- Wang Xingxing says future breakthroughs could enable robots of any scale
- GD01 draws buyer interest as company expands industrial ambitions
Unitree (宇树科技), a Hangzhou-based robotics startup, used China’s flagship intelligent industry expo to defend its latest and most unconventional product: a 3.9 million yuan ($576,388) giant “mecha” that founder Wang Xingxing says could help pave the way for the next wave of embodied AI.
Speaking at the opening of the 2026 World Intelligence Industry Expo in Tianjin on May 28, Wang offered the first detailed explanation of the thinking behind GD01, which the company describes as the world’s first mass-produced, rideable mech robot.
“The underlying principles are the same,” Wang said. “With a large robot like this, you can build not only a mobile product but also a transportation vehicle. It can be used for land development in mountainous areas, disaster relief and large-scale agriculture.”
An expensive showpiece?
The machine, unveiled on May 12, stands about three meters tall and weighs roughly 500 kilograms with an operator onboard
It can switch between bipedal and quadrupedal modes within seconds, is capable of punching through a brick wall, and starts at 3.9 million yuan.
The machine quickly drew both praise and criticism, with skeptics casting it as an expensive showpiece meant to distract from Unitree’s relatively modest R&D spending and its lag in developing the robotic “brain” — the embodied AI models that underpin cognitive capabilities and human-like intelligence.
Addressing questions over why the company chose to build such an expensive machine, Wang said the project was intended to validate technologies that could eventually be deployed across a much wider range of robots.
Size doesn’t matter, engineering does
Wang argued that advances in embodied AI would make robot size largely a matter of engineering rather than technological capability.
“People may wonder why we’re building a larger robot,” he said. “The reason is simple. If embodied intelligence truly breaks through in the coming years and robots are genuinely working in homes and factories, then if we can build robots a little over one meter tall, we can certainly build robots that are seven meters or even more than ten meters tall.”
At the event, Wang, 35, also outlined what he sees as the industry’s defining milestone.
“If this year or within the next two to three years the market sees robots successfully completing around 80% of tasks in 80% of unfamiliar scenarios through voice or text instructions, then the ChatGPT moment for embodied intelligence will have arrived,” he said.
Surging buyer interest
According to Wang, the GD01 has attracted significant interest from buyers in China and overseas, with potential customers expressing willingness to place orders on the day of its launch.
As of May 29, the mecha’s video garnered more than 22.3 million views on YouTube.
Industry observers said the product’s significance extends beyond immediate sales. As Unitree pushes toward a planned STAR Market listing, the giant mecha broadens the company’s growth narrative for investors while reinforcing its position in China’s increasingly competitive robotics sector.
At the expo in Tianjin, Unitree showcased a full product lineup ranging from consumer robots capable of dancing and boxing to industrial inspection systems designed for sectors including oil and gas, chemicals, power generation, coal mining, steelmaking and emergency response.
Real-world deployment
The company also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tianjin on Wednesday. Leveraging the city’s manufacturing base and port infrastructure, the partnership aims to accelerate the deployment of embodied AI robots in real-world industrial settings.
The Yangtzeer reported in March that customs authorities in Ningbo, Wang Xingxing’s hometown, had deployed Unitree’s industry-grade B2 quadruped robot to automate quarantine inspections at the Ningbo-Zhoushan Port.
