Unitree and Ex Robots are quickly pushing Ubtech out of the game.
Recently, two huge winning bids have completely unveiled the "competition between the old and the new" in the humanoid robot track.
On June 25th, the procurement and bidding website of China Mobile announced a winning bid message. Shanghai Zhiyuan New Creation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhiyuan") and Hangzhou Unitree Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Unitree") successfully won the procurement project of humanoid biped robot OEM services of China Mobile (Hangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hangzhou China Mobile") from 2025 to 2027. The total budget of the target project is about 120 million yuan. Tianyancha shows that Hangzhou China Mobile is a subsidiary of China Mobile.
The above - mentioned project is divided into two small procurement packages. Among them, procurement package 1 is for the procurement of full - sized humanoid biped robots with a budget of 78 million yuan, which was won by Zhiyuan; procurement package 2 is for the procurement of small - sized biped robots, computing power backpacks, and five - finger dexterous hands with a budget of about 46 million yuan, which was won by Unitree.
This procurement has set the largest single (tender) order in China.
Image source: China Mobile Procurement and Bidding Network
However, soon this record was broken by UBTECH, the "leader" in the humanoid robot field.
On July 18th, Tianyancha updated a winning bid message. UBTECH successfully won a 90.5115 million yuan robot equipment procurement project of Miyi (Shanghai) Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. This is the largest single - winning bid amount procurement order among the publicly known global humanoid robot enterprises, breaking the winning bid record in the humanoid field.
Image source: China Tendering and Bidding Public Service Platform
In the past year, with the popularity of Unitree and Zhiyuan, UBTECH, which has been in a state of continuous losses, seemed a bit left out. Especially when Zhiyuan reverse - acquired A - share listed company Shangwei New Materials, pushing the competition for the "first humanoid robot stock" between it and Unitree to a climax, it seemed that people had forgotten that UBTECH, which was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange two years ago, was the "leader in the humanoid robot field".
01
The "Leader" in the Humanoid Field Loses Its Limelight
Unwilling to be outshined by Unitree and others, UBTECH began to "fight back".
On July 22nd, UBTECH issued a placement announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company signed a placement agreement with the placement agent to place 30.1555 million new H - shares at HK$82 per share. The total and net proceeds from the placement are approximately HK$2.47 billion and HK$2.41 billion respectively.
This is not UBTECH's first placement. In the past year, the company has launched a total of four placements. The first placement occurred in August 2024, with net proceeds of HK$120 million; the net proceeds from the subsequent three placements were HK$410 million, HK$550 million, and HK$880 million respectively, totaling HK$1.96 billion.
Judging from the disclosed reasons for the placement, they mainly focus on two points: 1. For the company's business operations and development; 2. To repay the due amounts under the credit business of financial institutions. Among them, the first four placements were used to repay the due amounts under the credit business of financial institutions, accounting for 74.99%, 37.58%, 65.04%, and 33.09% respectively.
In other words, at least more than half of the net proceeds from the company's first four placements were used to repay debts.
Previously, UBTECH repeatedly claimed to have signed procurement intention contracts for humanoid robots with many car companies. For example, in April this year, it announced that it had signed a procurement contract for large - scale biped humanoid robots with the purchaser. The relevant products are mainly the industrial humanoid robot Walker S1 and the commercial - version humanoid robot Walker C, which will be used in the production and manufacturing of automobile factories and commercial reception.
However, judging from the delivery situation, it is not ideal. According to comprehensive reports, in 2024, UBTECH only delivered 10 humanoid robots, contributing 35 million yuan in revenue, which forms a sharp contrast with its previous high - profile promotion of industrialization.
Data shows that from 2023 to 2024, UBTECH's revenues were 1.056 billion yuan and 1.305 billion yuan respectively, and its annual losses were 1.265 billion yuan and 1.16 billion yuan respectively. With low delivery volume and continuous losses, the market inevitably questions UBTECH's commercialization ability.
