Changelog

A second research house has now counted the same half-year. Counterpoint Research puts first-half-2026 humanoid shipments above 22,000 units against Smart Analytics Global's 19,100: the two differ on the total by roughly a sixth while agreeing on the order, AgiBot first and Unitree second, at near-identical shares. Both counts now sit on the board rather than one being chosen over the other. UBTech's interim results, published 28 August, replace an annual unit figure with a half-yearly one: 921 full-size humanoids sold in six months against 1,079 across all of 2025. XPeng's robotics business raised more than $900M at above $6.3B, which is capital and not deployment, so no tier, badge, price, customer or availability moved with it. The claim that Figure has passed 1,000 robots was rejected for the sixth week running, and this week Figure's own newsroom does finally carry an August post, which says nothing of the kind.

• Units in the field: a second independent research house has now counted the first half of 2026. Counterpoint Research, published 20 August 2026, puts global humanoid shipments above 22,000 units, up nearly 300% year on year, with AgiBot first at 9,700 (~43%), Unitree second above 7,000 (~31%), then Galbot, UBTech and Leju, and the top five at 86% of the total. Smart Analytics Global's count for the same half was 19,100 units, AgiBot 8,400 and Unitree 5,900. The two totals differ by roughly a sixth; the order and the shares agree. Both figures are now carried on the AgiBot and Unitree cards. Like SAG's, Counterpoint's count includes wheeled models, so both run wider than this board's bipedal-only scope.
• UBTech: the units cell moves from an annual figure to a half-yearly one. Its 1H-2026 interim results, approved by the board on 28 August 2026, book 921 full-size humanoids sold, up 1,946.7% year on year, on RMB 590M (~$81M) of full-size humanoid revenue, up 1,445%. Group revenue doubled to RMB 1.27B and the net loss narrowed to RMB 311M, so the growth is still unprofitable. The 921 is six months against the 1,079 of all 2025, not a decline. A new flag records that UBTech's headline 16,123 humanoid robots sold in the half counts small consumer and education models, far wider than the full-size machines this board tracks. Counterpoint independently ranks UBTech fourth at about 1,000 units for the same half, which corroborates the full-size figure from outside the company. Tier unchanged: the leaders gate is customer verification, not volume.
• XPeng: the capital cell moves from internal funding to a first outside round. On 24 August 2026 the robotics business raised over $900M at a post-money valuation above $6.3B, led by IDG Capital with Gaorong Ventures participating and Tencent and Alibaba as strategic investors, and XPeng describes it as the largest single private round yet in China's embodied-AI sector; the unit is being carved out into a standalone subsidiary. Reported by XPeng's own newsroom and independently by Caixin Global, Electrek, Gasgoo and Bloomberg. A flag records that this raised capital, not verified deployments: XPeng stays at availability stage 1 with no external customer, and no price, unit or customer figure moved with it.
• KPI badge 04, most units in field, is rewritten to cite both houses. The winner does not change: AgiBot is first on both counts.
• Rejected at the QA gate: that Figure has passed 1,000 robots built, for the sixth consecutive week. Figure's newsroom does now carry an August 2026 post, Introducing Index of 25 August, but it announces a training dataset and states no robot count at all; the newest production statement remains Ramping Figure 03 Production of 29 April 2026, at over 350. Figure's units stay at ~350, vendor-claimed. Also rejected: that Boston Dynamics Atlas is entering mass production or deployment now, which contradicts the verified 2028 Hyundai Metaplant date; a Tesla Q2 call dated 5 August carried by low-quality blogs, when Tesla's own Q2 shareholder update was 22 July and no Optimus production count has ever been published; and UBTech's 5,000-unit 2026 delivery forecast, which is guidance rather than units in the field.
• No verified change for Agility (the Churchill Capital XI merger is still pending, not closed), Figure, 1X (still no verified customer delivery of NEO), Tesla, Boston Dynamics, Apptronik, NEURA, Fourier, Kepler, Sanctuary or Booster and EngineAI. BYD's Xiao Di is held off the board for the sixth determination: still no price, no external customer, no unit figure, and bipedal locomotion unconfirmed in English and Chinese sources alike. AgiBot's Hong Kong listing process, launched 24 July 2026, is still pre-pricing and stays off the card until it prices.
• Predictions register: nothing scored this week. No open claim has a deadline in this window, the nearest being P-27 on 2027-06-30, and a pair of shipment counts, an interim results filing and a funding round do not resolve P-01 through P-04, whose five-year test runs to 2031-12-31. P-26 was already scored wrong on 2026-07-20.

