American versus Chinese in the race for the humanoid robot - one sells expensive confidence, the other cheap access. We're tracking who wins customers, not just investors.
Figure was founded in 2022 by Brett Adcock - an American entrepreneur who had previously sold the hiring platform Vettery. His team is built from people who worked at Boston Dynamics (the robotics pioneer known for its Spot robot dogs) and at Tesla. Figure's robots are already working real shifts at a BMW factory in South Carolina - loading parts on the conveyor, motion by motion, without a break. The company doesn't sell the robot freely, it leases it under contract to industrial clients. At its last funding round, investors valued it at 39 billion dollars, without Figure having shown how many robots actually work outside the pilot plant.
Unitree went the opposite way. Founded in 2016 by Wang Xingxing in the Chinese city of Hangzhou, the company first became known for small robot dogs that do backflips and take kicks without falling over - a toy at first glance, but actually a demonstration of balance and motors that later go into a bigger robot. This fall Unitree launched the humanoid G1 at around 16,000 dollars, while competing models cost as much as a luxury car. It's being bought by research labs, universities, and more and more factories that want to experiment without waiting on a contract with an American company.
The difference in approach is the difference between the two companies. Figure sells confidence - an expensive robot, a closed deal, advertising as the future of labor. Unitree sells accessibility - a robot you can buy tomorrow and take apart to see how it works inside. Both strategies win investors. So far, only one wins customers.
What you can see from below
I can't decide which of the two worries me more - a robot that does a whole factory shift without complaining, or a robot that costs as much as a vacation and anyone can buy it, even you. Both end up in the same place, just at different speeds.
As a designer I've seen enough products sold on a promise to tell a demo video from a real shop floor. Figure has a factory - just one, for now. Unitree has a price - but not a finished task. Both companies are, for now, selling the future. The real test comes the day a robot from either of them works a full shift alone, with no technician nearby.