Nvidia Humanoid Reference Platforms Ship With China-Made Hands

Nvidia's two newest humanoid reference platforms both ship with robot hands from China-linked startups. CNBC's China Connection newsletter reports that the newest system, Agile One SN, pairs a body from Agile Robots with the Wuji Hand 2 from Chinese startup Wuji. The earlier platform used a Unitree body with hands from Sharpa, which is headquartered in Singapore but has its manufacturing R&D in Shanghai.

The Wuji Hand 2 appeared on a slide during Jensen Huang's Berlin presentation on October 21. Per CNBC, Sharpa was co-founded by David Li, CEO of Shanghai-based lidar company Hesai.

CNBC's hands-on comparison is deadpan: "Sharpa Wave is a bit stronger than Wuji, which is closer in size to a typical human hand but has the strength of a ten-year-old."

JoyIn's Zhu Mingxuan told CNBC that Wuji's hands were "very light and very good at completing tasks, but prone to heating up while doing so," and that hands remain the main challenge in humanoid development.

Both reference systems are expected to be adopted by Stanford and ETH Zurich starting in early 2027. That puts a Chinese dexterity component inside the training stacks of two flagship Western robotics labs right as US-China chip friction keeps escalating. Our China AI tracker has logged 292 stories in the past 90 days, and our Nvidia tracker 208; this one sits at their intersection.

CNBC lists no price for either hand, and does not say whether Nvidia plans a non-China option for US customers.