Unitree Reports 17% Profit Drop in First Earnings Since IPO

HANGZHOU, China — China’s Unitree Robotics saw its net profit fall by 17.4 percent in the third quarter even though its sales almost doubled due to higher spending on artificial intelligence research and development.

It is the first quarterly earnings statement for the maker of humanoid robots after going public in August.

According to the report issued Oct. 28, net income attributable to shareholders dropped to 113 million yuan ($16.9 million) in the July-September quarter, while revenue surged by 69.9 percent to 665 million yuan. Profit excluding non-recurring gains and losses dropped by 17.4 percent to 105 million yuan in the third quarter.

Spending on research and development climbed to 127 million yuan in the third quarter, an increase of 250 percent from a year ago, which accounted for 19.1 percent of quarterly sales.

The rise was attributed to the higher investment in embodied AI including foundation models, computing capacity, the growth of its research team and new products.

Revenue increased by 55.7 percent to 1.82 billion yuan for the first nine months of 2026, whereas the reported net profit soared by 271 percent to 387 million yuan. Profit, excluding nonrecurring items, fell by 18.8 percent to 349 million yuan during the same period.
According to Unitree, the rapid rise in the nine-month profit was due to one-off expenses relating to share-based compensation expenses during the same period in 2025. In other words, the comparison is not representative of a better performance of the underlying profit.

During the first nine months, the company spent 263 million yuan on research and development, which is 191 percent higher compared to the previous year. Operating cash flow dropped by 54.7 percent to 194 million yuan.

Unitree produces humanoid and quadruped robots like the G1 and H-series humanoids. The quarterly report does not include information about revenues from different types of robots or sales of humanoids.