The first robot in Nvidia’s new research line is a collaboration with three flags on it. The body comes from China’s Unitree, the hands from Singapore-headquartered Sharpa, and the computing brain from Nvidia.After Jensen Huang’s keynote in Taipei on Monday, ahead of the Computex trade show, the company said it plans to repeat the exercise with humanoid makers in the United States, Europe and South Korea.The machine announced this week is a standardised version of Unitree’s H2 robot, built as a reference platform for academic researchers. The idea is to give labs a common piece of hardware to develop on rather than each building or buying a different machine.
Researchers at Stanford University and the University of California San Diego are among those who plan to use it, along with Seattle-based Ai2, ETH Zurich in Switzerland, the Stanford Robotics Center, and UC San Diego’s Advanced Robotics and Controls Laboratory. Sales, primarily to research institutions, are set to start later this year.
The robot uses Nvidia’s Isaac GR00T platform, the software and reference-hardware stack the company has been building out for humanoid development, which is the connective tissue across these partnerships rather than any single chassis.
Nvidia executives told Reuters the company intends to pursue more partnerships like the Unitree one with robotics firms outside China. They did not name the prospective US, South Korean and European partners, and spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are not public. That is the part of the announcement worth holding lightly. A stated intention to work with unnamed companies in three regions is a direction of travel, not a deal.
The timing is hard to miss. The Unitree robot landed the same week the Chinese firm itself moved towards a public listing, having outsold rivals including Tesla on humanoid units last year. Unitree has become the most visible name in a Chinese sector that shipped roughly 90 per cent of the world’s humanoid robots in 2025, which makes it both an obvious partner for Nvidia and an awkward one. The firm shipped more humanoid units last year than any rival, Tesla included, and is preparing a listing in Shanghai alongside compatriot AgiBot.
That awkwardness is the subtext of the wider plan. Nvidia’s pitch is that it supplies the brain regardless of whose body it sits in, and lining up American, European and Korean partners alongside Unitree spreads that bet across the geopolitical map rather than concentrating it in China.
For a company whose chips are already entangled in export-control politics, a robotics strategy that does not depend on a single country has obvious appeal.
For now, the concrete thing is one research robot with a Chinese body, Singaporean hands, and a Nvidia brain, heading to a list of named universities later this year. The rest is a plan, told to a wire service by people who would not put their names to it.
When Encanto was released, it was something of a cultural phenomenon. You couldn’t escape the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” and the soundtrack went to the top of the charts. If you loved Encanto, there’s another overlooked Lin-Manuel Miranda animated musical on Netflix that’s better in many ways.
Vivo is another Lin-Manuel Miranda musical
He’s also the voice of the lead character
Credit: Sony Pictures Animation
Vivo is a 2021 animated musical comedy from Sony Pictures Animation, the same studio behind smash-hit movies such as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and KPop Demon Hunters. Directed by Kirk DeMicco, who co-wrote it with Quiara Alegría Hudes, it features original songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the musical genius who shot to superstardom on the back of Hamilton.
Miranda also plays the title character of Vivo, a kinkajou (a small, nocturnal mammal) whose days are spent earning money by playing music in the plaza with his aging owner, Andrés. When Andrés dies, Vivo makes it his mission to deliver a song that Andrés wrote to his old friend Marta Sandoval, a famous singer played by Gloria Estefan. The song reveals Andrés’ true feelings for Marta, but he could never bring himself to give it to her.
Vivo is helped on his quest by Gabi, a young misfit and the daughter of Andrés’ niece. The movie follows their journey through the Florida Everglades to reach Miami and deliver the song.
Why Vivo flew under the radar
The big theatrical release never happened
Credit: Sony Pictures Animation
Vivo is an animated musical from a major animation studio, with a cast of big names including Miranda, Gloria Estefan, and Zoe Saldaña. It features music from one of the most in-demand songwriters in the world, who also stars in it. Why isn’t it more well-known?
Perhaps the biggest reason is that Vivo never got its expected theatrical release. After the global pandemic disrupted Sony’s plans for a wide theatrical release, the rights were sold to Netflix. Instead of a major theatrical run, it joined the huge catalog of Netflix, where shows and movies all too often get buried by the churn of new content.
It meant that, unlike Encanto, Vivo never really got the chance to enter the zeitgeist or become a TikTok staple. Its fairly quiet release on a streaming service meant that it never got the attention that it deserved.
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Vivo’s music hits different
Gloria Estefan still has it
When Encanto came out, people raved about the music. The song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” went viral, with an endless stream of TikTok videos. To my mind, however, the music in Vivo is just so much better.
I never really got the hype about “We Don’t Talk About Bruno.” It’s not bad, but it’s not even the best song in Encanto. While the music in Encanto is good, none of the songs really stand out as being classics. I listen to a lot of Disney movie soundtracks with my kids, and Encanto very rarely makes the playlist, while Moana, which also includes songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, gets played far more often.
I’m sorry, Toy Story, but a new winner has entered the chat
What gets played a lot is the Vivo soundtrack because it’s genuinely brilliant. There’s something for everyone, too; there are four of us in the family, and each of us has a different favorite song from the soundtrack. That’s how good it is.
“One of a Kind” is the song that introduces us to Vivo and Andrés, and it’s a great mix of classic Cuban mambo and clave rhythms combined with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s trademark hip-hop flow. “My Own Drum” is an absolute banger sung by Gabi featuring possibly the greatest recorder solo of all time. My personal favorite, “Keep The Beat,” is a gorgeous song about keeping going when things start to change.
The most beautiful song in the movie is “Inside Your Heart,” performed by the legendary Gloria Estefan. This is the song that Andrés wrote for Marta, expressing his feelings for her. It’s a stunning song, and Estefan’s voice still sounds incredible. For me, it lands far harder than anything in Encanto.
What Vivo offers that Encanto doesn’t
There’s more than just the awesome music
Credit: Sony Pictures Animation
While both movies have music written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, only one of them features the songwriter in the main cast. Some of the fast-paced rhymes in Vivo are so distinctive that you can’t imagine anyone else doing them justice, as Dwayne Johnson proved in Moana.
Vivo also has a more dynamic story, with the action involving a race from Cuba to Miami rather than being set entirely within one location like Encanto. It also includes some interesting stylized 2D sequences that mix up the look of the movie. The emotional stakes are also much higher in Vivo, with a story that touches on death, regret, lost love, and finding your place in the world.
That’s not to say it’s a perfect movie. The plot does dip a little in the middle, but the stunning music and bittersweet ending make up for the flaws.
Are you a parent tired of watching awful kids’ shows? Give yourself a break with these Netflix series that will entertain both you and your children.
Check out Vivo if you haven’t already
If you loved Encanto and you haven’t watched Vivo, you should definitely check it out. It’s a movie that really deserves more attention than it gets. I guarantee it will be the best kinkajou-based animated musical you’ll ever see.
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