Robotics Special: Unitree lands a blockbuster IPO

Welcome back, Superhuman. They said it couldn’t be done. For years, Unitree robots had been inching increasingly close to breaking Usain Bolt’s speed record. Now, the company claims its latest ‘Superman’ humanoid has finally surpassed the coveted milestone. The breakthrough came days before a blockbuster IPO for the company, valuing the robot maker at an eye-watering $50 billion.

1. Unitree's stock jumps nearly five-fold in Shanghai IPO: Unitree’s shares soared over 460% above its IPO price on its Shanghai debut, closing at 845 yuan and valuing the company at around $50 billion. The company, which is one of the few humanoid robot makers actually turning a profit, has far outpaced the average first-day pop for Chinese listings this year. Founder Wang Xingxing, whose stake is now worth more than $11 billion, has claimed that the industry is on the cusp of its ‘ChatGPT moment’.

2. Unitree claims its new robot can outrun the world’s fastest man. Days before its blockbuster IPO, the firm pulled the curtains back on Superman, a humanoid that reportedly hits 12.7 m/s, edging out Usain Bolt's record-setting speed of 12.4 m/s. The robot can also clear a 2-meter vertical jump, beating the human standing high jump record. Though the claims haven’t been independently verified, it's a striking marker of the pace at which China's robotics industry is moving. See the viral demo here.

3. Generalist AI unveils one-shot robot learning, stirring up PGI debates online: The startup's GEN-1.5 model can pick up a new physical skill from a single 3 to 12-second demo, a lot similar to how a human toddler learns. The robot succeeds on its first try 59% of the time, jumping to 83% after just a few minutes of extra practice. Some industry watchers are calling it an early sign of "physical general intelligence," though even Generalist admits the skills are still developmental. See the breakthrough unfold here.

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Tech Brew: Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com's new 24-hour coffee shop in Beijing runs on a single robot that takes orders from a touchscreen, then grinds, brews, and delivers drinks through cubby holes without any human input. In under 30 seconds per cup, it served 202 drinks — a quirky preview of how automation is quietly reshaping even the most routine, everyday errands. You can see the unique concept in action here.

Home Bot: San Francisco startup Nor Robotics unveiled Nori A3, a wheeled humanoid robot that ships this fall for $1,688, a fraction of the six-figure price tags typical in the industry. It can lift 55 kilograms, fetch food, pour drinks, and comes with an app store where owners can share skills they've taught it. It's a real signal that home robots are inching toward affordability for the average household. See the robot in action here.

Build Machine: Construction is underway at Cleora, a 55-acre development in Salida, Colorado, that will eventually include 106 homes, with more than 65 built using 3D-printing robots. Seven homes are already finished and sold, with two autonomous printing systems currently working the site. It's one of the largest tests yet of whether robotic construction can scale beyond single showcase homes to solving real housing shortages.

Here are the biggest developments in the robotics space that you should know about:

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Your ‘friend from work’ could now just be a lamp.

Autonomous Labs just dropped Lamp, a $499 robotic desk lamp that packs a camera in its head, five motors in the joints, and a microphone and speakers that sit in the square base, so it can listen and talk. The head is a real desk lamp, with a ring of light that turns on. The hardware and software are open source.

You can check it out here.

This robot literally broke itself in half in training.

Ahead of Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games, a sprinting robot lost control on an indoor track, failed to brake, and slammed into a padded barrier hard enough to snap at the waist — a blunt reminder that humanoid balance and braking are still very much unsolved problems. The games kick off today.

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Zain, Faiq, and the Superhuman AI team