China vs US Humanoid Robots: Who Is Ahead?

The short answer

China is ahead on how many humanoid robots get built, sold and shipped, and on price. The United States is ahead on money, AI models and, by our evidence grading, the single most capable robots. Neither side leads everywhere, and the gap is closing from both directions: US companies are starting volume production, and Chinese robots are climbing our leaderboard.

Measure	Leader	Key number
Units shipped (2025)	China	AgiBot 5,168, Unitree 4,200, UBTECH 1,000 (Omdia via TechNode)
Global market share by units	China	About 85%, per PBS
Cheapest robots on sale	China	Unitree G1 at $13,500; no current US humanoid in our price data sells openly below $20,000
Models in our database	China	35 Chinese vs 12 US of 66 tracked
Highest-rated robot on our leaderboard	US	Figure 03, rating 1366 vs AgiBot G2 at 1348
Largest private valuation	US	Figure AI, $39 billion (Figure)
Profitability	China	Unitree reported 591 million yuan core net profit for 2025; Agility reported a $140 million operating loss
Component supply chain	China	Actuators, reducers, motors, batteries
AI chips and precision sensors	US and allies	NVIDIA compute; Western torque and six-axis force sensors
Government industrial policy	China	National MIIT targets plus city funds

Company count and leaders

We track 20 Chinese humanoid companies and 9 American ones, plus 1X, which operates from Norway and the US. The Chinese side is broader and more commercial: 7 Chinese models in our database carry commercial deployment status and 14 can be bought now, against 1 commercial and 1 purchasable US model. Browse the full lists on best Chinese humanoid robots and best American humanoid robots.

China’s leaders

• AgiBot: the 2025 shipment leader. Its wheeled AgiBot G2 is the top-rated Chinese robot on our leaderboard.
• Unitree Robotics: the price setter. G1, R1 and H2 are sold openly through an online shop.
• UBTECH: industrial humanoids for car plants; it announced mass delivery of Walker S2 with orders above 800 million yuan (PR Newswire).
• Others with real traction: Galbot, Leju, Fourier, EngineAI, Booster, Kepler, XPeng and the state-backed Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, maker of Tiangong Ultra.

America’s leaders

• Figure AI: Figure 03 is our top-rated robot. Its predecessor, Figure 02, supported production of more than 30,000 BMW X3s at Spartanburg (BMW Group).
• Agility Robotics: Digit has the longest paid track record in US logistics, with 9 customer sites and over 65,000 operating hours (The Robot Report).
• Tesla: says Optimus production started on Fremont lines in Q3 2026, with outside deliveries expected around the end of 2027 (Technology Org).
• Boston Dynamics, Apptronik and Dexmate round out the list. Boston Dynamics says Atlas deployments at Hyundai’s Georgia Metaplant are committed for 2026 (Boston Dynamics).

Prices: China is much cheaper

These are list prices and credible reports from our price data. Chinese prices in yuan are converted using the conversions in the cited reports.

Robot	Country	Size	Price	Type
Noetix Bumi	China	Small	9,998 yuan (about $1,400)	List (R&A News)
Unitree R1	China	Small	From $4,900 (R1 Air)	Official shop (Unitree)
Booster K1	China	Small	From $4,999	Launch price (Humanoids Daily)
Unitree G1	China	1.3 m	$13,500 base	Official shop (Unitree)
LimX Oli	China	Full size	From 158,000 yuan (about $21,800)	Launch price (TechNode)
Dobot Atom	China	Full size	$27,500 at launch	Reported (heise)
Unitree H2	China	Full size	$29,900 base	Official shop (Unitree)
AgiBot A2 Lite	China	Full size	$44,560	Official store (AgiBot)
UBTECH Walker S2	China	Full size, industrial	$246,600	US reseller (RobotShop)
1X NEO	Norway / US	Full size, home	$20,000 or $499/month	Preorder (1X)
Tesla Optimus	US	Full size	$20,000-$30,000 eventual target	Musk estimate (Wikipedia)
Dexmate Vega	US	Wheeled	$89,999	Preorder (Mike Kalil)
Foundation Phantom MK1	US	Full size	About $150,000 (lease about $100,000/year)	Reported (TNW)
Agility Digit	US	Full size, industrial	$8,500/month RaaS or about $200,000 to buy	SEC filing, reported by The Robot Report
Figure 03	US	Full size	Not published	Not for sale

