Who is Wang Xingxing, 35-year-old CEO behind Unitree humanoid bots?

Earlier this week President Xi held a summit of top business executives in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People that was attended by Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu, New Hope chairman Liu Yonghao, Will Semiconductor chairman Yu Renrong, and Xiaomi chairman Lei Jun among others.

Wang found himself among this elite group despite his young age. The founder and CEO of Unitree Robotics, maker of humanoid bots, was seated alongside the Huawei and BYD representatives opposite Xi.

Speaking to the media after the summit, Wang emphasized the importance of robotics and forecast that AI-powered humanoid bots would "reach a whole new level" by the end of this year. "AI-integrated bots are growing very rapidly, even faster than I expected, and they’re bringing me big surprises every day," he said. "We need AI models fit for these robots. Once there is a fit, training them with better computing power will drive further advancements in this field."

Inventor who failed all his exams

Wang Xingxing was born in Ningbo city of Zhejiang province. Unlike other tech founders, who were typically academically gifted, Wang’s early school journey was riddled with failures.

Wang Xingxing at a Unitree event. Photo by Unitree Robotics

Speaking with Chinese news outlet Yicai last year he revealed he always had low scores in English, never faring well in important exams in the subject. His teachers were often frustrated by his lack of retention and often called him a "foolish child". In other subjects, he described his performance as "average". "I was always at or near the bottom of the class," he shared.

But that "foolish" child found a space of his own. Since childhood Wang had a knack for invention. With his meager allowance, he created many knick-knacks from scrap, from model airplanes to rechargeable batteries to turbine engines. Once he almost got poisoned after being too occupied with his experiments.

He told Yicai: "Once I tried to electrolyze water. Electrolysis creates chlorine, and I left the contraption on the first floor and forgot to turn it off. When I woke up the next morning the entire lower floor smelled of chlorine; I almost poisoned my entire family."

Despite an unimpressive school record, Wang was admitted to the Zhejiang University of Science & Technology. Immediately upon entering, he made it a habit to visit workshops with the intention of making robots.

Speaking about his university days Wang recounted how he had nothing by way of resources, support or tools to foster his passion except for a hand saw. Without a grinder, he ground every part on the floor by hand until his hands became swollen and raw.

But he had truly found his passion, pursued it doggedly, felt he excelled, and grew in confidence.

After graduating he applied to Shanghai University to pursue postgraduate studies in mechanical engineering. He believed that small, electric, highly flexible four-legged robots would be the way of the future. He made them the focus of his master’s program, and they have been his bread and butter ever since.

In 2015, while doing his postgraduate program, Wang took part in a robot design competition. His XDog, which he built from scrap, engines from model airplanes, and other self-made parts, won the second prize worth RMB80,000 (US$12,700 at the time). More importantly, this was the precursor to Wang becoming a household name in low-cost, high-performance four-legged robots.

"In fact, most innovations in society are amalgams," he said to Yicai. "You can combine the latest ideas and technologies from various industries to ensure that it is cutting-edge, and you can actually be the best in the world."

Wang completed his master’s program in 2016. He then met with a few investors, but thinking that the market was not yet mature, he initially shelved his startup dreams and joined DJI, the market leader in civilian autonomous drones, as an engineer.

Around this time, XDog unexpectedly went viral, gaining Wang fame in media and tech circles including on social media, putting him in the sights of major companies which offered to buy or invest in XDog. Rebuffing offers to sell off XDog, he quit DJI and founded Yushu Technology (known internationally as Unitree Robotics) in August 2016 at age 26.

Exponential growth

Within just a few years Unitree Robotics gained widespread recognition as the first to commercialize high-performance four-legged robots.

In 2021 Unitree launched Go1, a four-legged robot model similar to Boston Dynamics’s Spot. Go1 was equipped with 12 engines, each with a maximum torque of 23.7 newton-meters and 280 RPMs, and could move across various surfaces, including sand, rock and soil. At the time U.S. publication The Wall Street Journal called these robotic dogs a major Chinese tech achievement.

Around this time many people deemed Unitree "the Chinese Boston Dynamics," but Wang himself said he never saw the American company as competition. "Around 2013-2015, when I was making XDog, they had not even figured out electric actuators. We were also the first to market with four-legged robots. You might think we are similar to Boston Dynamics, but we’re on our own path."

After 2021 Unitree started working on humanoid bots. It launched H1 in 2023 and followed up with G1 in 2024, mass-produced and priced at around US$16,000.

The company’s robots also made appearances at major events such as CES 2024, Nvidia GTC, the World Robot Conference in Beijing, and cultural and sports events like the Olympics. During this year’s CCTV Spring Festival Gala, Unitree robots, equipped with advanced voice recognition and sentiment AI, performed a folk dance alongside human dancers. Unitree said the occasion marked "the first performance by AI-powered, fully automated and large-scale humanoid bots in the world."

Wang says that his experience in poverty serves him well. "In difficulty, self-motivation allows you to think clearly about what you truly want to achieve and break that down, make progress every day, and see things through. Ultimately, all that effort will pay off."

Wang is very optimistic about the future. He thinks that AI will bring radical changes to human life in the next three to five years. He thinks Gen Z tech entrepreneurs like him are very fortunate to capture the explosive growth of AI and new opportunities from new technologies. He hopes that each technology can grow into a vast network of innovations, forming a 'technology tree' that enlightens and improves human life.