Unitree Robotics produced 26,032 quadruped robots and 5,716 humanoid robots in 2025, according to the prospectus for its STAR Market listing in Shanghai (prospectus). At the end of 2025 its machinery had an original value of ¥13.12 million, the filing shows.
The same filing puts direct labor at 8.08% of Unitree’s 2025 main businesscost, down from 13.97% in 2023, while it paid ¥68.03 million in labor outsourcing fees in 2025, more than the ¥53.96 million of direct labor.
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The key insight: Unitree’s STAR Market prospectus shows 31,748 robots produced in 2025 against machinery with an original value of 13.12 million yuan, with direct labor at 8.08% of main businesscost and labor outsourcing fees of 68.03 million yuan.
Unitree’s filing says its assembly of finished robots and components is mainly manual work, using large-scale outsourced labor, and that automated production lines and related machinery are a relatively small share of its investment. It says outsourced workers mainly do repetitive, less technical assembly and testing, plus warehouse and cleaning work.
Labor outsourcing fees rose from ¥11.62 million in 2023 to ¥19.22 million in 2024 and ¥68.03 million in 2025, the filing shows. Unitree says it plans to build automated production lines to ease its labor needs, and that outsourcing should fall as those lines are built.
By production factor, 2025 main businesscost was ¥668.26 million: direct materials ¥546.16 million (81.73%), direct labor ¥53.96 million (8.08%) and manufacturing overhead ¥68.14 million (10.20%). Unitree attributes the rising materials share to scale and to humanoids, which it says carry a higher materials share.
Unitree, 2025: labor outsourcing fees of ¥68.0 million, direct labor of ¥54.0 million (8.08% of main businesscost) and machinery at an original value of ¥13.1 million at year-end. Data from Unitree’s STAR Market IPO prospectus, 14 August 2026.
Revenue and Margins
Unitree reports 2025 revenue of ¥1,699.27 million and net profit excluding one-offs of ¥590.75 million, with a main business gross margin of 60.13%, up from 44.22% in 2023. Humanoid robots brought in ¥867.83 million, or 51.78% of main businessrevenue, at a gross margin of 63.18%, down from 69.26% in 2024.
Unitree shipped 5,511 humanoids in 2025 and recognised revenue on 5,215, the filing shows. It warns that first-quarter 2026 revenuegrowth slowed to 68.49% and that net profit excluding one-offs fell 52.55% year on year.
Our Numbers
Unitree produced 31,748 robots in 2025, by our sum of its quadruped and humanoid output. Its machinery’s original value works out to about ¥413 per robot produced, by our arithmetic, and labor outsourcing fees were about 1.26 times direct labor.
A robotics founder who toured the factory, Josef Chen, cited about $1.7 million of machinery and roughly 32,000 robots in an X article embedded in our Atlas battery piece; the prospectus figures are ¥13.12 million of machinery at original value and 31,748 robots.
Connecting the Coverage
Unitree’s IPO set the first public price on humanoid robots (our piece). Hyundai’s Atlas is set to use 70 Samsung SDI cells, TheElec reported (our piece), a study found doctored video got AI models to attempt unsafe robot tasks (our piece), and a Glasgow hospital bought a surgical robot only for children (our piece).
The Structural Read
As we read the filing, the low labor share and the low machinery value point the same way: Unitree says assembly is mainly manual and relies on outsourced labor rather than automated lines.
As we read the cost table, materials dominate: direct materials were 81.73% of 2025 main businesscost, which Unitree links to the rising humanoid share.
As we read the growth figures, the filing also warns that first-quarter 2026 revenuegrowth slowed to 68.49%.
Three Implications
FOR AUTOMATION Unitree says it plans to build automated production lines to ease its labor needs and expects outsourcing to fall as they are built.
FOR MARGINS Unitree reports a 2025 main business gross margin of 60.13%, with humanoids at 63.18%.
FOR VOLUME Unitree reports producing 5,716 humanoids and 26,032 quadrupeds in 2025.
The analysis says: “We are entering a phase where four scaling laws are simultaneously shaping the AI ecosystem, while several converging forces are radically transforming the physical layers underpinning AI itself.”
As we read it, how a robot maker assembles hardware is one of those physical-layer questions. The analysis does not discuss Unitree.
What Is Not Established
The prospectus does not say, in the sections we read, where labor outsourcing fees sit within the cost breakdown, so the two labor figures should not be added. The filing gives no single cost per robot. We did not find a revenue split by customer type confirming that three quarters of humanoid revenue came from research and education.
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Unitree’s prospectus shows 31,748 robots produced in 2025 against ¥13.12 million of machinery at original value, with assembly done mainly by hand and outsourcing fees of ¥68.03 million, above direct labor of ¥53.96 million. The company says it plans automated lines to reduce that reliance.
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A note on sourcing. Figures are from Unitree Robotics’ STAR Market IPO prospectus, published 14 August 2026, translated from Chinese; robot totals, per-robot machinery value and the outsourcing-to-labor ratio are our arithmetic. This is not investment advice.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
