Tesla’s Robot Dreams Stumble as Chinese Rivals Invade Walmart Shelves
Tesla's humanoid robot ambitions just hit a massive roadblock—and it's arriving via Walmart's supply chain.
Chinese manufacturers are beating Elon Musk at his own game, deploying functional robots to retail locations while Tesla remains stuck in prototype purgatory. These aren't concept videos—they're cashier-assisting, inventory-managing machines actually processing transactions.
The retail robotics race just went mainstream, and Tesla's playing catch-up. Walmart's scale means thousands of these units could deploy before Optimus even learns to walk properly.
Another case of execution beating vision—Wall Street's favorite story. While Tesla's stock trades on future promises, Chinese robotics firms are quietly building the automated future that's already here.
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As first reported by the South China Morning Post two humanoid models from China’s Unitree Robotics have appeared for sale on Walmart’s U.S. website.
Robot Dogs and Toilet Roll
No doubt a surprise for shoppers logging on for cereal, burgers or toilet roll.
These were the Unitree G1 humanoid robot and the Go2 Robot Dog. The G1, standing at 130 centimetres and weighing 35kg, was priced at $21,600 on Walmart, 57% higher than its equivalent $13,500 price tag in mainland China. The G1 currently costs “over $16,000” on the Unitree website.
Although the listings have since been removed from the Walmart website, their search links remain active.
The listings, offered by a third-party vendor called Futurology, are the first Chinese humanoid and quadruped robots to be sold on a major US retail platform, and will be seen as a blow to US robot makers like Tesla and Boston Dynamics.
That’s because U.S. robots like Teslas’ much-hyped Optimus robot are not yet commercially available in the U.S.
Optimus Optimists
The Optimus robot is still in development. According to Musk, Optimus units are already doing simple work in Tesla facilities. He has projected production of 5,000 robots in 2025 scaling to 1 million per year by 2029.
Tesla expects to launch Optimus 3 prototypes by the end of 2025, with mass production set to begin in 2026. Each unit is expected to cost between $20,000 and $30,000. Sales will start with businesses and then expand to consumers.
Tesla sees Optimus as a key factor in its growing ecosystem of services – see below:
Meanwhile, Unitree is readying itself for a $7 billion IPO in Shanghai. Unitree released a number of videos last year showing its robots walking, climbing and carrying loads. It also won multiple medals at the World Humanoid Robot Games this summer, including the 4X100 relay.
President Xi is providing his own support to China’s tech firms in the race to get ahead of the U.S. in robotics, semiconductors and AI.
It is partly why Tesla boss Elon Musk has previously pushed for new U.S. government policies aimed at boosting American companies in the global robotics sector.
Is TSLA a Good Stock to Buy Now?
On TipRanks, TSLA has a Hold consensus based on 14 Buy, 13 Hold and 9 Sell ratings. Its highest price target is $600. TSLA stock’s consensus price target is $358.23, implying a 13.36% downside.
