Introducing Unitree, China’s leading AI-embodied Robotics Company

Year of the robots, humanoid, quadruped and the future of consumer use robot dogs

Feb 04, 2025

Over the last month, RedNote, TikTok, and DeepSeek have become the top three downloaded apps globally. Western investors are suddenly looking at the Chinese market again after deeming China’s internet sector “uninvestable” due to the 2020-22 regulatory crackdowns (and COVID shenanigans).

The once-promising, vibrant USD investment sector (public and private) in China’s tech industry was further stalled when the U.S. government restricted the investment of U.S. citizens and firms across all asset classes in Chinese Semiconductors and microelectronics, Quantum computing and quantum information technologies, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

However, despite being unable to invest directly in companies like DeepSeek or Unitree, some investors have thought of a clever way to invest in ADRs as a safe way to gain exposure to them. That is, assuming that Alibaba (BABA) or Baidu (BIDU) (and other similar companies) in the world would at least be able to access these technologies or benefit from their developments.

Chinese tech, AI, and robotics firms are suddenly receiving all the global attention again. Thus, today, we introduce you to Unitree Robotics, a leading robotics innovator.

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At CES 2025, it was all about AI integration into hardware, from wearables to AI-empowered furniture to robots! And not the non-sexy machinery robots that warehouses have all adopted—the fun ones, the ones we see in sci-fi movies.

There were 3,800 exhibitors at CES 2025, 1500 of whom were from China. If people said AI integration was still nascent in 2024, 2025 showed concepts becoming reality. Intelligent robotics completely dominated the showrooms, showcasing the rapid advancements in AI integration, from robotic dogs to AMRs to cleaning, agricultural, and compassion robots. Physical AI is having a ChatGPT moment.

That brings me to today's protagonist: the Chinese robotics firm Unitree and its robot dogs, which completely stole the show and have been the subject of much hype and craze on social media.

[On the All-In Podcast, the four American business/tech executives/ investors, Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, Gavin Baker, and David Friedberg (minus David Sacks), discussed the impressiveness of the Unitree robots and how some of them initially even thought the videos were AI-generated during their 2025 Predictions episode.]

Alas, the conclusion is that 2025 will be a big year for AI-embodied robots.

Screenshot of Unitree’s demo video

Who is Unitree Robotics 宇树科技?

Unitree Robotics, a Chinese company founded in 2016 by Wang Xingxing, has rapidly become a prominent player in the quadruped robot market. Quadruped robots are autonomous or semi-autonomous robots that mimic the four-legged locomotion of animals, in this case, robot dogs.

Amid the hype of “embodied AI,” it's receiving much attention from investors globally, including tech executives on the All In Podcast last week. The hosts were shocked by its capabilities, with David Friedberg claiming it’ll be “the year of the robots.”

Now, the company has often been compared to Boston Dynamics, but offering ⅕ of the price for similar robots (we’re seeing a trend here with Chinese innovation; see my piece on DeeSeek). The affordability and accessibility make its robots appealing to a broader range of consumers and industries, for which we’ll go into detail about product capabilities and controversies in another piece. Today, this article will focus on the founder’s story and the firm's founding background and vision. In a follow-up Part 2 to UniTree, we’ll dive deeper into humanoid and quadruped robotics use cases, potential safety concerns and implications, and the bigger picture of China’s robotics sector.

Who is the Founder, Wang Xing Xing?

Wang Xingxing, the founder, CEO, and CTO of Unitree Robotics, was born in 1990 in Ningbo, Zhejiang, an industrial city south of Shanghai. He earned his bachelor's degree from Zhejiang Sci-Tech University. He then obtained a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai University. The story of Unitree Robotics began in 2013 when Wang, a graduate student at Shanghai University, embarked on a project to develop a quadruped robot powered by low-cost electric motors. His vision was to create a high-performance robot that was more affordable and agile than the hydraulically powered robots prevalent at the time. This project culminated in the creation of one of their first iteration, the XDog, in 2016, which was his master’s thesis that later on became a prototype that garnered significant attention online and attracted investors.

Source Sina Finance: Early picture of Wang with his first robot- Xdog.

