A new robot developed in China has caused significant buzz: the Superhuman model, according to manufacturer Unitree, demonstrates running speeds exceeding those of legendary athlete Usain Bolt. The announcement was made on Monday (August 17th).
The company reported that the prototype reached a maximum speed of 12.66 meters per second, equivalent to 45.5 km/h, and managed to jump two meters high from a standstill. These results surpass Bolt's peak performance of 12.42 meters per second, achieved during his world record run of 100 meters in Berlin in 2009.
The robot, which has legs measuring 0.85 meters long, was created in less than three months. An official video shows the machine landing perfectly on the ground and adjusting its legs for stability. Unitree emphasized that the presented content was not generated by artificial intelligence.
Superhuman's high performance is attributed to design limitations: the robot lacks a head and claws, and it was designed from scratch as a purely locomotion-oriented machine, allowing all leg energy to be directed toward forward thrust.
The manufacturer classifies this development as an experimental platform intended for movement study, acknowledging that this model has no payload capacity. Unlike other humanoid robots from the same brand used in Japanese airports, Superman cannot perform practical commercial or industrial tasks such as picking up boxes, pressing buttons, or opening doors.
It is important to note that the data provided by the company has not undergone independent verification according to strict official athletic track protocols.
The robot's presentation coincided with Unitree's listing on the Shanghai stock exchange, which took place on Wednesday in China, bringing in an initial offering of nearly $1 billion USD. The startup is led by founder and CEO Wang Xinsin, who reported revenue of 1.699 billion yuan in 2025 (approximately 1.3 billion rubles) and benefits from investments from conglomerates such as Tencent, Alibaba, and DeepSeek.
By July 2026, Unitree had delivered about 18 thousand bipedal robots of various models. In addition to experimental devices, the company is attracting attention with giant tracked robots and recently introduced As2W—a wheeled quadruped capable of carrying up to 16 kilograms of cargo.
Despite the innovations, Unitree robots face political restrictions outside their country of origin. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned the import of new models from the manufacturer at the end of July 2026, citing security system vulnerabilities. Furthermore, the Pentagon classified the startup as a Chinese military company in June of this year, blocking the possibility of agreements or contracts with the North American government.