This Week in Humanoid Robot News: July 27–August 3, 2026

The humanoid robot news from July 27 to August 3, 2026 was written in Washington. On July 28 the FCC added foreign-produced humanoids and quadrupeds to its Covered List, closing new models out of the US market. Two days later Unitree, the maker with the most American exposure, launched its Shanghai IPO. For the current commercial status of each major robot, see our humanoid robot news tracker.

The FCC blocks new foreign-made humanoids and quadrupeds

The FCC updated its Covered List on July 28 to include advanced robotic devices, which it defines as mobile robots such as humanoids and quadrupeds, produced in foreign countries. Connected power inverters went on the same list. The Commission did not start this: under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act it can only act on determinations made by national security agencies, and a White House-convened interagency body issued those first.

The action is narrower than the headlines suggest. Covered equipment cannot receive new FCC equipment authorization, a precondition for importing, marketing or selling most electronics in the United States. It does not affect devices anyone already owns, models authorized before July 28, or federal government purchase and use. Producers can apply to the Department of War for a Conditional Approval that restores their path to authorization.

No company and no country is named in the notice, and the determination covers foreign production regardless of the producer's nationality. China's foreign ministry answered on July 29, with spokeswoman Mao Ning saying protectionism does not make the United States more competitive. We covered the mechanics in what the FCC ban means for Unitree, and the buyer-side position in which humanoid robots stay legal in the US.

Unitree launches a 4.2 billion yuan Shanghai IPO days later

Unitree formally launched its STAR Market offering on July 31, two working days after the FCC acted. It is selling 40.45 million new shares, 10 percent of its enlarged share capital, to raise about 4.2 billion yuan or roughly $620 million, which implies a valuation near 42 billion yuan. Book-building starts August 5, pricing follows on August 6, subscriptions open August 10, and results are due August 14.

Caixin reports 2025 revenue of 1.7 billion yuan and core net profit of 591 million yuan, humanoids at about 52 percent of revenue, and a registration that cleared in 104 days, the fastest in STAR Market history. A profitable humanoid maker with a public share price does not exist anywhere else yet. Nothing changed for buyers: Unitree's catalogue and order routes are the same, and the US restriction applies to new models rather than listings already authorized. The investor-side view sits in our humanoid robot stocks guide.

Google DeepMind gives robots whole-body control

Google DeepMind released three models on July 30. Gemini Robotics 2 is the vision-language-action model that drives the body, Gemini Robotics ER 2 handles embodied reasoning, multi-step planning and multi-robot coordination, and Gemini Robotics On-Device 2 runs locally and adapts to a new robot with a few hours of data. The change that matters is scope: this is the first version in the family to run legs, torso, arms and hands under a single policy instead of the upper body alone.

DeepMind demonstrated it on Apptronik's Apollo 2 and names Franka Duo, Boston Dynamics and Agile Robots among supported platforms. The published success rates repay a close read: 45.7 to 76.3 percent on general whole-body manipulation, 74.2 to 89.6 percent on gripper pick-and-place, kitting and insertion, and 36 to 92 percent on multi-finger tasks. Unscrewing a light bulb scored 92 percent; screwing one back in scored 36 percent. ER 2 is in Google AI Studio, the other two go to early-access partners. Our Gemini Robotics 2 write-up has the full breakdown.

China holds the five strongest humanoid patent portfolios

LexisNexis Intellectual Property Solutions published a Patent Asset Index ranking on July 29 covering startups with at least one bipedal walking robot. Chinese companies took the top five places: Fourier, AgiBot, LimX Dynamics, Pudu Robotics and Unitree. Figure AI came sixth, Germany's Agile Robots seventh, Apptronik eighth, Leju ninth and Agility Robotics tenth. Over the past decade Chinese filings roughly doubled in interaction systems and grew fivefold in control and planning.

The index weights patents by quality rather than counting them, although American portfolios still score higher per patent. A patent is a claim on future position, not evidence that anything ships. Our breakdown of the ranking and the company directory carry the detail.

A San Francisco startup rents out a humanoid cleaner, with a person driving

Tau Robotics opened an invite-only cleaning service in San Francisco on July 28, charging $30 an hour for one-hour visits covering vacuuming, surface wiping, trash and light clutter, with ladders, exterior work, biohazards and heavy furniture excluded. A background-checked operator at Tau's San Francisco facility drives the robot remotely, and the cameras record video, depth data, telemetry and every motion input the operator sends, all of which trains Tau's models.

This is a data-collection business with a cleaning product attached, not an autonomy milestone. Ken Goldberg of UC Berkeley told ABC7 it is too early and that he would be surprised if a humanoid could usefully clean a house. File it with the other home humanoid options, where the first thing to check is how much human supervision the service assumes.

BYD confirms its first humanoid robot for early August

BYD told the China Securities Journal on July 28 that it will unveil its first humanoid robot in August, confirming a July 25 teaser from its Zhengzhou Di Space venue that read: early August, a new friend wants to meet you. Di Space sites are hands-on experience centres, so expect a physical prototype rather than a slide deck. The teaser says the robot will not arrive with a pile of specs and jargon, which is another way of saying no name, price or specification exists yet. BYD already runs UBTech Walker S1 units in its own plants; the open question is whether this one is for the factory or the showroom.

More humanoid robot news in brief

• July 28: Humanoid Global, a minority investor in Agility Robotics, restated the Churchill Capital Corp XI combination at a $2.5 billion pre-money equity value, and said Digit holds more than $300 million in multi-year v5 orders subject to contractual milestones plus more than 65,000 operating hours across nine customer facilities. Those are company figures relayed by an investor, not audited results.
• Three items circulating as this week's news were not: Tesla's Optimus commentary came from the July 22 earnings call, the IEEE-RAS Humanoids conference runs in December, and aggregator feeds re-dated AgiBot's 15,000th unit (June 29) and the Mitsubishi Motors agreement with Highlanders (July 9).

What to watch next week

• August 5 and 6: Unitree's book-building and final IPO price, the first public valuation of a profitable humanoid maker.
• August 10: Unitree subscriptions open, results on August 14, listing expected later in the month.
• Early August: BYD's first humanoid robot at Di Space, with no exact date announced.
• Ongoing: Conditional Approval applications to the Department of War, now the only route to FCC authorization for a new foreign-made humanoid or quadruped.
• Still unresolved: 1X NEO home deliveries, promised for 2026 at $20,000 to own or $499 per month, with no verified customer delivery yet.