Two caveats keep this from being a simple “China is 10x cheaper” story. First, the cheapest Chinese robots are small education and research platforms; the base G1 has no dexterous hands and does not support secondary development. A developer-ready G1 EDU lists at $43,900 and up at US resellers. Second, Chinese industrial humanoids are not cheap once they reach US buyers: the Walker S2 listing above costs more than an Agility Digit purchase. Still, at every size class where both countries sell openly, the Chinese option costs less. Our cheapest humanoid robots ranking is almost entirely Chinese.

Government policy and funding

China. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published humanoid robot guidelines in November 2023, calling for mass production by 2025 and for humanoids to become “a vital driver of economic growth” by 2027 (Ubergizmo). The March 2025 Government Work Report named embodied AI as a core future industry alongside quantum and 6G. Cities followed with money: Carnegie reports a 100 billion yuan (about $14.3 billion) Beijing fund for AI and robotics with a 15-year life, and a Shanghai embodied AI fund with an initial close of 560 million yuan (Carnegie Endowment). The state also runs showcase events, covered below.

United States. There is no national humanoid program comparable to MIIT’s. US policy has focused on restricting Chinese robots and on private capital. In March 2026, Rep. Elise Stefanik and Senators Tom Cotton and Chuck Schumer introduced the American Security Robotics Act, which would bar federal purchases of humanoids and other ground robots made by “foreign entities of concern” (Stefanik). In late July 2026, the FCC went further and banned imports and sales of new foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots, with previously authorized models exempt (PBS; Al Jazeera). China’s foreign ministry answered that “protectionism does not make the U.S. more competitive.”

US funding is private and concentrated. Figure raised over $1 billion at a $39 billion valuation in September 2025. Chinese funding mixes venture capital, state funds and early public listings.

Supply chain: actuators, reducers and batteries

The cost gap is mostly a parts gap. A humanoid’s joints use motors, reducers (harmonic or planetary gearboxes), encoders and bearings, and China makes most of them at volume. A Morgan Stanley note estimated that removing Chinese parts would raise the bill of materials of a Tesla Optimus Gen 2 from about $46,000 to $131,000 (Interesting Engineering). Even Optimus relies on Chinese-made actuators, motors, reducers and vision parts, according to that report. Batteries follow the same pattern as EVs.

China is not self-sufficient either. Carnegie notes that Chinese robot makers “still rely heavily on Western imports” for torque sensors and six-axis force sensors. High-end compute is mostly NVIDIA: 1X lists NVIDIA Jetson Thor in NEO, and PBS notes that NVIDIA uses a Unitree chassis in one of its reference designs. Foundation models such as Figure’s Helix and NVIDIA’s GR00T come from US firms, although Chinese labs and companies are building their own.

Chinese makers are also starting to build abroad. AgiBot and supplier Minth opened a €20 million humanoid production site in Šabac, Serbia, in August 2026 and describe 20,000 units a year as a future capacity target (The Region).

Deployments

Omdia counted about 13,000 humanoids shipped worldwide in 2025. PBS reports that Unitree and AgiBot each shipped more than 5,000, while US makers shipped “a few hundred or less.” A large share of Chinese volume is small research and education robots such as the Unitree G1 and R1, so unit counts overstate commercial work.

US deployments are fewer but better documented. BMW published Figure 02’s Spartanburg numbers (about 1,250 operating hours), and Figure 03 has moved on to BMW logistics work. Agility runs Digit for GXO and other logistics customers. Figure says its BotQ plant can build up to 12,000 robots a year at first (Figure). UBTECH’s Walker S2 order book is the strongest Chinese industrial signal, but independent productivity data is thin.

Events: robot races and games

China uses public competitions to show progress, and the improvement from year one to year two is striking.

