Unitree Robotics, a Chinese robotics company based in Hangzhou, China, is marketing a “companion” humanoid robot for under $6,000.

“Unitree Introducing | Unitree R1 Intelligent Companion Price from $5900,” Unitree announced.

“Join us to develop/customize, ultra-lightweight at approximately 25kg, integrated with a Large Multimodal Model for voice and images, let’s accelerate the advent of the agent era!” it added.

Unitree shared footage of the humanoid robot:

The Business Times has more:

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The machine weighs just 25kg and has 26 joints, the company said in a video posted to WeChat. It is equipped with multimodal artificial intelligence that includes voice and image recognition.

The four-figure price tag highlights the ambitions of a new generation of startups trying to leapfrog the US in a groundbreaking technology. Unitree rose to prominence in February after CEO Wang Xingxing joined big names like Alibaba Group Holding’s Jack Ma and Tencent Holdings’ Pony Ma at a widely publicised summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The new robot’s launch coincides with China’s biggest AI forum, set to kick off this weekend with star founders, Beijing officials and AI-hungry venture investors converging in Shanghai. The World Artificial Intelligence Conference will bring together many of the key figures expected to drive China’s efforts around AI, which is finding a physical expression in the rapid development of more humanoid robots.

After decades of dominance by American companies like Boston Dynamics, Chinese companies are pushing ahead with humanoids for factories, households and even military use. Pricing is crucial to their proliferation.

Unitree’s older G1 robot, which found a home in research labs and schools, was priced at US$16,000. A more advanced and larger H1 model goes for US$90,000-plus. Rival UBTech Robotics said recently that it planned a US$20,000 humanoid robot that can serve as a household companion this year, seeking to expand beyond factories.

At the top of the agenda for China’s AI summit is how to outpace the United States in artificial intelligence development.

Bloomberg noted:

The World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which has featured Elon Musk and Jack Ma in years past, was devised to showcase the cutting-edge of Chinese technology. This year’s attendance may hit a record as it’s taking place at a critical juncture in the US-Chinese tech rivalry.

This week, US President Donald Trump unveiled his so-called AI Action Plan — a sort of call to arms to ensure the country keeps its lead in the post-ChatGPT epoch. At the same time, the emergence of DeepSeek in January galvanized a generation of Chinese developers to ride a nationwide investment and innovation wave. From Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to fledgling firms such as Minimax, the country’s aspirants in the field have since moved aggressively to try and close the gap with the likes of OpenAI and Google.

“While many recognize DeepSeek’s achievements, this represents just the beginning of China’s AI innovation wave,” said Louis Liang, an AI sector investor with Ameba Capital. “We are witnessing the advent of AI mass adoption, this goes beyond national competition.”

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The Shanghai conference rundown for now remains largely unknown — as it has in years past just days before kickoff. Chinese Premier Li Qiang will attend, and tech leaders from Tencent Holdings Ltd. to ByteDance Ltd. and startups like Zhipu AI and Moonshot are likely to turn out in force. On Friday, shares in AI-linked Chinese companies including CloudWalk Technology Co. climbed sharply.

 

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