His robotics company IPO'd this week. He still thinks a humanoid breakthrough will take years.

Even 1 of robotics' biggest names says that a awesome breakthrough for the manufacture whitethorn return up to a decade.

During a keynote reside astatine the 2026 World Robot Conference successful Beijing connected Thursday, Unitree Robotics CEO Wang Xingxing said that the industry's breakthrough will travel only erstwhile a robot tin execute astir tasks without being specifically trained for them.

"If 1 time a robot is brought into a wholly unfamiliar environment, specified arsenic a location it has ne'er seen before, and it tin complete astir 80% of the tasks conscionable done sound aliases connection commands, past I deliberation we will person astir reached the 'ChatGPT moment' for embodied intelligence," Wang said.

He estimated that the milestone could get successful arsenic small arsenic 2 aliases 3 years, though it could return 5 to 10 years if things moved slowly.

Wang said the biggest hurdle for family robots is getting AI to reliably interact pinch the beingness world. He added that Unitree has already tested robots successful automotive factories and its ain facilities, but their ratio and expertise to generalize crossed tasks remains a awesome bottleneck.

China-based Unitree, which was founded successful 2016, first became known for its four-legged robot dogs earlier expanding into humanoid robots. Its humanoids person helped move the institution into 1 of the astir recognizable names successful the world robotics roar and drawn attraction to China's competitory advantage successful the beingness AI race.

Earlier this week, Unitree raised astir $900 cardinal successful its oversubscribed Shanghai nationalist debut, and its shares surged 460% connected their first time of trading, valuing it astatine astir $50 billion.

$300 to $400 a month

Wang's optimism toward robotics has been much tempered than that of immoderate tech heavyweights.

Speaking astatine YC Startup School past month, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said, "I would opportunity the ChatGPT infinitesimal of robots happened a mates of years agone already."

Huang has besides estimated that beingness AI is simply a $50 trillion marketplace opportunity, pinch $40 trillion coming from humanoid robots alone.

While task capitalist Vinod Khosla's timeline for family robots mostly matches what Wang predicted, the investor has been optimistic astir their pricing.

Last year, Khosla said that robotics would person its "ChatGPT moment" wrong 2 to 3 years.

"Almost everybody successful the 2030s will person a humanoid robot astatine home," he said. "Probably commencement pinch thing constrictive for illustration do your cooking for you. It tin chop vegetables, navigator food, cleanable dishes, but stays wrong the room environment."

He estimated that these robots would costs $300 to $400 a month, which would beryllium affordable for anyone who already gets location help.

Currently, Unitree's G1, priced astatine $13,500, is considered 1 of the astir affordable humanoids connected the market.