China’s humanoid robots have mastered it kung fu, boxingAnd serving your coffee – and now they leave the fastest man in the world in the dust.
Unitree, a Chinese robotics company which is expected to go public on Wednesday at a valuation of $9 billion, on Monday unveiled a new humanoid robot “Superman” that it says can outpace and surpass top human athletes.
The company said the robot, which has only been in development for three months, can reach a top speed of 12.66 meters per second (m/s) – faster than the top speed of roughly 12.4 m/s that Usain Bolt achieved during his world record 100-meter run in 2009. Bolt took 9.58 seconds to cover the distance, while Unitree’s robot would take 7.90 seconds if it ran all the time. would maintain its top speed.
Unitree also said that Superman can jump two meters vertically into the air and thus… human world record for standing high jump.
The robot’s unveiling comes ahead of Unitree’s highly anticipated IPO on Wednesday. The humanoid robot manufacturer is about to go public in Shanghai, a milestone for China’s booming robotics industry. Documents show that the retail investor allocation in the IPO is more than 5,000 times oversubscribed.
Usain Bolt ran like a machine, but now machines run faster than the Jamaican sprinter’s world record pace. Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Business Insider could not independently verify Unitree’s claim that the Superman robot had broken human speed records.
The humanoid robotics industry has an excellent track record of producing flashy demos, but limitations in the underlying AI systems have meant that humanoids have not yet been widely adopted in factories, service industries and other real-world situations.
With its spindly legs and clumsy walking style, Unitree’s Superman robot isn’t as elegant as its flagship G1 Android, one of which wowed onlookers at China’s Spring Festival gala with backflips and kung fu earlier this year.
However, it is more evidence of how quickly China’s robotics industry is accelerating. Unitree will ship nearly 6,000 humanoid robots in the first half of 2026, data from the business intelligence company shows Smart analyzes worldwide.
Unitree sells robots in a wide variety of form factors and price points, from the $13,500 dancing G1 humanoid to the $650,000 GD01, a gloriously impractical giant mecha that can smash through walls and transform into a four-legged vehicle.
The emerging humanoid robot market, which Morgan Stanley analysts say could be worth $7.5 trillion by 2050, is dominated by Unitree and its local rivals. American humanoid robots are still a long way from mass commercial launches.
Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot, which Elon Musk has said he will costs about $25,000is expected to enter production in late 2026, and several other US humanoid startups have said they expect limited deliveries to customers this year.
American robotics fans hoping to get their hands on a Unitree Superman are likely to be disappointed. The Federal Communications Commission announced a ban on a number of new foreign-made advanced robots last month, a move that the U.S Founders of robotics startups warned could harm their ability to compete with Unitree and other Chinese companies.
