Vision–Language–Action Models in Humanoid Robotics Practical Limits, Strategic Bets, and Market Implications

Originally published on Substack.

In the recent speech, Unitree’s founder pointed out that the bigger problem is model architecture, not data quantity, and he also commented that the VLA is too limited. However, there is another startup Spirit AI is betting its roadmap on a VLA- first approach.

The strategic divergence is clear.