He once said it’s all about timing, and sometimes things cannot wait. So, after receiving some media and investor attention and inbound inquiries, he deliberated for a few months and decided to capture the opportunities presented to him during China’s rampant VC heydays. Wang, who was only a few months into his DJI job, pulled the trigger, left his job, and officially launched Unitree Robotics in May 2016 with the help of an angel investor.

In an interview, he said with some shyness that the early stages of entrepreneurship were genuinely memorable, filled with bitter-sweet memories. He recalled that when he first started, he bummed on his friend’s couch for a month, and because the sofa wasn’t very long, Wang woke up with sore legs every day from dangling halfway off the sofa. He smirked but said, “Look, it’s not like when moguls start a new company, and they can just wave their hands, and a lineup of impressive talents come following; our business started very grassroots.”

Looking back at how he got to where he is now, Wang candidly said he originally wanted to go to Zhejiang University (one of China’s top three universities). His grades were good, but his English scores did not reach the minimum requirement. Hence, he chose his second-best option, the Shanghai University Robotics program. He said, looking back, “塞翁失馬焉知非福” which means “it was a loss but also a blessing in disguise” because if he went to Zhejiang University, he might have never started his own company.

“I started the company after working for two months at DJI. I didn’t have enough financial resources or strong connections. For the first three years, there were times when we could not even pay our employees' salaries. Thankfully, we had revenues at the end of 2018 and managed to get more funding from investors,” said Wang during his KrAsia interview. — Wang XingXing, Unitree Robotics Founder

Wang said he grew up tweaking around electronics and was always able to build out simple robots cheaply as he did not have much financial means. His natural nerdiness was more evident in his earlier-day interviews where instead of envisioning any grand humanoid robotics use case or AI-empowered future, he said his vision was simply that maybe one day, everyone can have a robot companion at home.

Unitree quickly gained attention from potential buyers within the 2B and 2C markets. Wang eventually set up shop in Hangzhou (home to Alibaba, Ant Financial, and Geely, to name a few), a talent-dense and manufacturing-advantaged city that is not as well known in the West. Its proximity to bustling Shanghai (the capital of entertainment, money, art, education, and international access) has also made it a top choice for many to settle there.

In 2017, Unitree released its first commercial quadruped robot, Laikago. He said he named the first product Laikago because it was the name of the first Soviet Dog to enter space and orbit Earth. Like Laika, he hopes his products are at the frontier of science and technology (although sadly, Laida died only hours into the flight).

In 2021, KrAsia (the English arm of China’s leading tech media 36Kr) wrote about Unitree in the context of how it competes with Boston Dynamics, and that is also when I first heard of the company.

Now, in multiple interviews, Wang was asked how his company stacks up to Boston Dynamics, and he always says they may look the same, but the core is different. Once he answered, Unitree allows users to take them apart and rebuild the robot or program it as they wish. Boston Dynamics is like Apple iPhones; you get what you buy and can't reprogram or set the system, and Unitree is simply the most cost-effective product out there.

Here, I want to provide some context. People often say DJI and SenseTime groomed a generation of top-notch hardware-software engineers in China. Many that have left the firms have started businesses independently, mostly setting up shop across the Greater Bay Area.

The Greater Bay Area (GBA) connects nine major cities in Guangdong province and the unique administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. And it is home to many of China’s biggest tech companies, including Tencent, Huawei, ZTE, BYD, DJI, and SenseTime, to name a few. It has the advantage of having access to top developers and engineers in Shenzhen and access to manufacturing capabilities in nearby small cities in Guangdong province.

Even Jensen Huang said during his HKUST fireside chat that he believes the GBA (China to some degree) holds a significant advantage in AI development due to its access to top talent and capital (from companies like DJI, Huawei, and Tencent. Huang emphasized that this area excels in mechatronics, which combines mechanical technology and electronics – AI robotics that can comprehend physical electronics and reasoning intelligence.

Chinese Robots Taking over the World

Unitree is now a global leader but once had no international ambitions.