Unitree listed. It began trading on Shanghai's STAR Market on 19 August 2026, the first humanoid maker publicly traded in mainland China, closing its first day up 460% at ¥845 for a market value near ¥342B (about $51B). The capital cell is rewritten and the honest summary gains a line, but not one customer, price, availability or unit figure moved with it, so no tier or badge changes. A verification note is recorded on the card: the ~$66B valuation in many headlines is the opening peak, not the close. One new model joins the board, Unitree's experimental Superman, at lab-demo stage with no price and no hands. The claim that Figure has passed 1,000 robots was rejected for the fifth week running.

• Unitree: the capital cell moves from a priced-but-not-trading IPO to a completed listing. Shares were issued at ¥150.80, opened at ¥1,100 (+629%) and closed the first session at ¥845 (+460%), a close-of-day market value of about ¥342B (~$51B); the offering raised ¥6.10B (~$905M) for about 10% of enlarged capital (40.45M shares). Independently reported by SCMP, Caixin Global, Bloomberg, Fortune and NBC News, with the Chinese closing figures matching Sina and Qingdao Daily.
• Unitree: a flag records that first-day valuations differ by the moment quoted. The ~$66B figure carried in several headlines is the opening peak (~¥445B); the close was ~$51B (~¥342B). A second flag records that the listing raised capital, not verified deployments.
• New model: Unitree Superman, revealed 17 August 2026, joins the board at availability stage 1 (lab demo). Unitree calls it an experimental platform for highly dynamic locomotion rather than a product, it carries no hands or grippers, and it has no price. Its claimed 12.66 m/s top speed and 2 m standing jump come from Unitree's own demonstration video, with no disclosed test protocol and no independent measurement, so both are recorded as vendor claims. The board's count moves from 42 bipedal humanoids to 43.
• Rejected at the QA gate: that Figure has passed 1,000 robots built, for the fifth consecutive week. Figure's own newsroom carries no August 2026 post at all, and its most recent production statement remains 'Ramping Figure 03 Production' of 29 April 2026. Figure's units stay at ~350, vendor-claimed. Also rejected: that Boston Dynamics Atlas deployments are under way, an aggregator line that contradicts the verified 2028 Hyundai Metaplant date restated in the same summaries.
• No verified change for Agility (the Churchill Capital XI merger is still pending, with an S-4 confidentially submitted), 1X (still no verified customer delivery of NEO), Tesla (still no published Optimus unit count), UBTech (the Walker S2 order news dates to November 2025), AgiBot, Boston Dynamics, Apptronik, NEURA, XPeng, Fourier, Kepler, Sanctuary or Booster and EngineAI. BYD's Xiao Di is held off the board for the fifth determination: no price, no external customer, no unit figure, and bipedal locomotion still unconfirmed in English and Chinese sources alike.
• Predictions register: nothing scored this week. No open claim has a deadline in this window, and a listing is a capital event, so it does not resolve P-01 through P-04, whose five-year test runs to 2031-12-31. P-26 was already scored wrong on 2026-07-20.

The units-in-field KPI gets its first fresh third-party count of 2026: Smart Analytics Global's first-half-2026 shipment ranking puts AgiBot at 8,400 units (~44%) ahead of Unitree at 5,900 (~31%), out of 19,100 humanoids shipped worldwide, up 272% year on year, with Chinese vendors accounting for about 97% of the total. AgiBot keeps the units badge with a wider lead; no tier, price, availability or customer changes. Unitree's listing date is now fixed at 19 August, and Tesla's April promise of a late-July/August production start is recorded as passed unmet, on Tesla's own filing. The claim that Figure has passed 1,000 robots was rejected for the fourth week running.

