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EngineAI released a video of its CEO, Tongyang Zhao, being kicked in the stomach by its T800 robot.
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The Chinese company, which raised $180.69 million earlier this month, is one of several players in the humanoid robotics space, PitchBook reports.
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Other competitors include Tesla and Boston Dynamics.
In a video posted on Instagram, EngineAI CEO Tongyang Zhao prepared the leg, stomach and head pads. The workers laughed at him and asked him if he was nervous.
The company’s T800 robot then appeared and kicked Tong Yang in the abdomen, and he could be seen falling to the ground.
“Too violent!” Tong Yang said in translation. “How cruel!”
The video featuring the CEO comes after EngineAI released a separate video of its humanoid robot kicking and flipping. Skeptics online accused the robot in the video of being CGI, so the company’s next video showed the robot kicking the CEO in the stomach.
In a comment under its latest video, EngineAI wrote that the startup was “curious” about how the T800 would feel when kicking people, so they conducted an “experiment” to find out.
The video received more than 17,000 likes on Instagram. The first video, accused of CGI, has more than 42,000 likes. It’s unclear whether EngineAI’s T800 is remotely operated or moves independently.
EngineAI raised $180.69 million in December 2025, led by Chinese investment groups Warburg Pincus, Tsinghua Holdings Capital and Henan Investment Group, PitchBook reported.
“In 2026, the Zhongqing team will comprehensively promote scenario verification and large-scale deployment of products.” EngineAI commented in one of the videos. “We will use technological power to empower industrial upgrading and reshape a new ecology where humans and machines coexist.”
Morgan Stanley released a list of 25 companies expected to dominate the humanoid robot market, including Nvidia and Sony. The investment bank estimates the market will be worth more than $5 trillion by 2050. EngineAI is not on Morgan Stanley’s list.
Tesla’s Optimus Prime robot has also kicked some ass. On the red carpet for TRON, Optimus Prime performed kung fu with actor Jared Leto. CEO Elon Musk said during the third-quarter earnings call that “no one controls” the robot.
Teleoperation remains common among humanoid robots. Neo, the laundry-folding and dishwasher-filling robot that went viral on the X, still requires human control outside the home as it is trained to perform more autonomous tasks.