Image source: UBTECH's 2024 Annual Report
In contrast, the achievements of the rising star Unitree are much more impressive.
At the Summer Davos Forum in June this year, Wang Xingxing, the founder of Unitree, revealed that the company's annual revenue has exceeded 1 billion yuan. Previously, some investors also revealed that since 2020, Unitree has maintained a profitable state every year.
That is to say, Unitree's revenue has not only reached the scale of UBTECH, but it has also been profitable for many years.
Looking back, UBTECH actually missed many opportunities. For example, before Unitree became popular on the Spring Festival Gala, UBTECH had appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage four times, but unfortunately, it failed to gain the "appreciation" of the audience.
According to comprehensive reports, in the early years, due to internal route disputes, UBTECH also missed the best opportunity to layout quadruped robots. Unitree, on the other hand, accurately bet on quadruped robots, not only winning most of the market share but also achieving profitability first.
In addition, in terms of the delivery of humanoid robots, Unitree completely outperforms UBTECH.
Data from the GGII shows that in 2024, Unitree sold 23,700 robotic dogs, accounting for about 69.75% of the global market share; in the humanoid robot field, Unitree's delivery volume exceeded 1,500 units, which is more than 150 times that of UBTECH in the same period.
This inevitably makes UBTECH, with the halo of the "leader in the humanoid robot field", a bit embarrassed.
02
Two Rising Stars Overtake Strongly
UBTECH's poor performance in commercialization has made the market's pursuit of Unitree and Zhiyuan even more enthusiastic.
On the evening of July 8th, Shangwei New Materials issued an announcement stating that the share - holding platform under Zhiyuan will spend about 2.1 billion yuan to acquire 66.99% of the company's shares through "agreement transfer + tender offer". After the completion of the transaction, Deng Taihua, the actual controller of Zhiyuan, will become the actual controller of Shangwei New Materials.
As soon as the news came out, Shangwei New Materials recorded multiple daily limit ups after resuming trading. Wind data shows that from July 8th to 23rd, 2025, the increase or decrease of Shangwei New Materials was 641.65%. In just two weeks, the company's market value soared from more than 3 billion yuan to more than 20 billion yuan.
Screenshot from Wind
The market speculates that Zhiyuan's reverse - acquisition of Shangwei New Materials may be an attempt to "backdoor listing" to compete with Unitree for the "first humanoid robot stock". After all, previously, the outside world generally believed that Unitree under the leadership of Wang Xingxing was the first - choice candidate for the "first stock".
Shortly after Zhiyuan announced the acquisition, Unitree filed for guidance with the Zhejiang Securities Regulatory Bureau and disclosed the guidance record report for its initial public offering of stocks and listing. Tianyancha information shows that Wang Xingxing controls a total of 34.76% of the equity and has become the actual controller of Unitree. This enterprise, which originated from Zhejiang University, has a valuation of over 10 billion yuan after 9 years of development and just completed a Series C financing led by giants such as China Mobile, Tencent, and Alibaba in June this year.
This potential competition between the two not only makes the atmosphere more intense but also focuses the industry's attention on these two rising stars.
In contrast, in the past year, there were not many things about UBTECH that people could remember. Apart from its humanoid robots entering the workshops of various car companies for practical training, the most recent thing that attracted a little attention was the news that the humanoid robot "Tianguang Ultra", jointly developed by UBTECH, won the championship in the world's first robot marathon a few months ago.
Since Unitree became popular after this year's Spring Festival Gala, its humanoid robots have become popular on various social platforms. Especially with the continuous unlocking of various high - difficulty actions, the outside world has exclaimed that "the scenes that only exist in science fiction are starting to become a reality".
More importantly, Unitree has brought down the sky - high prices of humanoid robots. At the beginning of this year, the H1 and G1 humanoid robots launched by Unitree on JD.com are priced at 650,000 yuan and 99,000 yuan respectively. Compared with the humanoid robot products of its peers, which are often priced from hundreds of thousands to millions of yuan, Unitree can be called a "price slasher".
