🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

China’s robot makers sell thousands of units, but mainly for research, not factory work

• Events like the marathon test basic abilities, yet some Chinese humanoid robot firms already ship products in volume 1.
• Unitree, a Chinese robotics company, delivered more than 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025. UBTECH, another Chinese humanoid robot maker, increased revenue from its full-size humanoids by more than 22 times that year 12.
• Factory adoption still lags. Research and education buyers accounted for over 70% of Unitree’s 2025 humanoid sales 3.
• Industrial rollouts remain small, with UBTECH robots mostly running pilot programs at automotive plants for brands such as Audi and Zeekr, a Chinese electric vehicle brand 4.

High profit margins and Nvidia dependency create a new pattern for hardware

• Work to make robots tougher is reshaping how these companies earn money, with some posting strong profits 1.
• Unitree said its humanoid robots reached a gross margin above 60% in 2025. Tesla’s vehicle margin ran around 18% in the same period 1.
• Companies get there by bringing core parts like motors and sensors in-house, plus tight cost control 5.
• AI features still lean on Nvidia, the US chip company whose processors power much of today’s AI computing 3.
• That dependence on overseas chips turns robotics into a flashpoint in the tech supply chain and adds pressure for China to build a stronger domestic semiconductor industry 3.