Unitree Robotics, one of Optimus's best-known Chinese rivals, grew sales fast last quarter but made less money. Revenue rose 69.93% to 665 million yuan (about $99.7 million) in the three months to Sept. 30, the Hangzhou company reported on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, the South China Morning Post and Robrief reported. Net profit attributable to shareholders fell 17.37% to about 113 million yuan. It is Unitree's first quarterly report since it listed on Shanghai's STAR Market in August.
Where the money went
- R&D: up 249.58% to 127 million yuan, about 19% of revenue, mainly for embodied-AI large models, compute and a bigger team, per both outlets.
- Core profit: net profit excluding one-off items fell 17.42% to 105 million yuan.
- Nine months: revenue of 1.817 billion yuan, up 55.71%. Net profit rose 270.54% to 387 million yuan, but Robrief said that mostly reflects a large share-based pay charge a year earlier; excluding one-offs, it fell 18.78%.
- Inventory: 1.019 billion yuan at the end of September, up from 368 million yuan at the start of the year, Robrief said.
Why Tesla watchers care
Unitree is the clearest public benchmark for the humanoid business Tesla wants to build. Tesla has started early Optimus production in Fremont but pushed outside deliveries to late 2027 (our Q3 Optimus story). Unitree also showed its H2-X humanoid last week.