One hundred million is not enough for Zhipu and Unitree to perform on the Spring Festival Gala.

Burning 100 million yuan to compete for a spot on the Spring Festival Gala, Unitree and Zhipu have added another fire to embodied intelligence.

On December 10th, self - media blogger Sajia Junze reported that Zhipu Robotics and Unitree Technology are vying for the sponsorship opportunity of the Spring Festival Gala. Zhipu offered 60 million yuan, and Unitree raised its offer to 100 million yuan. The offers from these two leading players have "scared off" many embodied intelligence companies. As of now, multiple companies are still competing, and the ultimate winner has not been determined.

Subsequently, according to Jiemian News, Zhipu Robotics responded that "it's not true", while Unitree has not made any public statement yet. It is not clear whether Zhipu Robotics is denying the offer amount or its participation in the competition for the Spring Festival Gala sponsorship. However, relevant sources told Jingxiang Studio that Zhipu Robotics' 60 - million - yuan offer is indeed "untrue". There are reports that Unitree Robotics' appearance in the Spring Festival Gala last year, performing the yangge dance, cost far more than this amount. A 60 - million - yuan offer can only buy a voice - over advertisement during the Spring Festival Gala. Therefore, it may cost a much higher price to be on the Spring Festival Gala this year.

The final result depends on the announcement of the Spring Festival Gala program list. However, competing to be on the Spring Festival Gala at a high cost is not because robot startups have too much money, but because the temptation of the Spring Festival Gala is simply too great.

At the end of 2018, Luo Zhenyu sighed in his "Time's Friend" New Year's Eve speech that we really know nothing about the power of the Spring Festival Gala. The basis for this assertion is Taobao, which won the "Exclusive Interactive Partner" of the Spring Festival Gala for three consecutive years from 2016 to 2018. Luo Zhenyu said that on top of the scale of Double 11 in 2017, Taobao tripled its capacity to handle the traffic from the Spring Festival Gala. But the result was that "the actual peak number of log - ins on the night of the Spring Festival Gala exceeded 15 times that of Double 11". Even today, the Spring Festival Gala is still a gold mine, attracting major Internet companies to compete for sponsorship and naming rights every year.

Since Unitree appeared on the Spring Festival Gala last year, it has skyrocketed. For today's robot companies, being on the Spring Festival Gala is like a fireworks show in the long night of commercialization. It is expensive but full of atmosphere, enough to light up the path to capital and the market.

The Expensive Ticket

It should be noted that the cost of being on the Spring Festival Gala may be more than 100 million yuan.

There are various forms of "being on the Spring Festival Gala", ranging from the exclusive cooperation right, which is equivalent to the advertising king of the Spring Festival Gala, to a single program appearance, and even a voice - over advertisement. Naturally, the prices vary according to different exposure situations.

According to AI Finance and Economics, as early as 2018, Taobao paid 300 million yuan to the CCTV Spring Festival Gala to reach an exclusive interactive cooperation agreement with CCTV. According to Caixin, for the 2020 Spring Festival Gala, Kuaishou offered the highest price in the whole network to obtain the exclusive cooperation right. The exclusive cooperation price was 1.3 to 1.4 billion yuan, and the overall expenditure, including interactive red envelopes, might be as high as 4 billion yuan. However, Kuaishou responded that the cooperation amount was not that high.

The above - mentioned source said that with an expenditure in the tens of millions, a company can only get a voice - over advertisement. If a company wants to have a program like Unitree last year and become the only embodied intelligence enterprise to cooperate with the Spring Festival Gala, the offers from Unitree and Zhipu need to be raised further.

In addition to this expensive admission ticket, there are also many hidden costs for being on the Spring Festival Gala.

On the one hand, since embodied intelligence enterprises have requirements for robot operation and need professional technicians to operate, a technical team needs to be on - site, preparing backup plans, single - machine modifications, etc.;

On the other hand, enterprises also need to prepare a separate operation team to communicate with the Spring Festival Gala's director group. This operation team is responsible for repeated rehearsals and the publicity plan matching the Spring Festival Gala. Ultimately, the actual cost of an enterprise often doubles on the basis of the offer.

● The training background of Unitree Robotics for the 2025 Spring Festival Gala. Source: Unitree Technology's official Xiaohongshu account

For Unitree and Zhipu, the return from being on the Spring Festival Gala cannot be measured by the current quarter's financial statements. It is an account that has to be calculated but is hard to figure out.

