This week, RoboStore CEO Teddy Haggerty brought KOID back to CNBC's Power Lunch for a live segment on humanoid robotics, the Nvidia-Unitree partnership, and where this industry is actually headed. It was part product demo, part industry explainer, part impromptu dance break. Robotics in 2026 is something else.
If you missed it, here's what was covered and the context that didn't quite make it into the segment.
KOID is back — and he's got a new head
KOID — named after the KraneShares Robotics & AI ETF that tracks the very industry we're helping build — made his debut on CNBC six months ago as a standard Unitree G1 EDU, the open-development platform that's become the R&D workhorse of the humanoid robotics world. This time around, he's running a significantly upgraded stack.
The most visible change is a fully custom headpiece developed by IntBot.ai. The IntBot head replaces the standard G1 faceplate with a dynamic digital display designed to make the robot expressive and interactive in real-world environments. It's not cosmetic. The display is paired with a customizable LLM backbone that can be trained on proprietary datasets and tuned to answer specific questions in real time. IntBot has already deployed their system in an airport setting for over a year, running live as an interactive agent for travelers. That's a real track record.
RoboStore is one of the first to integrate the IntBot system onto the G1 platform, and KOID is the proof of concept. We've just started piloting this configuration, and if you're interested in a G1 + IntBot setup, reach out to our team at RoboStore to talk through availability and next steps.
The Nvidia-Unitree partnership, explained plainly
The segment opened with the news that Nvidia and Unitree are collaborating on next-generation humanoid robotics, combining Nvidia's AI stack with Unitree's hardware platform. Teddy framed it well on air: think Android vs iPhone. Companies like Figure are building vertically integrated systems where hardware, software and OS are all controlled in-house, like an iPhone. What Nvidia and Unitree are building together is more like Android; a standardized, open reference platform that developers can build on top of.
The result is the Unitree H2 Plus, a purpose-built humanoid designed for real-world deployment. Where the G1 is a developer's canvas, the H2 Plus is the reference platform; more capable, more standardized, and built from the ground up to support third-party applications at scale.
As the official US distribution partner for Unitree and the largest Unitree distributor in the country, RoboStore is leading the charge on bringing both platforms to American buyers, researchers and enterprise teams.
Humanoid vs quadruped — what actually sells
The anchors asked a genuinely good question: why buy a humanoid when quadrupeds exist? The honest answer is that quadrupeds are more mature. They've been deployed in real environments for years; inspection, security, remote monitoring. The Go2 is our bestselling product for a reason. Humanoids have brought a lot of spotlight to robotics generally, but most are still in active R&D. The G1 is the workhorse of that phase.
The humanoid advantage is form factor. Human environments like kitchens, warehouses and offices are built around human proportions. A bipedal robot with dexterous hands can navigate those spaces and interact with objects in ways a quadruped can't. The dishwasher example that came up on air wasn't a joke; that's exactly the type of task the H2 Plus is engineered toward, with advanced depth sensing, multi-camera vision and the compute power to handle it autonomously.
Hardware first, then build on it
One thing that didn't get fully developed on air is the philosophy behind why the hardware ships before the full software ecosystem exists. Instead of waiting for a complete end-to-end solution, Unitree releases the robot and invites developers to build directly on top of it. The hardware is the platform; the software is the opportunity.
That's what KOID represents today: a deployable humanoid robot that's available now, running a real software integration, in front of real customers. What Teddy brought to CNBC isn't a prototype. It's something you can actually buy from RoboStore.
What's next
Teddy's timeline on air: the G1 platform sticks around for another couple of years as the R&D standard. Consumer-level robotics, fully autonomous and general-purpose, is a five-year horizon. But entry-level deployments for specific, defined tasks? That's happening now. The hardware is here, the integrations are being built, and the gap between "impressive demo" and "deployed solution" is closing fast.
Big thanks to Brian Sullivan, Kelly Evans and the entire CNBC Power Lunch team for having us back. Great conversation, great energy, and we're glad KOID behaved himself. Hope to do it again soon!
If you want to see what's available today — humanoids, quadrupeds, the full Unitree lineup — start at RoboStore.com.
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RoboStore Is Bringing the Unitree H2 Plus to the U.S. — The First Humanoid Reference Design Built on NVIDIA Isaac GR00T