Unitree unveils a robot it says can run faster than Usain Bolt ahead of its IPO
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Key takeaways
- Unitree Robotics, one of China’s leading humanoid‑robot makers, has taken center stage in the latest wave of robotic breakthroughs.
- In mid‑August the company unveiled a new “Superman” humanoid that can leap two metres vertically and sprint at 12.66 metres per second—speeds that exceed the world‑record high‑jump and sprint performances of elite athletes such as Usain Bolt.
- The robot was demonstrated at the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing, where its back‑flipping and kung‑fu moves also drew headlines.
- On the same week Unitree completed a blockbuster IPO on Shanghai’s STAR market, with its shares soaring more than 460 % above the offer price and briefly spiking as much as 629 %, underscoring intense investor enthusiasm for Chinese embodied‑AI.
- Despite the rapid hardware advances, Unitree’s founder Wang Xingxing cautioned that a “ChatGPT moment” for humanoid robots—when they can reliably generalise across tasks and execute precise movements through conversational AI—may still be up to ten years away.
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The latest news and analysis on robotics, from humanoid AI to real-world automation.
The latest news and analysis on robotics, from humanoid AI to real-world automation.
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By Tom Carter Unitree, a Chinese robotics firm that is set to go public at a $9 billion valuation on Wednesday, unveiled a new "Superman" humanoid robot on Monday that it says can outrun and outjump top human athletes.
The company said the robot, which has been in development for just three months, can reach a top speed of 12.66 meters per second (m/s) — faster than the roughly 12.4 m/s top speed achieved by Usain Bolt during his world-record 100m run in 2009. Bolt took 9.58 seconds to cover the distance, whereas Unitree's robot would take 7.90 seconds if it maintained its top speed throughout.
Unitree also said that Superman can jump two meters vertically into the air, beating the human world record for a standing high jump. Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot, which Elon Musk has said will cost around $25,000, is expected to enter production by the end of 2026, and several other US humanoid startups have said they expect to begin limited customer deliveries this year.
US robotics fans hoping to pick up a Unitree Superman are likely to be disappointed. The Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on some new foreign-made advanced robots last month, a move that US robotics startup founders warned could hurt their ability to compete with Unitree and other Chinese firms.
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