The leading Chinese robotics firm UBTECH just announced a historic milestone in the humanoid race with footage that Figure AI’s founder calls suspect.
The 1-minute-and-22-second video shows what UBTECH called the “world’s first mass delivery of humanoid robots.” The Shenzhen-based company said hundreds of its flagship Walker S2 industrial humanoids had been delivered to its partners.
“The future of industrial automation is here,” UBTECH said in a post on X. “March forward to transformation!”
Barely known in the West, UBTECH is aggressively scaling production of its diverse suit of AI-powered robots after scoring what’s being called the largest humanoid procurement deal ever. Launched in 2012, the Shenzhen firm started out selling small consumer-grade robots for STEM but has expanded its focus to industrial automation in recent years. UBTECH became the first Chinese humanoid company to go public, entering the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) shortly after the Chinese government set a national goal to mass produce humanoids by 2025 and to own the market by 2027.
Heading into 2026, the People’s Republic is well past its initial goal of manufacturing more than 10,000 fake humans before year’s end. By all accounts, one of the companies shipping the most units is UBTECH, though mainland competitors like Unitree Robotics, AgiBot, and NOETIX Robotics could beat it in sheer volume.
UBTECH reports that it’s secured more than $112 million in orders for its Walker industrial humanoids this year domestically. The company insists it’s on track to ship more than 500 humanoids in 2025, while exceeding annual production capacity of 1,000 units. In August 2025, the company reported $87 million in revenue, including a record-setting $35 million procurement contract with an undisclosed company. Though it’s still operating at a loss, UBTECH reports that revenue is up 28 percent YoY.
As UBTECH’s slick mass delivery video made the rounds on social media, some like Figure AI founder Brett Adcock questioned its authenticity. The CEO, who recently called the progress of China’s humanoid robotics scene greatly exaggerated, shared a screenshot on X highlighting ceiling lights reflecting from the humanoids’ heads as a signal the video is CGI.
“This came from the video release of this Chinese company delivering these (fake) robots to their customers,” he wrote.
Responses to his accusation were mixed. About a third of his post’s replies backed up Adcock’s take, pointing to the video’s perfectly synchronized marching and the robots’ end effectors suddenly changing from five fingers to grippers. A large wave of responses pushed back.
Taylor Organ, an investor who moved from Boston to Shenzhen, vouched for the video’s authenticity. He said employees had posted clips from the shoot on their WeChat Moments when it happened. Another user, @Scappinii, posted a photo apparently from the day of the shoot.
UBTECH clapped back with a behind-the-scenes video showing drone footage of the shoot in slow motion. The company didn’t respond directly to Adcock.
“They said it looked too perfect to be real, but perfection isn’t fabricated. It’s delicately engineered,” the company posted on X. “The next era of intelligent manufacturing is here. Let’s build it together!”
Adcock has been increasingly provocative with how he talks about the competition as he tries to frame his $39B startup’s Figure 03 humanoid as the world’s default general-purpose robot. On Nikhil Kamatht’s popular WTF podcast, the founder jabbed at established players, calling them outdated and failing. He didn’t name names but later called out Agility Robotics directly.
He said he believes Figure leads the world in humanoid robotics. He also rejected the notion that China is taking a lead in robotics innovation, saying they just “don’t work very well, to be frank.” He accused most of his major competitors of passing off teleoperated humanoid demos as autonomous. He called it “perhaps some of the most deceiving things I’ve ever seen.”
Adcock has been accused of exaggerating Figure AI’s progress as well. Earlier this year, Fortune reporter Jason Del Rey reported that Adcock’s claims about the work Figure humanoids are doing at BMW’s Spartanburg, SC plant were exaggerated. Adcock threatened lethal action, but the story remans on Fortune’s website.
Looking ahead, UBTECH anticipates shipping at least 5,000 industrial humanoids in 2026 and is also preparing a push into the consumer market with a $20,000 home companion planned to rival Tesla’s Optimus, 1X’s NEO, the Figure 03. Meanwhile, Figure says it’s accelerating its push into homes by aggressively collecting real-world data to feet its in-house vision-language-action (VLA) model, called Helix AI. It’s aiming for 100,000 units shipped within the next four years.