• AgiBot: units in field move from Omdia's full-year-2025 figure (~5,168) to Smart Analytics Global's first-half-2026 count of 8,400 shipped, #1 at ~44% of a 19,100-unit world market. The KPI-leader badge for units updates with it, and AgiBot's lead over Unitree widens. Two caveats are recorded on the card: SAG's tally counts AgiBot's wheeled G-series alongside its bipedal models, so it runs wider than this board's humanoids-only scope, and shipments are still not deployments. Tier unchanged: the leaders gate is customer verification, not volume.
• Unitree: units in field move to 5,900 shipped in the first half of 2026, #2 at ~31% on the same independent ranking. The 5,500 figure for full-year 2025 stays on the card but is now labelled for what it is: a vendor / IPO-prospectus number rather than a third-party count.
• Unitree: the capital line firms up. The STAR Market listing is now dated to 19 August 2026, and the retail tranche was oversubscribed more than 8,000 times, a STAR Market record. The shares had not yet traded when this snapshot was taken. Pricing, valuation and profitability are unchanged from last week, and no KPI moves: this remains a capital-markets event, not evidence of deployment.
• Tesla: the card no longer says volume production starts 'late July/August 2026'. Tesla's own Q2-2026 shareholder update (22 July) had the first Optimus lines still being installed at Fremont with output 'anticipated later this year', that window has now passed unmet, and Tesla has never published an Optimus production count. Availability stays at stage 1 with no external customers; a flag records the missed start.
• The honest summary gains the first-half-2026 market picture: 19,100 humanoids shipped worldwide, up 272%, AgiBot ahead of Unitree, Chinese vendors at about 97%. The caveat goes with it: the count is wider than this board's bipedal-only scope.

Unitree's STAR Market IPO priced about 45% above its indication: RMB 150.80 a share, ~RMB 6.10B (~$900M) raised at a ~RMB 61B (~$9.0B) valuation, with subscription opening 10 August. That capital-markets move is the week's only verified change: no price, availability, customer, unit, tier or KPI-leader shifts. BYD's Xiao Di made its public debut but stays off the board, and the recycled claim that Figure has passed 1,000 robots was rejected for the third week running.

• Unitree: the capital line moves from indication to final pricing. The STAR Market IPO priced on 6 August at RMB 150.80 a share, raising ~RMB 6.10B (~$900M) for ~10% of enlarged capital and valuing the company at ~RMB 61B (~$9.0B), roughly 45% above the ~RMB 42B indication carried here last week. Subscription opened 10 August and the shares are expected to list later in the month. Profitability is unchanged (FY2025 revenue RMB 1.71B, net profit RMB 288M), and so are all four KPIs: this is a capital-markets event, not evidence of deployment, so Unitree's tier and badges are untouched.
• Rejected at the QA gate, third week running: the aggregator claim that Figure has passed 1,000 robots built. Figure's own newsroom post of 29 April 2026 still says "over 350", and the same aggregators again asserted that Atlas deployments are already under way, which contradicts Hyundai's own 2028 date. Also unverified and therefore unchanged: any start of Tesla Optimus volume production (the Q2 call on 22 July described a long, flat ramp and disclosed no unit count), any 1X NEO delivery to a customer home, and the closing of Agility's Churchill Capital XI SPAC, which remains subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.
• Scanned this week and still off the board: BYD's "Xiao Di" did make its public debut at Di Space in Zhengzhou in early August, but nothing followed that would place it on this page. No price, no external customer (the stated plan is two to three units in BYD's own showrooms), no unit figure, and bipedal locomotion still unconfirmed in any source. Two other machines drawing humanoid headlines are excluded by scope because they roll rather than walk: Hexagon's AEON, whose legs end in wheels, now in its pilot phase at BMW's Leipzig plant, and Humanoid's HMND 01, which raised a $152M Series A in July. The register was reviewed as usual: no open claim is unambiguously resolved by this week's verified data, and no claim deadline fell in the window.

The best-evidenced unit number on the board is now an audited one: UBTech's FY2025 accounts book 1,079 full-size humanoids sold, replacing an unverified ~500. Apptronik's flagship is corrected to Apollo 2 (a data platform, not the product it sells), and Unitree's IPO now has firm dates and disclosed profits. A claim that Figure had built 1,000 robots was rejected at the QA gate. No tier or KPI-leader changes.

