Chinese robotics company offers a daily salary of 500k RMB! What level is that?

“Base salary of RMB 15 million per year and up—maximum of RMB 124 million!” Recently, Unitree Robotics, “the first publicly listed company for humanoid robots,” put out a hiring post described as its “strongest recruitment pitch.”

Unitree Robotics said it is currently looking globally for a Chief Science Officer for embodied intelligence. “We don’t look at passports, age, or gender. We only care about one thing: can you define the future?”

According to the description, this position will be responsible for setting Unitree Robotics’ technology roadmap in the humanoid robotics and embodied intelligence fields, and for leading the development of AI models.

Compared with the “three no-looks,” the recruitment announcement’s highest annual salary of up to RMB 124 million is undoubtedly grabbing a lot of attention. An annual salary of RMB 124 million—what does that actually mean?

That is equivalent to a monthly salary of RMB 10.3333 million. If calculated based on 248 working days per year, it comes out to a daily pay of roughly RMB 500k.

Financial reports show that in 2025, Unitree Robotics achieved total revenue of RMB 500k, and recorded a loss of RMB 790 million during the year. RMB 124 million is 6.2% of Unitree Robotics’ full-year revenue.

Compared with other Hong Kong-listed companies, this level of annual salary is also quite scarce.

Data from Wind (as of April 3) shows that in 2025, there were only 10 Hong Kong-listed companies whose total annual management compensation reached the RMB 2B scale. Apart from BYD Company, Midea Group, and Fosun Pharmaceutical (all listed in the two places), the other seven are Alibaba, MGM China, NIRAKU, New Hong Kong Properties, New World Development, Honma Golf, and Chow Tai Fook.

Let’s compare with A-share listed companies.

As of April 3, among A-share listed companies that have already released their 2025 annual reports, none have management or individual compensation reaching the RMB 152k scale. Of the ones whose total annual management compensation can reach the RMB 242k scale, there are currently only four: BYD, Midea Group, Mindray Medical, and Fosun Pharmaceutical—amounting to RMB 129 million, RMB 121 million, RMB 120 million, and RMB 111 million respectively. In fifth place is Pharmaron, with total annual management compensation of RMB 99.05 million.

Now let’s look abroad. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang’s total compensation for fiscal year 2025 was USD 49.90 million (about RMB 363 million). That also means that the maximum annual salary for this Unitree Robotics role is about one-third of Jensen Huang’s.

For ordinary software engineer roles, a search by Zhongxin Jingwei found on a certain job posting board platform for robotics and automation positions that for the simulation robotics software engineer role published by NVIDIA, the annual salary ranges from USD 152k to USD 242k (about RMB 1.05M to RMB 1.67M).

“In China’s AI industry, such a high salary is not common.” The Singapore newspaper Lianhe Zaobao pointed out. Behind this is the real predicament humanoid robot companies face right now—there is a shortage of talent.

On April 3, relevant personnel from Leju Robotics told Zhongxin Jingwei that “the robotics industry is developing very fast at the moment, and there truly is a talent shortage; employee pay differs greatly depending on the role.” The company was founded in 2016. It is a national-level “specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative” “little giant” enterprise focusing on core technology R&D and industrialization for humanoid robots.

In August 2025, after top player Unitree Robotics won the 400-meter final championship at the World Humanoid Robot Games, founder Wang Xingxing said: “The Beijing branch has been set up, and we are urgently hiring people.”

Behind the shortage is China’s robotics industry accelerating forward. In the 2026 government work report, “embodied intelligence” has been clearly listed as one of the future industries that needs to be cultivated and expanded.

According to CCTV News, during the “15th Five-Year Plan and beyond” period (“14th Five-Year Plan”? The text says “十五五,” i.e., the 15th-Five-year period), China’s embodied intelligence industry chain—upstream and downstream—will be expected to add around 100 new innovation centers and laboratories, and the overall industry scale is expected to break into the range of several hundred billion or even trillions of RMB by 2030 in the same year. At the same time, more than 1 million jobs will be created, including roles such as data collection personnel and robot swarm coordination operation specialists.

With a million-person talent gap, big money is not only “poaching talent,” but also “retaining talent.” Through competitive compensation, on the one hand, China’s robotics companies can hope to convert scarce intellectual capital into core assets; on the other hand, ongoing talent investment will accelerate product iteration and reduce trial-and-error costs, helping them build a strong moat in fierce global competition.

In the window period when the humanoid robotics industry is moving toward commercial deployment, Chinese companies’ large-scale investment in talent is no longer just the simple notion of “hiring people to fill roles.” It is a strategy tied to survival and breaking through.

By: Dong Wenbo, Xie Jingwen

Editor: Lin Wansi

Responsible editors: Chang Tao, Li Zhongyuan

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