Signal Humanoid robot Tiangong Ultra breaks human 400m world record at Beijing World Humanoid Robot Games

Summary

At the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing (Aug 22-26, 2026), the headless humanoid robot Tiangong Ultra ran the 100m in 9.39 seconds on opening day (Aug 22), beating Usain Bolt's human world record of 9.58 seconds set in 2009. On Sunday, Aug 23, the same robot broke the human 400m world record, finishing in 38.15 seconds, nearly five seconds faster than Wayde van Niekerk's 2016 Rio Olympics mark of 43.03 seconds. The robot was developed by a Beijing-based, government-backed research centre. During the 400m race it visibly wobbled and leaned forward while thrashing its arms side to side, but stayed upright to the finish. More than 2,000 humanoid robots are competing across 51 events and over 1,000 matches, including running, table tennis and soccer. The games are widely covered as a showcase of China's national AI and robotics industrial capability.