Inside Unitree's factory: China's humanoids are still mostly hand-built
What happened? Josef Chen, co-founder of food-robotics startup KAIKAKUDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, toured Unitree's factory in Hangzhou this week and came away arguing that China's humanoid boom is still largely hand-built. In the building that makes the actuators (the motors that drive every joint), he saw one or two new automated lines; the rest of the floor was staffed by people operating conventional coil-winding machines. He published his account and analysis on his blog and on X on 6 November 2026.
The numbers behind it: Citing Unitree's IPO prospectus and exchange filings, Chen notes that assembly is described as "currently mainly manual", and that all of Unitree's machinery was worth about $1.7 million on its books at the end of 2025, a year in which it made almost 32,000 robots (roughly $50 of machinery per robot). Direct labour was about 8% of the cost of making its robots in 2025, with most of the rest being parts. Unitree's own estimate for the motor line it is building is that it cuts labour per motor by more than half but the total cost of one robot model by under 2%. Around three quarters of its humanoid revenue in the first nine months of 2025 came from research and education, and under 5% from factory or other industrial work.
Why it matters for the West: Chen's argument is that automation only pays once a product design stops changing, and humanoids are still redesigned every year, so Chinese makers rationally rely on cheap hands. At American wages, he estimates, labour would be about 40% of Unitree's costs, making the same motor line worth around 9% of a robot's cost rather than 1.7%. With the FCC having stopped approving new humanoids and robot dogs unless they are made in the US with more than 65% American parts by cost, he sees the "machines that make robots" as the opening for Western builders, pointing to FigureDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s BotQ ramp, 1X's in-house motor lines in California, actuator maker Westmag and Agility Robotics, which listed on Nasdaq on 5 November after a SPAC deal raising about $465 million, including a ~$201 million PIPE led by Foxconn (Agility).
The bigger picture: Dealroom's humanoid robotics charts show China taking 63% of global humanoid robotics funding in 2026 (US 12%, Europe 15%), with humanoid VC at $11.0 billion versus $4.8 billion in 2025 — see Humanoid robotics, in charts.
Source: Josef Chen, “I Toured Unitree's Factory. I'm More Bullish on the West Than Ever.” The views on Western opportunity are Chen's own; cost figures are his reading of Unitree's public filings.
