Can the Series C financing that Wang Xingxing secured for Unitree prove Goldman Sachs wrong?

Walking a robotic dog, robots running marathons and boxing—scenes that used to only appear in science - fiction movies have now become a reality.

However, the number of robots that can truly perform practical tasks is extremely limited. Not to mention robot nannies or workers, even robots capable of truly autonomous action are rare in real life.

Since 2025, the concept of embodied intelligence in the capital market has shown a sense of dissonance. On one hand, PE firms represented by GSR Ventures have started to withdraw from robot companies in batches. Some investors claim that "they can't see the commercialization scenarios." On the other hand, leading unicorns in the market, such as Hangzhou Unitree Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Unitree Technology), have further expanded their financing scale, attracting giants like Tencent and Alibaba to enter the market.

Recently, Unitree Technology completed its Series C financing. The leading investors include China Mobile, Geely Auto, Tencent, Ant Group, Jinqiu Fund, and Alibaba. The lineup is truly luxurious. It is reported that in early January this year, China Mobile and Ant Group were actively negotiating financing matters with Unitree Technology, planning to invest between 100 million and 300 million yuan respectively.

According to the information disclosed in Unitree Technology's multiple rounds of financing, its total financing amount has already exceeded 1 billion yuan, and its current valuation is approximately 10 billion yuan. In addition to the investors mentioned above, it also includes institutions such as Meituan Longzhu, Zhongguancun Science City, Sequoia Capital, and CITIC Securities.

Previously, Unitree Technology completed its shareholding reform and name change, which was widely interpreted as an impending IPO. However, Unitree Technology later denied this, stating that "it was a routine change in the company's operation."

Although Unitree Technology is not the most highly - valued unicorn in the Chinese robot industry (ZhiYuan Robotics is valued at approximately 15 billion yuan), it is definitely the most well - known. During this year's Spring Festival Gala, the Unitree H1 robot array performed the game "Drop the Handkerchief," leaving a deep impression on billions of viewers. However, as Unitree robots appear more frequently at exhibitions and shopping malls, different voices have emerged. The need for remote control, unstable walking, and the ability to perform only a few fixed actions have made consumers gradually tired of them and start to question their value.

The question is whether this most well - known Chinese embodied intelligence company has just caught the wave of the trend or is a revolutionary in the robot industry. "Wall Street Tech Eye" attempts to analyze Unitree Technology's core competitiveness from dimensions such as technological R & D and market structure.

A Large - Scale Remote - Controlled Toy or an AI Robot?

In an interview in August 2024, Wang Xingxing, the founder of Unitree Technology, once said: "AI is definitely the major development direction, but we need to see which AI directions and channels are correct. The industry is currently in a mess. We are relatively restrained in our investment in AI because it is too costly in terms of money and human resources. The robot itself is still our foundation."

However, in an interview with CCTV News on February 19 this year, when answering the question "Are robots evolving every day," Wang Xingxing actively mentioned AI: "Now, AI - driven robots are evolving very fast, exceeding my expectations." He also believes that by the end of this year, AI robots will reach a new level.

Of course, the technological trend changes rapidly, and it is very normal for a company to adjust its strategic direction in real - time according to market changes. So, has Unitree Technology taken any new actions in the field of AI robots?

Since becoming well - known after the Spring Festival Gala, Unitree Technology's team often live - streams and posts videos on social media to showcase the training results of Unitree robots, including dancing, playing football, martial arts, and boxing. However, it is not clear whether the technical route is based on programming algorithm training or neural network learning of large AI models.

It is certain that Unitree Technology has large - model products. On the official page of G1, UnifoLM (Unitree's unified large model for robots) is clearly mentioned. However, the official page does not mention specific parameters of the model, how to deploy it, or whether it is open - source. The open - source reinforcement learning motion control repository unitree_rl_gym provided on the official website can be used to train walking gaits and flexible hand movements (such as unscrewing bottle caps), but it cannot achieve general - purpose learning.

"Wall Street Tech Eye" contacted Bai Yunhao, who is in charge of media and brand affairs at Unitree Technology, in an attempt to obtain more information about Unitree's UnifoLM large model. However, the other party said: "We do not accept media interviews for the time being. Please refer to reports from authoritative media. Specifically, you can refer to reports published by central media and the content in the news center on our official website."

In view of this situation, "Wall Street Tech Eye" tried to obtain information through more channels. On February 27 this year, Goldman Sachs released a research report on Unitree Technology. The Goldman Sachs report pointed out that after a field visit to Unitree Technology, the H1 humanoid robot demonstrated stable hardware performance and strong self - balancing ability. However, Goldman Sachs also pointed out that although the company has equipped its robotic dogs with a large - language - model API, they do not yet have the ability to operate completely autonomously. Ultimately, Goldman Sachs' view is that the technological inflection point for humanoid robots is still unclear, and Unitree Technology's product capabilities are insufficient to handle a variety of general tasks.

Another clue is patent reserves. Among the 161 patents owned by Unitree Technology, 61 are for design, 67 are for utility models, 24 are for invention announcements, and 9 are for invention authorizations. The patents mainly involve robot components, power systems, and component structures, indicating that the company has made great achievements in hardware design and motion control, which is basically consistent with Goldman Sachs' research.

Since the beginning of 2025, Unitree Technology has only announced two patents, namely "A Performing Robot and a Robot Dance Performance Method" and "A Robot and a Robot Control Method," both of which are related to robot dance performances, such as achieving dance movements like spinning and tossing. There is no content related to AI.

Based on the above information and Wang Xingxing's own statements, at least at this stage, Unitree Technology's development focus is on the field of robot motion rather than on automated applications based on large AI models.

