BEIJING: Unitree Robotics is marketing one of the world's first humanoid robots for under US$6,000, drastically reducing the entry price for what's expected to grow into a whole wave of versatile artificial intelligence (AI) machines for the workplace and home.

The startup, among the frontrunners in Chinese robotics, last Friday announced its R1 bot with a starting price of 39,900 yuan (or US$5,900).

The machine weighs just 25kg and has 26 joints, the company said in a video posted to WeChat.

It's equipped with multimodal AI that includes voice and image recognition.

The four-figure price tag highlights the ambitions of a new generation of startups trying to leapfrog the United States in a groundbreaking technology.

Unitree rose to prominence in February after chief executive officer Wang Xingxing joined big names like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Jack Ma and Tencent Holdings Ltd's Pony Ma at a widely publicised summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The new robot's launch coincided with China's biggest AI forum over the weekend with star founders, Beijing officials and investors converging in Shanghai.

Chinese companies are pushing ahead with humanoids for factories, households and even military use. Pricing is crucial to their proliferation.

Unitree's older G1 robot, which found a home in research labs and schools, was priced at US$16,000. A more advanced and larger H1 model goes for US$90,000-plus.

If it works as advertised, Unitree's new robot would mark a milestone for the robotics industry, particularly when it comes to complex humanoids.

Morgan Stanley Research estimates that the cost of the most-sophisticated humanoid in 2024 was around US$200,000. -- Bloomberg