China's humanoid robots are steps ahead of Musk's

As Elon Musk touted plans to eventually manufacture an army of Tesla bots in Silicon Valley this month, humanoid robots were already being produced and sold to consumers in China.

- Stephanie Yang

STUDENTS in China last month interact with a teacher's assistant robot.

Chinese and U.S. companies have begun a battle to build the world's best bots. Although it's early days, experts say China is leading in the quantity of robots delivered to consumers, while America is ahead in the quality of robots demonstrated.

Musk danced with Tesla's Optimus bots at his company's shareholder meeting and outlined plans for a factory in Fremont that he said will someday have the capacity to build a million bots a year, which would sell for around $20,000 in today's dollars. One of China's leading robotics companies, Unitree Robotics, already has a humanoid robot on the market that can walk, dance and perform basic tasks. Its least expensive version costs around $6,000.

Although the inexpensive Unitree bot is far less sophisticated than Optimus, its early entrance into the real-world market at an affordable price demonstrates China's edge. The country has the parts, the production facilities and the pool of labor required to bring the rapidly evolving robots to market quickly and cheaply, said P.K. Tseng, an analyst at the tech consulting firm TrendForce.

"The U.S. leads in technological innovation, while China excels in speed of implementation," he said. "The real turning point will arrive when humanoid robots move beyond R&D prototypes to large-scale deployment.

CHINESE firms have far outpaced the U.S. in robots unveiled since 2022, one report said. Above, at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing in August.