Meanwhile, another embodied intelligence unicorn, ZhiYuan Robotics, released its first general - purpose embodied base large model, the Genie Operator - 1, in March this year, and began to explore the application direction of AI - empowered robots. It is reported that this model uses the ViLLA architecture of VLM (Multimodal Large Model)+MoE (Mixture of Experts), absorbing various types of data from the human world, enabling robots to have general - purpose scene perception, language understanding, and action understanding abilities, thereby improving the precision of actions.

In the demonstration by Peng Zhihui, the founder of ZhiYuan Robotics, the Lingxi X2 robot equipped with this model can not only have natural conversations but also act autonomously according to instructions without the need for remote control. The product is comparable to Figure, Tesla Optimus, and XPeng Iron, which are also based on deep learning of large AI models.

Currently, the general view in the industry is that deep learning based on large AI models is the key to the development of embodied intelligence. Although there is a view that "current large - language models are not suitable for robots," developers are trying to overcome this problem through more advanced multimodal models, enabling robots to be widely used in industrial, service, and companionship scenarios in the future.

Excellent Commercial Performance but Limited Market Space

Compared with the unclear development of AI, Unitree Technology has been extremely successful in commercialization. According to data from the GGII, in 2023, Unitree Technology's robotic dogs ranked first in the world with a sales volume of approximately 23,700 units, capturing 69.75% of the market share, far exceeding competitors such as Boston Dynamics.

The official website shows that Unitree Technology's embodied intelligence product line mainly includes two categories: robots (quadruped robotic dogs) and general - purpose humanoids (humanoid robots). Among them, the robotic dogs are divided into consumer - grade and industry - grade, including a total of six models: A1/Go1/Go2 and B1/B2/Aliengo. The industry - grade products can be used in applications such as power or security inspections, heavy - load transportation, and exploration.

The general - purpose humanoid products include H1/H1 - 2, the models that appeared on the Spring Festival Gala, which are not currently available for sale in the official flagship store. The G1 has a retail version, with an official starting price of 99,000 yuan, and it is a frequent presence on short - video platforms. In addition, Unitree Technology has also launched two customized models for the G1 for specific application scenarios, namely the G1 - Comp (for football) and the Iron Fist King (for boxing).

Tendering and bidding have undoubtedly supported Unitree Technology's ToB market. According to Qichacha, since its establishment in 2016, Unitree Technology has successfully won 111 bids, mainly from state - owned enterprises and universities, such as China Mobile, State Grid Liaoning Electric Power, and Tongji University. The application scenarios involve inspections, scientific research, and teaching.

Take Tongji University as an example. The "Procurement Contract for General - Purpose Humanoid Robot Training Platform Equipment" it tendered was worth 8.2566 million yuan. It purchased 10 units of the H1 - 2 model at a unit price of 700,000 yuan each. The other costs should be for software services and maintenance.

In terms of retail, Unitree Technology has opened brand flagship stores on JD.com and Tmall. Among them, the Unitree Go2 robotic dog, which costs more than 9,000 yuan, has a sales volume of more than 3,000 units on each platform, making it the best - selling product. The Unitree G1, which costs more than 90,000 yuan, is only available on JD.com (with 12 default positive reviews) and is not available in the Tmall flagship store. There is also an EDU version of the Unitree G1 on JD.com, priced at 169,000 yuan, which is only available to enterprise members.

In the reviews on JD.com, 96% of buyers gave positive reviews, specifically: 93 positive reviews, 1 medium review, and 3 negative reviews. Through an analysis of the reviews, the consumers of Unitree Technology's Go2 are basically technology enthusiasts with a certain economic strength, and the purchase purposes are mainly for parent - child companionship, video shooting (for self - media), display, and leasing. Among them, the reasons for negative reviews include a large gap between the performance and the online promotion and the fact that the consumer version does not support secondary development.

Leasing is an important secondary market for Unitree robots. On platforms such as Xianyu, there are a large number of leasing services for consumer - grade robots such as the Unitree Go2 and G1. Currently, the daily rental price of robotic dogs can be as low as 99 yuan, and the rental price of the G1 robot is usually below 2,000 yuan. Previously, thanks to the exposure during the Spring Festival Gala, Unitree robots were once in high demand in the leasing market, and the daily rental price of the G1 reached as high as 10,000 yuan. However, as more and more merchants enter this market, the rental price has naturally dropped significantly.

According to media reports, the popularity of the robot leasing industry began to decline during the May Day holiday this year, and the costs have gradually increased. A merchant said that during product performances, audiences often ask: "Can the robot do farm work? Can it take care of my child?" This shows that the audience hopes to see more than just performances. Therefore, the merchant recently invested hundreds of thousands of yuan to purchase the customizable G1 EDU version and hired a third - party company for secondary programming and development to increase the performance's attractiveness and obtain a higher rental price.

Based on the above information, it can be judged that only a few models of Unitree Technology's products can be used in industrial scenarios, and most are used for display, performance, and scientific research. In this field, new competitors are constantly emerging, such as Songyan Power and Zhongqing Robotics. As pre - programmed, electrically - driven robots, the prices of some products dropped to 49,900 yuan during the 6.18 shopping festival this year, and the market is gradually becoming saturated.

Uncertainty in Future Growth Path

It is certain that Unitree Technology is a high - tech enterprise with a certain degree of innovation ability. Especially through its continuous investment in robot electrification, motion performance, and stability, while riding on the wave of robot development, it has focused on the limited application scenarios at this stage and achieved commercialization, successfully earning its "first pot of gold."

While being highly sought after by capital, Unitree Technology has also received extraordinary attention and expectations