Ubtech Robotics Pairs a Simulation Engine With a Robot News Anchor as Losses Persist

Ubtech Robotics spent the week rolling out hardware, software and partnerships in roughly equal measure, capped by the Wednesday unveiling of Thinker-Sim, a simulation platform built for embodied artificial intelligence. The software digitises real-world scenes, generates synthetic training data and scores how well robots perform their tasks. It arrived alongside a joint product launch with the Xinhua news agency.

That Xinhua collaboration produced Xinyan and Xinyu, two human-sized humanoid news anchors designed for use in news broadcasts. The pair, shown at a forum in Beijing on Thursday, combine Ubtech's robotics hardware with Xinhua's AI system, while Zhang Yimou handled the visual design. Where the anchors lean on Xinhua's AI, Thinker-Sim stays inside a simulated environment, tying digital replicas of real scenes to data generation and capability assessment.

A companion robot heads to Korea

The day before the Beijing forum, Ubtech presented its U1 Pro companion humanoid at Robo World 2026 in South Korea. Local partner Polaris AI said Korean-language conversation could be added as early as December — a possible expansion it floated without committing to a firm launch date.

Two days before that, on Tuesday, the joint venture Xin Fenglong — owned by Ubtech Robotics and Fenglong — released a portfolio of robot joint products. The lineup spans planetary and harmonic joint modules, linear joint modules and bionic micro-servos for facial motor control.

Revenue doubles, red ink stays

The flurry of launches sits atop a business that is growing fast but still burning cash. First-half 2026 revenue reached about RMB 1.27 billion, a jump of 104.2%, according to media reports citing figures picked up on Wednesday. The company nonetheless remained in the red, posting a loss of roughly RMB 340 million. Shipments of full-size humanoid robots came to 921 units.

MoUs from Brussels to the Gulf

Beyond China, Ubtech has been stacking up cooperation agreements. ChinaEU said the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on 22 October to push robotics collaboration in Europe. Roughly three weeks earlier, Ubtech and the government of Ras Al Khaimah signed an MoU on humanoid robotics that, per the company, sets a framework for research, field testing and operational deployment. That pact also covers a feasibility review of a research initiative into Gulf climatic conditions, folding research, testing and potential real-world applications into a single agreed scope.