And what does 100 million yuan mean for a robot company? This is a figure that needs to be looked at in comparison.

Firstly, it is equivalent to a huge R & D expense. Taking listed peers as a reference, Ubtech's annual R & D expenditure from 2020 to 2025 was maintained at 400 - 500 million yuan. One Spring Festival Gala sponsorship could consume nearly a quarter of a leading company's annual R & D budget.

Secondly, it far exceeds the current real revenue scale of the industry. Although the investment and financing in the robot industry exceeded 83.9 billion yuan in 2025, with unprecedented enthusiasm, the commercial revenue is still in its early stage. The annual revenue of leading enterprises is only in the hundreds of millions of yuan. For most companies with shipments still hovering in the thousands, spending over 100 million yuan on marketing is a huge gamble.

Since it is difficult to balance the immediate economic account, what kind of account are Zhipu and Unitree actually calculating?

The Temptation of the Spring Festival Gala

Why are robot companies willing to spend a fortune for a single appearance? The answer lies in the Spring Festival Gala itself.

According to CCTV.com data, the 2025 Snake Spring Festival Gala reached a cumulative total of 16.8 billion person - times through all media, and the total live - broadcast audience share reached 78.88%, setting a new high in the past 12 years. It is not just a party, but also an opportunity for enterprises to imprint their brands in the minds of the broadest range of the public in the shortest time.

Different from the logic of Internet companies investing in the Spring Festival Gala, where distributing red envelopes can directly lead to downloads, daily active users, and interaction volume, the conversion path for robot companies is very long, and the traditional ROI calculation does not apply. But the most valuable part is the "appearance" itself.

The Spring Festival Gala is expensive not only because of its wide reach but also because of its extremely scarce "national - level" endorsement. In the Chinese context and the perception of the common people, being on the Spring Festival Gala is a form of official endorsement and quality certification. Unitree enjoyed this cognitive dividend last year. After the Spring Festival Gala, Unitree transformed from a star enterprise in the technology and capital circles to a representative of national scientific and technological strength recognized by the whole nation. Subsequently, it engaged in cooperation discussions with local governments, negotiated orders with large state - owned enterprises, and received preferential policy support.

Ge Cheng (alias), a former member of the DeepGlint team, told Jingxiang Studio, "As an artificial intelligence enterprise, DeepGlint has appeared on CCTV several times. Every time after appearing on TV, basically many to - G and to - B customers will make appointments for visits and meetings within a week."

In Ge Cheng's view, although the intelligence level of embodied intelligent robots has improved rapidly, they still struggle with implementation, which is also highly valued by investors. Therefore, "connecting with potential customers through this way (appearing on the Spring Festival Gala) and obtaining several implementation cases is the most urgent need."

Government and enterprise customers are the current focus of commercialization, but the future of robots lies in the To - C market. For a new thing, seizing the public's perception in advance can bring immeasurable leverage effects. A few minutes on the Spring Festival Gala can transform a sci - fi concept far from the public into a topic of conversation at the dinner tables of hundreds of millions of families. When robots can really enter thousands of households in the future, people will first think of Unitree. This is equivalent to completing market education in advance, and in this sense, 100 million yuan is not that expensive.

The traffic effect brought by the Spring Festival Gala to embodied intelligence was first noticed by downstream robot rental companies.

"Since Unitree appeared on the Spring Festival Gala this year, everyone knows there is a robot that can do the yangge dance. So when most customers want to rent robots, they will think of Unitree first." Xiaoleige, the founder of 8090 Robot Rental Company, said that as Unitree Technology's robots became popular after the Spring Festival Gala, government agencies and enterprises that need to rent robots for event promotion all choose Unitree first.

In contrast, although he found through investigation that the robots of another company called Acceleration Evolution can also play football and perform actions, with similar functionality to Unitree's, due to its lack of popularity, considering that most customers might not accept it, he finally purchased several Unitree robots and earned more than 100,000 yuan from renting robots in just over a month.

● The debugging site of Zhipu Robotics. Source: Zhipu's official Xiaohongshu account

Zhipu had already appeared at the opening ceremony of the 38th Golden Rooster Awards before the Spring Festival Gala, actively interacting with stars such as Song Qian, Peng Yuchang, and Huang Xiaoming, constantly exploring new traffic - attracting methods. Now both companies have sent clear To - C signals. Unitree has lowered the price of one of its robots to 39,900 yuan; Zhipu's executives have also made it clear that in 2026, the focus will be on "initial practices in entering factories and families". The Spring Festival Gala is the first clarion call for them to address hundreds of millions of potential family users and conduct market education.

