Germany, sets sights on Hangzhou’s ‘hard tech’

On February 26, 2026, German Chancellor Merz arrived in Hangzhou with a delegation of nearly 30 business leaders. By the shores of West Lake, they gathered for a group photo with their Chinese counterparts—a snapshot rich with implication.

The frame captured German industrial titans like BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Siemens, and Airbus alongside Zhejiang manufacturing leaders such as Geely, Leapmotor, and Chint. Yet the most striking presence was that of Hangzhou’s rising tech innovators: Unitree Robotics and BrainCo.

As the heads of German industrial giants stood shoulder-to-shoulder with young Chinese founders building robots and brain-computer interfaces, the image hinted at a subtle yet profound shift in the nature of Sino-German economic cooperation.

To answer that, it helps to look at exactly what Merz witnessed during his “Hangzhou tour.”

Inside Unitree’s showroom, Merz was met by a troupe of humanoid robots capable of performing backflips, sword dances, and parkour.

These same robots stole the show at the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, executing a string of high-difficulty maneuvers—continuous backflips, sword dances, and parkour—that set multiple “world first” records. Among them: the first continuous single-leg backflip and the highest catapulted backflip, exceeding 3 meters.

Behind the spectacle lies a series of systematic breakthroughs by Unitree in core technologies, ranging from humanoid motion control algorithms and high-power-density joint motors to reinforcement learning training frameworks.

More notably, Unitree’s humanoid robots have moved well beyond the laboratory. According to official data, the company shipped over 5,500 pure humanoid units in 2025, while mass production of robot bodies topped 6,500 units during the same period.

This means Unitree has crossed the threshold from “prototype” to “product,” entering the phase of scalable mass production. The story of industrialization truly begins only when robots can leave the factory in batches and step into real-world scenarios.

BrainCo, for its part, pursues a completely different technological path.

The company specializes in non-invasive brain-computer interfaces—collecting brain signals via headsets or wearable devices, eliminating the need for surgically implanted electrodes. To date, BrainCo has launched products like intelligent bionic limbs, helping people with disabilities regain mobility.

Earlier this year, BrainCo closed a funding round of roughly 2 billion yuan—the second-largest in the global BCI (brain-computer interface) sector, trailing only Elon Musk’s Neuralink.

Among the participants was consumer electronics giant Lens Technology, which became a strategic shareholder and took on the mass production of BrainCo’s core hardware modules. This pairing of a tech firm with a manufacturing giant suggests brain-computer interfaces are on the eve of moving from the lab to scalable production.

Moreover, BrainCo’s intelligent bionic hand successfully secured FDA certification—the first non-invasive brain-computer interface device in China to receive such approval.

So, why did these two companies capture the German delegation’s interest?

One explanation is that they happen to align with two key directions of Germany’s industrial upgrade.

Inside Unitree’s showroom, a display board titled “Partners & Users” lists top German research institutions like the University of Bonn, RWTH Aachen University, and the Fraunhofer Society, alongside industrial giants such as Volkswagen, Bosch, Siemens, and DHL.

Unitree founder Wang Xingxing revealed that the company already has deep cooperation with DHL and Siemens. This implies Unitree is deeply embedded in Germany’s “industry-academia-research” ecosystem.

For Germany, facing high labor costs and an urgent need for industrial automation, Unitree’s cost-effective, high-mobility robotic solutions may be exactly what its Industry 4.0 push requires. Industry analysts argue that because industrial settings are singular and repetitive, the demands on motion control and scene complexity are relatively low—meaning humanoid robots are likely to land in industrial scenarios first.

By comparison, commercial scenarios requiring human interaction, consulting, and guidance place higher demands on large AI models. Domestic service settings are largely unstructured, imposing strict requirements on both AI and hardware. Constrained by bottlenecks in environmental perception, decision-making generalization, and actuator flexibility, humanoid robots still struggle with the high randomness and complexity of household chores at this stage.

BrainCo’s situation, however, is different.

Founder Han Bicheng noted during the exchange that about 30% to 40% of the company’s revenue comes from overseas, with Germany being a key market for non-invasive BCI technology. “Germany has set extremely high production process standards early on, which is worth learning from,” Han said. “Meanwhile, China has taken a leading role in the explosive power of innovation in recent years.”

These remarks point to another possibility for cooperation: Germany’s strength lies in precision manufacturing and process standards, while China excels in innovation speed and product iteration. Together, they could be complementary.

Roland Busch, CEO of Siemens AG, even called for both sides to “reinvent the way we cooperate” rather than continuing along old paths. “German companies are deeply rooted in China’s industrial ecosystem, and in the future, we also hope Chinese companies will become part of Germany’s industrial ecosystem,” Busch stated.

From a broader industrial perspective, these two companies represent distinct paths to technology commercialization. Unitree is moving from “showcasing skills to being useful”—its robots can perform on stage or work on the factory floor, already applied in scenarios like industrial inspection, logistics sorting, and education research.

BrainCo, meanwhile, focuses on solving real problems. Its intelligent bionic hands serve people with limb disabilities, and its sleep aids target those with sleep disorders. Its commercial logic is “solving real problems” rather than “chasing sci-fi concepts.”

This pragmatic technological approach may resonate more deeply with German industry.

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