How China trains your robot dog

In the tech arena, how well four legs fare matters in the two-legged race.

- Catherine Thorbecke

Humanoid robots have been getting a lot of buzz in 2025. But quadrupeds - the mechanical “dogs” — are emerging as the true proving ground for embodied artificial intelligence.

These four-legged machines have an edge over their upright cousins in stability and agility, making them better suited for real-world deployment. They are the “most advanced general-purpose robots today”, according to a report released last week from Semianalysis.

China, not the US, already dominates.

Looking at the most recent publicly available statements, the analysts found that Hangzhou Unitree Technology currently leads the market, capturing some 70 per cent of global sales volume for quadrupeds in 2023. The numbers have likely surged since, but even two years ago, Unitree had 10 times the total shipments of its next competitor, US-based Boston Dynamics.

It’s a lead that will be difficult for the US to claw back.

Quadruped robots are fast evolving from backflipping tech demos to serious test beds for computer systems navigating the real world — the same functions humanoids need to unlock to truly become commercially viable.

Understanding how the four-legged market has progressed offers a preview for who might win the humanoid race, which Mr Elon Musk is betting the future of Tesla on. Morgan Stanley forecasts that this market could surpass US$5 trillion (S$6.5 trillion) by 2050.