This year's Spring Festival Gala has even more urgent practical value. When the technological gap between robot enterprises is not significant, the one who seizes the users' minds first will gain an advantage in financing, recruitment, and cooperation ecosystems. Currently, many robot enterprises, including Unitree, are rushing towards listing. Appearing on the Spring Festival Gala can greatly help in increasing the valuation, accelerating the listing process, and expanding the financing ceiling.

"The top three in the (embodied intelligence) first - tier, Unitree, Zhipu, and Galaxy Universal, will most likely go public normally next year." Leo, a senior practitioner in the embodied intelligence industry, said.

At this special time, "it's good to give the market more confidence before listing."

The robot industry is capital - intensive, and giving the market confidence is a necessary task for embodied intelligence enterprises. Now Zhipu is seeking a "roundabout listing", and Unitree has completed its IPO tutoring. Appearing on the national stage at this time, the top - level exposure provided by the Spring Festival Gala can also inject confidence into the listing process.

Spending money on the Spring Festival Gala seems quite cost - effective, but this is based on some prerequisites: having relatively mature technological strength and product solutions to ensure reliability and stability on the Spring Festival Gala stage; having certain commercialization paths to convert the traffic from the Spring Festival Gala into short - term orders; and being well - prepared at the organizational level to handle public relations, sales, recruitment, etc.

Therefore, only leading players like Unitree and Zhipu have the ability and motivation to compete for the opportunity to appear on the Spring Festival Gala.

The Dangerous Gamble

Whether it is competing for exposure on the Spring Festival Gala or accelerating the capital process, they all point to the same reality: the real and sustainable commercial orders for humanoid robots are still scarce, and the industry is far from being self - sustaining.

On November 27th, Li Chao, the deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission, stated that "currently, the technical routes, business models, and application scenarios of humanoid robots are all immature."

In such a context, spending over 100 million yuan on Spring Festival Gala marketing has an extremely long pay - back period and faces many uncertainties.

Firstly, regarding the program itself, the Spring Festival Gala is both a spotlight and a magnifying glass. Any action glitches, childish scenarios, or even accidental falls can directly shatter the company's narrative of technological leadership. On the premise of making no mistakes, it is also a difficult problem to make the program more exciting than last year. Being overly entertaining will weaken the sense of technology. Creating a "cool" effect while fitting in with the festive family - reunion atmosphere is also a challenging creative task.

More importantly, unlike cash - rich companies like Alibaba and Tencent, for startup companies with limited resources, it is necessary to carefully calculate how much to invest to ensure that R & D investment is not squeezed, technological competitiveness is maintained, and the company's cash - flow safety is not affected.

● The debugging site of Zhipu Robotics. Source: Zhipu's official Xiaohongshu account

This is a dangerous gamble, using a definite large sum of money to bet on a long - term exponential return against the uncertainties of technology, creativity, and timing. If successful, there is a chance to become a synonym for a category and gain the power to define industry standards. This investment will yield a hundred - fold return in the future in the form of lower comprehensive costs, higher premium capabilities, and faster expansion speed. But if it fails, or is just mediocre, not only will a huge amount of money be lost, but the company's weaknesses in strategic implementation, technological stability, or content creation will also be exposed, creating opportunities for others to overtake.

Investing in the Spring Festival Gala in the early stage of industry and company development is a high - leverage move. The competition is not that fierce, the investment is not too high, and the potential benefits are huge. However, to convert the exposure into subsequent orders and profits, the real challenge is to find more commercial implementation scenarios.

Ge Cheng established an embodied intelligent robot implementation group at Peking University, conducting on - site research on production and construction demands from the perspective of artificial intelligence and robots. He shared on his social account that there are huge labor shortages in scenarios such as oil fields, coal mines, and railways, where embodied intelligence has great potential.

Now, embodied intelligence is expected to "redefine productivity". No matter who finally appears on the Spring Festival Gala, when the fireworks fade away, the real test of how to make robots move from the stage to noisy factories and mundane families is just beginning.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Jingxiang Studio", author: Ma Shuye, editor: Lu Zhen. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.