When Elon Musk asserted Tesla's dominance in the humanoid robots space earlier in April, he also displayed a show of humility which was not very American like.

Expressing a bit of concern, he said that while Tesla and SpaceX are number one, Chinese companies will occupy ranks two through 10 in the leaderboard.

His concerns were not unfounded and with recent developments in the robotics space in China, even his pole position appears to be at stake.

Just last week, China's robotics company Unitree Robotics launched a new bipedal humanoid model R1 at a starting price of 39,900 yuan, or just under $6,000. This was at a sharp discount to Unitree's former model G1 that was launched in 2024 at a starting price of 99,000 yuan, underlining lower manufacturing costs and advancement in Chinese technology.

In comparison Tesla's humanoid robots branded Optimus, are estimated at $20,000-$30,000. Besides, production of Optimus, does not appear to be smooth sailing if the recent report by The Information is to go by that said the company has only managed to produce a few hundred units of its Optimus models so far this year against its target of 5,000 units in 2025.

To be sure, a launch of a new model does not necessarily signal the supremacy of the company. Market feedback and total demand for the robots will decide its success. But a recent report by the South China Morning Post sounded positive for Chinese robotic companies. It  said that Unitree and other robotics companies in China such as AgiBot and UBTech have landed more orders from Chinese enterprises, indicating huge government support for the AI industry.

Besides, on Saturday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang proposed a new global AI cooperation organisation at the annual World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai.

This was seen as a response to US President Donald Trump's announcement earlier this month of the AI blueprint aiming to vastly expand the country's AI exports to allies to maintain its dominance in AI over China.

The race to stay ahead in the robotics space has just started to get more intense. Prima facie with more Chinese companies having launched or announced their new models of bipedal robots between last year and now, the US has a reason to be concerned. Musk in particular would be more worried following his ugly public spat with Trump, who had even said that he will look at deporting the tech billionaire, after months of camaraderie shared between them.

Other countries largely seem to be playing catch up in the bipedal robotics space although it is possible that recent developments in China could spur their pace given how dynamic AI is.

Spain's PAL Robotics has been relatively consistent in bringing out new bipedal models but their starting price at $320,000 is exorbitant.

Interestingly, France's Alderbaran may have cracked the code at cutting manufacturing costs as its new model NAO V6 is priced at $7970-$13,990.

Surprisingly, Japan appears to be lagging in the bipedal robotics space given how scientists at Waseda University in Japan built the world's first humanoid robot in 1973. The Waseda robot called WABOT could see, walk and even talk.

Meanwhile, corporate and venture capital investment in Indian companies such as Ati Motors, and Addverb Technologies (in which Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail picked a controlling stake) could also possibly make them global contenders as they have already launched their models.