Unitree’s Fordism Unitree’s playbook is pure cost crushing. Its G1 launched at $13,500, a category-redefining price for a 30-plus-degree-of-freedom biped. Where Boston Dynamics’ Atlas costs millions and Tesla’s Optimus keeps slipping on North American supply chains, Unitree leans on a decade of quadruped volume to self-produce core components at scale. The 4.2 billion yuan raise … Read more
A robot’s understanding of the world usually begins with vision. But whether a grasp is stable, a plug is seated, or a p
At WAIC 2026 in Shanghai, Qiling did something many robot demos avoid: it let the machines run the shop by themselves.
The humanoid-robot sector has entered its capital-realisation phase. AgiBot has confirmed it has launched the process for a Hong Kong listing, and it timed the announcement to land on the very day the exchange’s new listing rules took effect. The message was not a surprise. Rumours of an IPO have circulated for half a year. … Read more
On July 28, the US Federal Communications Commission updated its “Covered List,” adding foreign-made advanced robotics — humanoids and quadrupeds — and grid-tied power inverters. The stated rationale was familiar: supply-chain vulnerabilities, cyber risk, threats to critical infrastructure. Officially the rule names “foreign-made” equipment. But Reuters, the BBC and Politico all put China in the … Read more
China’s embodied AI sector has attracted over RMB 20 billion in collective investment as tech giants and VCs race to back humanoid-robot startups. (Source: Sina Tech) The robots still can’t reliably do the job – but the valuations have already arrived. As of June 2026, eight Chinese embodied-AI companies have crossed a RMB 20 billion … Read more
After 12 years and roughly $3.2 billion in cumulative funding (per Tracxn data), Faraday Future has delivered fewer than 20 vehicles. Now the Jia Yueting-led company is abandoning the EV label altogether: an August shareholder meeting will vote on a renaming that rebrands FF as a “physical AI ecosystem company,” with humanoid and embodied-AI robots … Read more
In 2025, capital chased complete humanoid robots — a walking, talking demo unit could raise hundreds of millions. In 2026, the money has pivoted to a single component: the dexterous hand, what the industry calls the “last millimetre” of robot-world interaction. The numbers are stark. According to IT Juzi data cited by OFweek, China’s dexterous-hand … Read more
When NVIDIA unveiled its Isaac GR00T reference humanoid at GTC Taipei during ICRA 2026, the industry noted the obvious choices: a Unitree H2 Plus body, Jetson Thor onboard compute, and the open-source Isaac GR00T model as the brain. But the component that drew the sharpest questions was the one few had heard of: the hands. … Read more
A bionic robot developed by a Shanghai startup has ignited a fierce debate on overseas social media — not because it failed, but because it looked too human. At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on July 17, Shouxing Tech unveiled OriginF1: a desktop-scale bionic android with 26 degrees of freedom across … Read more