Not only leading in price, but also in application scenarios, Unitree has entered the industrial hinterland that UBTECH is proud of.
Wang Xingxing revealed that in 2024, Unitree had deployed humanoid robots in NIO's automobile factory to carry out on - site practical training such as handling parts and has been continuously promoting it; by the end of 2025, Unitree aims to achieve the goal of running a complete commercial loop for robots in industrial scenarios.
Zhiyuan also has obvious advantages in the implementation of industrial scenarios. Tianyancha shows that Zhiyuan has successively received investments from car companies such as SAIC Group, BAIC Group, and BYD, and its humanoid robot products have also successively entered the workshops of various factories.
For example, a few weeks ago, Zhiyuan held a live - broadcast of robots "going to work" in the factory - a three - hour live - broadcast was carried out with Annu Intelligence at the Mianyang Factory of Fuling Precision Industry. This was also the world's first live - broadcast of the normal operation of general embodied robots in an industrial field.
During the live - broadcast, Zhiyuan's self - developed A2 - W general embodied robot completed the task of transporting more than 800 turnover boxes in two shifts, with each shift transporting more than 400 boxes, demonstrating its stable operation ability in long - term and high - intensity environments.
In addition, as of the beginning of January this year, Zhiyuan has produced a total of 1,000 general embodied robots, and it is expected that the shipment volume in 2025 can reach several thousand units.
Beyond industrial scenarios, Unitree and Zhiyuan are also continuously deploying in application scenarios such as household use.
In terms of market popularity, product pricing, application scenarios, mass production and delivery, and commercialization, UBTECH is being strongly overtaken by Unitree and Zhiyuan. This also makes UBTECH, the "leader in the humanoid robot field", seem a bit unworthy of the name.
03
How Far Is It from Real Commercialization?
From UBTECH's "far - leading" position in the early stage, to the "three - way competition", and then to the "duel between two strong players" of Unitree and Zhiyuan, the key behind this is actually the divergence in path selection.
Unitree started from quadruped robots, occupying most of the global market share of quadruped robots, and used this to "feed" the R & D of biped humanoid robots. It has also successively launched humanoid robot products such as H1, H1 - 2, and G1, and is gradually exploring large - scale applications in scenarios such as industry, inspection, and logistics; Zhiyuan focuses on the R & D of full - sized humanoid robots.
Due to internal route disputes in the early years, UBTECH seemed a bit wavering. Although the company is now trying its best to seek diversified exploration to achieve a balance between commercialization and technology, its moat is not deep, and it has even fallen into the embarrassing situation of "starting early but arriving late".
Now, the humanoid robot industry is in a delicate stage of capital frenzy and technological collision, and there are constantly emerging new players. For example, in the first half of this year, the number and amount of investments in the embodied intelligence industry have exceeded those of the whole year of 2024. In the first half of July, at least 9 embodied intelligence companies such as Deep Robotics, Sainade, and Xingdong Jiyuan have announced that they have received financing.
This has added more competition for UBTECH.
However, from the industry perspective, UBTECH is not the only one facing risks. At the beginning of this year, Goldman Sachs poured cold water after an urgent investigation - the practical application of humanoid robots may still take 5 - 10 years; in the next 2 - 3 years, it is difficult for humanoid robots to achieve the same work efficiency as human workers.
The commercialization dilemma is an insurmountable mountain in the humanoid robot track. Even though Zhiyuan and Unitree jointly won the huge order from China Mobile Information, their large - scale application and commercialization still need to be verified.
It is worth mentioning that even Tesla, the leader in the industry, announced in early July this year that it would "strategically suspend" the mass - production plan of Optimus and launch a new round of technological rectification. Technical problems such as heavy - load dexterous hands, joint motors, and simplified mechanical