• UBTech: units in field moves from "~500 delivered" (vendor-claimed, unverified) to "1,079 sold (2025)", sourced to its audited FY2025 results announced 2026-03-31. Those accounts book 1,079 full-size humanoids sold and RMB 820M (~$113M) of full-size humanoid revenue, up 2,203%, making UBTech the first maker anywhere past a thousand full-size deliveries in a year. This is an evidence upgrade, not a promotion: a listed company's annual report outranks a press release, but the figure is units <em>sold</em>, not confirmed in service, the group is still loss-making, and its customer list stays the least verified of the volume leaders. UBTech remains a Contender; the units badge stays with AgiBot.
• Apptronik: flagship corrected from Apollo to Apollo 2, with a new flag. Apptronik itself is explicit that Apollo 2 (June 2026, bipedal and wheeled-base configurations) is a data-collection and training platform rather than the product it sells; the first commercial machine is the still-unreleased Apollo 3. Availability stays at 2 (pilots).
• Unitree: capital line updated as the STAR Market listing firms up. Priced 6 Aug after institutional inquiry on 5 Aug, subscription 10 Aug, RMB 4.20B (~$620M) for ~10% of enlarged capital at ~RMB 42B (~$6.2B). The prospectus also makes Unitree the rare profitable maker on this board (FY2025 revenue RMB 1.71B, net profit RMB 288M), a sharp contrast with the capital leaders that have raised more and shipped less. Not yet trading.
• XPeng: its 110,000 m² Guangzhou base has entered small-batch trial production. The first commercial use now has a date: IRON as a showroom sales assistant in China in Q1 2027, overseas later that year. That is XPeng's own store floor, not a customer's, so availability stays at 1; the "not yet begun" flag is replaced with "trial production only".
• Rejected at the QA gate: a widely repeated claim that BotQ built its 1,000th Figure 03 on 2026-07-23. Figure's own newsroom and independent trade coverage still say "over 350"; the 1,000 figure appears only on aggregator blogs, one of which also asserted, falsely, that Atlas deployments are already under way. Figure's units line is unchanged. Also unverified and therefore unchanged: any start of Tesla Optimus volume production, still described by Tesla as targeted rather than begun.
• Scanned and held below the board's bar: BYD's first humanoid, "Xiao Di" (1.61 m, 58.5 kg, 31 degrees of freedom), was due to make its first public appearance as an operable prototype at the company's Di Space in Zhengzhou in early August, with a stated plan of two to three units per dealership. There is no price, no customer, no unit figure, and bipedal locomotion is not confirmed, so it is not on the board yet. The register was also reviewed this run: no open claim is unambiguously resolved by this week's verified data.

Regulatory, not technical: the US added foreign-made humanoids to the FCC Covered List. Boston Dynamics' Hyundai commitment corrected to 2028, SoftBank bought out, and a Korean strike over Atlas; Unitree's IPO issuance launched. No tier or KPI-leader changes.

• US FCC Covered List (2026-07-28): import authorization blocked for new foreign-made humanoid and quadruped models. Models already authorized and machines already sold are unaffected. Recorded in the honest summary as market context, not as a demerit on any maker's card, per the 2026-07-29 scoring rule.
• Boston Dynamics: the Hyundai Metaplant commitment is corrected from 2026 to 2028, following Hyundai's own July-2026 statement. The capital line now records Hyundai buying out SoftBank's last ~10% for ~$325M.
• Boston Dynamics, new flag: Hyundai's Korean union struck over Atlas in July 2026, demanding that no robot enters a plant without a prior labour agreement. The first auto-plant stoppage tied to humanoid deployment.
• Unitree, capital line updated: the STAR Market IPO issuance launched on 30 July, seeking ~$620M for ~10% of enlarged capital, implying ~$5.9B. Not yet priced or trading.
• No tier moves and no KPI-leader changes; no price, availability-stage, or units figure changed. Held for want of an independent second source: the reported Unitree Europe/Asia/North America launch dates.
• Housekeeping: the page generators had fallen behind the published pages, so a rebuild would have reverted earlier edits. They are realigned, and the rebuild now writes current.json again. No board data was affected.

Scoring housekeeping: removed the US-regulatory item from Unitree’s flags. This board scores commercial evidence (shipments, revenue, verification), and regulatory posture in any single country is not a demerit here. Retitled the country section to the neutral form the Chinese edition already used. No scores or numbers changed.

Initial tracker published: 15 makers, 42 bipedal humanoids, ranked on price, availability, verified customers, and units in field.