten years ago when he was in university, and spent, according to Chinese media reports, only 20,000 Yuan (then around ₹2 lakh) on developing his first model, a quadruped robot. That model won him a grant of 80,000 Yuan from a competition in Zhejiang province, where he was enrolled at the Zhejiang Sci-Tech University. Another model he developed when pursuing his master’s in Shanghai brought him national attention at a time when China had begun an intense “Made in China 2025” plan to upgrade industries and boost innovation, releasing a flood of funding to universities and provincial governments. This drive has both spurred innovation and fuelled the rise of companies like Unitree.
India AI Summit 2026: Evicted from summit for passing off Chinese robot as own, Galgotias University apologises for ‘confusion’
Watch | India AI Summit controversy: Galgotias stall shut over China-made Unitree Go2 robodog
Published - February 19, 2026 04:40 pm IST
China / technology (general) / robotics / Artificial Intelligence / science (general) / science (general) / science and technology
Source: TheHindu
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