In one of Wang’s earlier interviews, he was asked by a Chinese tech publication whether he would be looking to compete with Boston Robotics and sell his products to the West. Wang Xingxing smiled and said, "I won't have this difficulty because my English is poor, and it might be challenging for me to go abroad so that this situation won't happen, and I don't need to consider this issue. But if it were before starting my business, I might have gone, but I haven't thought about it now."

That attitude has obviously changed over the years.

According to data from the Gaogong Robotics Industry Research Institute (GGII), Unitree Robotics accounted for 69.75% of global sales and 40.65% of the market share in the quadruped robot industry in 2023, solidifying its position as the sector's leading enterprise.

To understand how Unitree fits into the bigger picture of China’s robotics space, we can see that in 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology laid out a blueprint encouraging talent, capital, and government resources to cultivate robotics development. The paper outlines the state’s ambitious goals to leverage its strength in manufacturing and integrate artificial intelligence into its robot, as well as plans to establish a reliable industry supply chain system to support its manufacturing. Bloomberg wrote a short write-up about it here in 2023.

A Global Times article, a news outlet backed by the state propaganda department, covered the World Robot Conference in Beijing and cited Liu Cong, the Vice President of iFlytek. He said he expects humanoid robots to enter various industries in the next 3-5 years and households in the next 5-10 years. This is all part of the state-encouraged direction to innovate in software and hardware integration.

We can see how China has become a leader in this space. Simply looking at the leading robotics firms in the chart above, 90% are Chinese, and more than half of the exhibitors at CES 2025 are Chinese.

Unitree’s Funding History

Wang said in its early stages, he didn't have any money, but he still counts himself lucky. There was a lot of encouragement from his peers, and the overall environment was very encouraging for him to pursue entrepreneurship. And because of the lack of significant funding, beyond his dedication to research and creating a viable product, he was always sure to commercialize his robots from the start.

A VC investor I know met with the company leaders in 2019, but the investors did not see their scalable use case back then, and many VCs back then focused on industrial robotics (such as Hai Robotics at the time). Before AI integration, robot use cases seemed better positioned to replace hard and difficult laborious tasks. However, as AI and robotics merged, AI-empowered robotics opened investors' eyes to a completely different potential TAM.

As Unitree survived the COVID pandemic and the USD investment pull-out of China, it has become one of the only (few) robotics companies that survived the long winter and can now manufacture in mass.

In 2016, at the start of Wang’s entrepreneurial journey, Unitree Robotics secured a 2 million RMB angel investment, as mentioned above, that’s just under 300,000 USD.

Fast forward, Unitree has successfully secured its Series C funding of US$150 million from investors, including HongShan (Sequoia’s China spin-off), CITIC Securities (China’s leading financial conglomerate), and Jingguorui Equity Investment, among others, in September 2024, according to CB Insights, a market intelligence platform.

Since its inception in 2016, Unitree Robotics has undergone nine funding rounds. The latest round raised 1 billion yuan, valuing the company at over 6 billion yuan.

The most recent B2 funding round, completed in February 2024, raised RMB 1 billion and valued the company at over RMB 6 billion (about USD 820 million). Investors included Meituan, Jinshi Investment, and Source Code Capital, among other prominent funds. Existing shareholders such as Shenzhen Capital Group, China Internet Investment Fund, Rongyi Investment, Dunhong Capital, and Midascore followed with additional investments.

Prominent investor comments (translations from 36kr):

The lead investor in the most recent fundraising round, Chen Pingjin, Deputy General Manager of Jinshi Investment, said, "[We are] optimistic about the application prospects of quadruped/biped robots in consumer entertainment, industrial applications, educational research, and other fields. We fully recognize Unitree Robotics' leading position, with its capabilities in independent R&D of software and hardware, cost control, and platform construction. We are confident in the company's growth potential." During an interview with 36kr.
Chen Runze, Executive Director of Source Code Capital, another investor in this round, commented: "Robotics and automation are critical endowments of China's technological innovation. In recent years, driven by advancements in AI technology, robots have made significant progress in perception, motion control, autonomous navigation, and operational capabilities, creating opportunities for deeper market penetration. Through our long-term tracking of the industry, we have observed Unitree Robotics' steadfast dedication to legged robots, driving the commercialization and mass production of next-generation robots and achieving a leading position globally. At the same time, the company continues to break new ground in the technology stack of general-purpose robots. With its prudent commercialization strategy, strong R&D capabilities, and the team's ambitious vision, we believe Unitree Robotics has the potential to become a world-class leader in the robotics industry."
As a two-time investor in Unitree Robotics, Liu Hongchun, Founding Partner of Rongyi Investment, remarked: "Humanoid robots are approaching a critical juncture in the evolution toward general-purpose robotics. Unitree Robotics has once again demonstrated its pioneering capabilities in developing general-purpose humanoid robot technology. The company's self-developed joint motors are smaller, lighter, and more potent than similar humanoid robots. As investors, we are highly optimistic about Unitree Robotics' technology, products, and ability to integrate with real-world business scenarios. We look forward to the advent of the 'embodied intelligence' era led by general-purpose humanoid robots."

