I Toured Unitree's Factory. I'm More Bullish on the West

I toured Unitree's factory in Hangzhou and was not permitted to take photographs. In the building where actuators, or motors that drive every joint of the robots, are manufactured, there were one or two new automated lines. The majority of the workspace was occupied by human operators using traditional winding machines, which involve wrapping copper wire around a motor's core.

The factory's automation level was evident through a viral video that garnered 28 million views, showcasing a humanoid performing assembly tasks within the factory, labeled as an "actual deployment." Unitree's IPO prospectus describes this as a pilot, with the company's prospectus stating that assembly is currently mainly manual.

As of the end of 2025, Unitree's machinery was valued at approximately $1.7 million on its books, compared to the production of nearly 32,000 robots that year, which amounted to roughly $50 of machinery per robot.

Human labor accounted for 8% of the total cost to manufacture Unitree's robots in 2025, including outsourced assemblers. The remainder of the expenses were primarily attributed to parts. The humanoid robots produced at Unitree's factory in 2025 totaled 26,000 units, surpassing the estimated 20,000 units shipped globally by the industry.

Consequently, the potential savings from automation are limited; reducing a cost that constitutes 8% of the total expense by half would result in a 4% reduction. Unitree anticipates that the motor line under construction will cut labor costs by more than half for each motor and decrease the cost of one robot model by under 2%.

Unitree's labor costs per robot have roughly halved since 2023, attributed to a combination of scale, standardized processes, and a more skilled workforce. None of these improvements are directly related to machines; two improvements are attributed to kaizen, a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement. The primary reason behind Unitree's decision to build by hand is rooted in the showroom.

The factory's CEO, Wang Xingxing, demonstrated Unitree's CEO's request to a GPT-6 AI to fetch him a bottle of water from another room, which it successfully executed, albeit slowly. Unitree's slide from last year, which predicts robots achieving 80% of tasks they've never encountered 80% of the time within two to three years, suggests that humanoid robots will primarily serve as toys for researchers and educators for the foreseeable future.

Research and educational applications accounted for three-quarters of Unitree's humanoid revenue during the first nine months of 2025, while industrial applications, including factories, contributed less than 5% (with over half of the revenue classified under "industry" being robots used for guided tours at companies). The company's CEO expressed a personal desire to own a rideable mecha, the GD01, priced at $650,000, which he has wanted since childhood.

The mecha's primary purpose remains unclear, as it is a custom-built product designed for the current market and will likely become obsolete or outdated within a year.