Unitree Hangzhou factory tour and IPO filings show humanoids and robot dogs mostly hand-assembled, with $1.7 million of machinery for almost 32,000 robots
Investor Josef Chen, founder of KAIKAKU, toured Unitree's Hangzhou factory on Nov. 4 and saw "one or two new automated lines" in the actuator building, with the rest of the floor staffed by people running winding machines. Citing Unitree's IPO prospectus, he reports the company's machinery was worth about $1.7 million on its books at the end of 2025, when it made almost 32,000 robots, roughly $50 per robot. Direct labour was 8.1% of 2025 cost of goods, per Humanoids Daily's read of the filings. Unitree expects its new motor line to cut labour per motor by more than half but one model's cost by only 1.7%. Three quarters of humanoid revenue in the first nine months of 2025 came from research and education. Servospace take: at US wages Chen puts labour near 40% of cost, so the money is in the machines that build robots.
Source: Josef Chen (Nov. 5, 2026): I Toured Unitree's Factory. I'm More Bullish on the West Than Ever.
More on Unitree, humanoid robot and robot business and funding.
Sources
- Josef Chen (Nov. 5, 2026): I Toured Unitree's Factory. I'm More Bullish on the West Than Ever.
- Humanoids Daily (Nov. 7, 2026): Inside Unitree's Hangzhou Factory, Robots Are Still Mostly Built by Hand
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Summarized by Servospace from the sources above, drafted with AI help and checked against those sources before publishing. Claims are the companies' or outlets' unless we say otherwise. How we work.