Rise to Fame

Wang never seemed to shy away from the public despite his seemingly demure presence. The company has actively done some high-profile PR.

One of its most flashy peacocking efforts was in 2022. Unitree showcased a choreographed dance by its robots as part of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. This was an opportunity, an honor, and a clear approval/ acknowledgment by the authorities.

The characters above are demonstrated by the robots' spell “Winter Olympics.”

In just the past year, the firm seemed to have engaged in a series of PR efforts to promote its leading position in integrating AI within its robots, from interviews with Technode, a leading China-focused tech digital publication, to Global Times, China’s state-backed media.

Specifically, in the interview with Technode, Unitree’s cofounder, Chen Li, said amid all the AI breakthroughs, Unitree “firmly believe(s) that once general artificial intelligence and general humanoid robots are combined, robots can truly enter daily life in the future.” They aim to “integrate these latest artificial intelligence technologies with robotics to take robot functionality to the next level more effectively.”

He added that robot technology has been at the forefront of research and technological innovation in Japan and the U.S. for over two to three decades. However, we may see more consumer adoption as AI is integrated into robotics technology.

Looking at how the company has evolved over the eight years since its founding, he told TechNote that Unitree was initially a relatively traditional robotics company. Still, it is gradually transforming into a company that integrates “AI+ general-purpose robots.”

Over the years, the team has conducted extensive strategic brainstorming to envision scenario use cases, from household use to firefighting, entertainment purposes, and more. He thinks that general-purpose household robots can assist homeowners in various tasks such as washing dishes, cleaning floors, making beds, and cooking.

However, single-function robots are insufficient to accomplish these diverse tasks. To achieve such a vision, he added that robots must be empowered with general artificial intelligence, and this empowerment will need to be achieved through end-to-end approaches, cloud-based methods, or training methods.

[Friend said she saw a person walking one of these robot-dogs in the neighborhood park 2 years ago in Shanghai, waawhatt!]

Check out Part 2 for a more in-depth use-case analysis.

Part 1 Founding Story Parting Comments

With the executive order restricting U.S. firms from investing in sensitive industries, advanced technology such as humanoid robotics and AI is mostly only backed by domestic capital in China. This starkly contrasts the consumer internet era when U.S. investors held some of the most prominent positions in Chinese mobile apps.

We’ll continue to see that talents from the two super nations will innovate in parallel; we'll need to wait and see whether further restrictions will be put on the import/export of AI-powered hardware. But even just Monday this week, we saw that the Biden administration pushed out probably one of its last significant policies as it tries to ensure allies comply with American AI standards, govern AI’s spread across tier-ed nations, and further curb China’s access to advanced technology.

If you're interested, the CFR and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace provide more detailed analyses of the policy’s specifics.

Nonetheless, we can expect more robotic technological breakthroughs in 2025. So much innovation has been happening away from the general public’s eyes, and that is now finally being revealed. We will see more application-end innovation as AI evolves and matures, including software-hardware integration.

In October 2024, during a video call at a tech conference in Riyadh, Elon Musk predicted that by 2040, there would be at least 10 billion humanoid robots priced between $20,000 and $25,000 through a video call at a tech conference in Riyadh. We are still far from that, but we are one step closer.

Link to Part 2: Robot Girlfriends, Robot Firefighters, Robot Dogs, Robot Maids and Beyond