Event	Date	Result
Beijing E-Town humanoid half-marathon	April 2025	Tiangong Ultra won in 2:40:42; 6 of 20 teams finished (Xinhua)
World Humanoid Robot Games, Beijing	August 2025	280 teams from 16 countries; Unitree won four golds (R&A News)
Beijing half-marathon, second edition	April 19, 2026	Honor’s “Flash” won in 50:26, running autonomously, faster than the 57:20 human world record; over 100 teams (Beijing government)
World Humanoid Robot Games, second edition	August 22-26, 2026	666 teams, more than 2,000 robots; a robot ran 100 m in 9.39 s (Beijing government)

The US has no comparable state-run showcase. Athletic records say a lot about legs, motors and control, and little about whether a robot can do a shift of useful work, so we weight them lightly in our methodology.

IPOs and public listings

Company	Country	Market	Date	Detail
UBTECH	China	Hong Kong (9880)	December 29, 2023	First humanoid company on the HKEX main board (UBTECH)
Unitree	China	Shanghai STAR Market	August 19, 2026	Raised about 6.1 billion yuan; closed over 460% above offer on day one (CNBC)
AgiBot	China	Hong Kong	Process started July 2026	Not yet listed (TechNode)
Agility Robotics	US	Nasdaq (AGLT)	November 5, 2026	First US-listed pure-play humanoid company, via SPAC (Agility)
Figure AI	US	Private	n/a	$39 billion valuation

The financials behind those listings differ sharply. Caixin reported Unitree’s 2025 revenue at 1.7 billion yuan, 60% gross margins and 591 million yuan of core net profit, with humanoids about 52% of revenue (Caixin). Agility reported $1.8 million of 2025 revenue against a $140 million operating loss. US investors are paying for future autonomy; Chinese investors are paying for a business that already sells hardware at a profit.

What the US import ban means in practice

The FCC rule adopted in late July 2026 covers new foreign-made humanoid robots, new quadrupeds and new power inverters. Products the US had already authorized can stay on sale, though Al Jazeera notes the FCC can revoke approvals in some cases. For buyers, that splits Chinese robots into two groups: models already authorized before the rule, which US resellers can keep selling, and anything newer, which cannot get authorized. Expect fewer new Chinese launches to reach the US, and check the authorization status of a specific model and version before you order.

The rule also shifts the price comparison. A US lab that used to choose between a $13,500 Unitree G1 and a much pricier American robot may soon find newer Chinese models unavailable altogether. Outside the US, nothing changes: Europe, Japan and the Gulf can still buy new Chinese humanoids, and UBTECH signed an exclusive Japan distribution deal covering Walker S2 and other product lines, reported in October 2026.

Where Europe, Japan and Korea fit

The race is often framed as two-sided, but 16 of the 66 robots we track come from companies based in neither country, and three more come from 1X and Clone Robotics, which split operations between Europe and the US. Europe has Humanoid and Engineered Arts in the UK, NEURA Robotics in Germany, PAL Robotics in Spain and Aldebaran and Pollen Robotics in France. Japan has the history (Honda’s ASIMO) and Kawasaki’s Kaleido. South Korea has Rainbow Robotics, and Canada has Sanctuary AI. None of them ships at Chinese volume. If US-China restrictions harden, they could benefit, since for now they can sell into both markets.

Choosing between a Chinese and an American humanoid

• Budget. Under $30,000, the realistic options are Chinese. Above $100,000, both sides compete.
• Availability. Many US humanoids are not for sale at all. Most Chinese ones are, through official shops or resellers.
• Regulation. In the US, confirm FCC authorization. For government buyers, watch the American Security Robotics Act.
• Data and connectivity. Ask where telemetry goes and whether the robot can run fully offline. This is the core of the US security argument.
• Support and parts. A cheap robot with no local service partner can cost more over three years than a pricier one with on-site support.
• Software openness. Unitree EDU and other research versions expose low-level control; US industrial robots are usually sold as a managed service.

Who leads where

• If you want to buy a humanoid today, the choice is mostly Chinese, and Unitree is the default for labs. US buyers should check FCC authorization for any new model.
• If you want the strongest evidence of autonomous industrial work, the leaders are American: Figure and Agility.
• If you are betting on scale, China has the head start in units and parts, while Tesla and Figure are building plants designed for tens of thousands of robots a year.
• If you care about AI, the reference models (Helix, GR00T) are American, but they run on hardware that is often Chinese-made underneath.

Compare individual robots across the divide on our leaderboard, or head to head, for example AgiBot G2 vs Figure 03, Figure 03 vs Unitree G1 and Agility Digit vs UBTECH Walker S2.