Unitree’s 'Superman' Robot Claims to Outrun Usain Bolt 

The Chinese robot maker alleges its newest humanoid broke two human world records. 

HANGZHOU, China — Chinese robotics maker Unitree Robotics has given the world yet another reason to watch its upcoming Shanghai stock debut: a humanoid robot that, by the company's own numbers, now moves faster than the fastest human ever timed. 

"Superman" recently unveiled claims a top running speed of 12.66 meters per second (45.6 km/h) and a two-meter standing jump on 0.85-meter legs—both exceeding existing human world records, if true. 

For scale, Usain Bolt's peak stride during his 2009 100-meter world record has been measured at roughly 12.42 m/s.  

Unitree claims its engineers-built Superman in just over three months and that the hardware is still unfinished, with more performance expected.  

Editor’s note: The company has not yet published independent verification of the figures, and Robot24 testing is yet to confirm their claims. 

Right Time 

The look of Superman certainly doesn’t happen by chance. 

The disclosure of the robot comes days before Unitree's entry on Shanghai's STAR Market, the exchange of Nasdaq-style tech board; the IPO raised about $905 million (6.1 billion yuan) which values the firm at nearly $9 billion. 

The stock market record states that the retail investors oversubscribed their part of the offering over 8,000 times and that Unitree has become the first-ever publicly listed general-purpose robotics maker in China. 

It also coincides with the upcoming World Robot Conference opening in Beijing. 

Founder Wang Xingxing predicted this earlier this year at the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum, telling attendees that falling component costs and faster control software would let humanoids beat human sprint records by mid-2026. As per a report from VnExpress International, the company's H1 model had already hit 10.1 m/s on a track in April, making Superman its second speed claim this year.  

As of July, over the years, Unitree has cumulatively produced and delivered around 18,000 bipedal humanoids across its lineup. Nonetheless, industrial customers make up only 9% of their robot revenue while its profit fell by about half in Q1 2026 even as shipments increased. 

According to independent researchers such as Interact Analysis, annual humanoid shipments across the entire industry will remain at below 100,000 units, and there will not be broad adoption on factory floors until the 2030s.