Thousands of buyers in China have already put down real money on robots built to be their companions, not their employees. This is no longer a thought experiment.
UBTech opened preorders for its U1 companion robot on JD.com on June 2, and by its launch event on June 30 the Shenzhen robotics maker had logged more than 11,000 orders. That number has since climbed past 13,000, according to TechNode and BigGo Finance. Real deposits are changing hands. Buyers are paying 3,000 yuan, about $450, per reservation. That buys a machine built to talk, remember conversations, and sit next to them on the couch.
The U1 comes in male and female builds, 183 centimeters and 168 centimeters tall. Underneath the silicone skin sit 88 servo joints. Its emotional AI model runs locally on a Rockchip RK3588 chip, not in the cloud - so the conversation stays on the device, not on someone's server. Prices start at 119,800 yuan for the Lite version, about $16,700. The male Ultra tops out at 990,000 yuan, north of $138,000. UBTech says it's targeting 50,000 units of production capacity by the end of 2026. First deliveries are promised by September 15.
There's a catch worth noting. The deposits were fully refundable, and buyers agreed to pay the balance by July 16 without knowing whether their model would land near 120,000 yuan or closer to 990,000 yuan. Until that deadline passed, the order count measured curiosity as much as commitment. It still crossed 13,000.
UBTech insists it isn't building what you might assume. Company representatives have said, according to the South China Morning Post, that the goal isn't to "simply make a sex robot" but a companion that "won't tell you that you're annoying" and will "play games and watch TV dramas with you." That's a careful line to walk in public, and UBTech's marketing leans hard on companionship and emotional support rather than intimacy.
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The competition is already here #
Realbotix, the U.S. company behind the humanoid Aria, has been selling its F-Series robots since CES 2025 in Las Vegas. Aria ships with 17 facial motors and silicone skin, starts around $125,000, and a fully configured unit runs close to $175,000. Buy one and you aren't finished paying. The Robot Controller AI subscription that powers her conversation costs $199.99 a month on top of the hardware. Realbotix promises delivery within about 12 weeks of an order going in.
DroidUp, a Shanghai startup, is taking a different approach with Moya, a humanoid priced around $173,000 that regulates its silicone skin to between 90 and 97 degrees Fahrenheit so it feels warm to the touch. DroidUp says Moya's walking gait is more than 90 percent similar to a human's, and owners can swap in male or female parts and change the hair to customize the look. It's expected to reach buyers in late 2026.
What this actually is #
None of these robots are impulse buys. At six figures, Aria and Moya cost more than a house down payment in most American cities, and even UBTech's cheapest Lite model runs about as much as a used car. That's the real shape of this market right now. It isn't being built for mass adoption. It's being built for whoever will pay any price to stop coming home to an empty apartment.
You can see why China got there first. UBTech's own framing, an AI that "stays with users whatever they are doing," is a pitch aimed squarely at isolation, not novelty, and the Global Times has covered the launch as part of a wider domestic push into consumer humanoids. Frankly, the fact that a robotics company felt the need to publicly deny building a sex robot tells you how narrow the line is between companionship and something the market isn't ready to say out loud.
UBTech's first U1 units are due to ship next month. Whether all 13,000 depositors actually pay their remaining balance, and whether they still want the robot once the novelty and the warranty both wear off, is a test nobody can preorder their way around.
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