Shanghai-based AgiBot shipped roughly 8,400 humanoid robots between January and June 2026, capturing 44% of the global market and overtaking Hangzhou-based [Unitree](#/company/unitree), which shipped about 5,900 units for a 31% share, according to first-half data from San Francisco research firm Smart Analytics Global (SAG). It's a reversal of the pecking order between China's two best-known humanoid-robot makers, and it lands the same week Unitree is pricing a Shanghai IPO expected to raise roughly $904 million — a listing that will make its first public financial disclosures arrive just as its shipment lead disappears.
AgiBot's shipments surged 562% year on year, according to the same SAG count, well ahead of the humanoid-robot market's overall growth. Combined, the global market shipped about 19,100 humanoid units in H1 2026, up 272% year on year — and Chinese manufacturers accounted for 97% of that total, not just the AgiBot-Unitree share between them. AgiBot's growth is credited to a wider product spread than Unitree's: full-size bipedal A-series models, compact X-series units, and wheeled G-series robots aimed at different price points and use cases, against a more concentrated Unitree lineup.
Humanoid robots shipped, January–June 2026
An IPO timed against a shrinking lead
Unitree's Shanghai Star Market listing is priced at 150.8 yuan a share, targeting roughly 6.1 billion yuan — about $904 million — the same week SAG's count shows it losing the unit-shipment lead it held going into 2026. A forecast published in April by TrendForce, a separate research firm, had projected Unitree and AgiBot together would account for nearly 80% of global shipments in 2026; the two companies' actual combined H1 share, per SAG, came in at 75%, close to that forecast even as the order between the two flipped from what TrendForce's April framing implied.
AgiBot vs. Unitree, H1 2026
| AgiBot Shanghai | Unitree Hangzhou | |
|---|---|---|
| H1 2026 shipments | ~8,400 units | ~5,900 units |
| Global market share | 44% | 31% |
| YoY shipment growth | 562% | Not disclosed in sources reviewed |
| Product line | Bipedal A-series, compact X-series, wheeled G-series | More concentrated lineup |
| Public-listing status | No IPO announced | Pricing a Shanghai Star Market IPO at 150.8 yuan/share, ~$904M target |
A separate complication in both companies' largest growth market outside China
Both companies already face a complication in the market where a shipment lead would matter most competitively: [an FCC order added most Chinese humanoid robots to its Covered List in July](#/article/fcc-covered-list-bans-chinese-humanoid-robots), barring newly authorized models from US import and sale unless a manufacturer secures a case-by-case exemption. That order is not retroactive and names no company by name, but AgiBot and Unitree together accounted for the bulk of the roughly 85% Chinese share of global humanoid-robot shipments the FCC action was reported against. As of this writing, neither company has said whether it intends to seek the exemption — the same open question this outlet flagged when the order took effect, still unresolved a month later.
What's not in dispute is the direction of travel: a market that shipped roughly 19,100 humanoid units in six months, growing at 272% a year, with almost all of that growth concentrated in two Chinese manufacturers now taking visibly different paths — one scaling shipments across three product lines, the other about to answer to public shareholders for the first time just as its shipment lead slips.
- AgiBot shipped about 8,400 humanoid robots in H1 2026, passing Unitree's roughly 5,900.
- AgiBot's 44% global share overtook Unitree's 31%, per research firm SAG's H1 count.
- Unitree is separately pricing a Shanghai IPO at 150.8 yuan a share, targeting about $904 million.
- Chinese manufacturers combined now hold 97% of global humanoid-robot shipments.
- Caveat: Forbes' own analysis argues shipment counts overstate the win — Western makers still compete on reliability.