"Offering 27.2 Billion Won to Join Us" Ultra-High Salary Ignites Talent War

Unprecedented Offer for Humanoid Technology Leader
Compensation on Par with Global Tech Giants... Fierce Competition for AI Talent

A Chinese humanoid robot company has ignited global competition for top talent by posting a job opening with an ultra-high annual salary of up to 27.2 billion won.

On April 4, the Chinese state-run media outlet Global Times reported that Chinese robotics company UBTECH has opened recruitment for a Chief Research Officer to lead the embodied AI division, offering an annual package ranging from a minimum of 15 million yuan (about 3.3 billion won) to a maximum of 124 million yuan (about 27.2 billion won). The compensation package includes both cash and equity.

Founded in 2012, UBTECH was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2023, earning the title of the "first listed humanoid robot company." According to performance results announced on March 31, UBTECH’s revenue for 2025 is projected at 2.01 billion yuan (about 440.6 billion won), representing a 53.3% increase from the previous year.

Humanoid Robot of China. Yonhap News Agency

The company emphasized that it is looking for a "game-changer who can transform the humanoid robot industry," and described the new hire as "a key figure who will lead technological exploration and turn vision into reality." The incoming expert will oversee core research areas, including vision-language-action models, foundational models for robotics, and precision motion learning.

This level of compensation is considered unprecedented within the industry. Compared to the annual salary of Wang Xingxing, founder and CEO of Chinese competitor Unitree (about 500 million won), it is more than 50 times higher at its maximum. Local media outlets have noted that "such compensation is on par with the top-tier research staff at global tech giants like OpenAI and Meta."

The backdrop to this is intensifying competition in the field of embodied AI. Embodied AI refers to artificial intelligence technology that learns and acts within the real physical world using a physical body, and is considered a core area for humanoid robots. For UBTECH, fully embodied humanoids account for 41% of total revenue, making it a key revenue stream.

China is strategically nurturing this sector to drive manufacturing automation and the proliferation of service robots, and global companies are also entering the field in rapid succession.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.