Unitree unveils Superman robot ahead of Shanghai debut

Unitree Robotics revealed its ‘Superman’ humanoid robot on Monday, with a reported top running speed of 12.66 meters per second and a two-meter standing jump, beating every human on record. The reveal comes only two days before Unitree starts publicly trading in Shanghai, after one of the most oversubscribed tech listings the market has seen.

‘Superman’ hits flying numbers

Superman cleared a two-meter standing high jump on legs measuring 0.85 meters, and hit 12.66 m/s, which is equal to 45.6 km/h in speed. The compared human marks the robot beat for the respective actions are a 1.8-meter standing jump and a 12.4 m/s sprint.

Usain Bolt reached a max speed of 12.42 m/s during his 2009 world-record race, meaning the ‘Superman” robot is faster than the world’s fastest man ever managed, if Unitree’s figures hold true.

The robotics company has, however, not released any independent verification for these figures, with the numbers all coming from a company video and not an independently measured event.

Unitree New Robot Preview: “Superman” Breaking the Limits of Humanity🥳
Standing high jump 2 m, top speed 12.66 m/s (0.85 m leg length)
Surpassing the standing high jump and running speed records of all humans around the world
This new machine has only been in development for a… pic.twitter.com/12i80ITU6p

— Unitree (@UnitreeRobotics) August 17, 2026

Three months of development

Unitree also stated that its engineers built the robot in a little over three months, and that the humanoid robot’s current hardware leaves plenty of room for improvement. The company’s founder, Wang Xingxing, hinted at the possibility back in March at the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum.

He predicted that humanoid machines would break human sprint limits by mid-2026, referring to cheaper parts and better algorithms as the reason for such a possibility.

The robotics company had introduced the As2W some weeks before, a wheeled quadruped robot built for cargo. The As2W weighs 25 kilograms, can carry a recorded max load of 180 kilograms, and can move a cargo of up to 16 kilograms continuously.

Unitree IPO close at hand

Unitree priced its coming IPO listing at 150.8 yuan and raised about 6.1 billion yuan, almost $905 million, in a deal that places the company’s valuation at about $9 billion. The IPO was oversubscribed by over 5000 times, and the company raked in 45% more than the 4.2 billion yuan it had initially targeted.

Real revenue also adds to the valuation, as sales hit 1.7 billion yuan last year, more than four times the 2024 figure, with net profit of 591 million yuan. Unitree sold over 5,500 humanoid units across all its G1, H1, and R1 units in 2025, with most of these going to research labs and entertainment buyers instead of factories and manufacturers.

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