China’s humanoid robots grabbed global attention with kung fu flips at the nation’s televised Spring Festival Gala, while Chinese phone maker Honor is set to unveil its first humanoid robot at MWC in Spain.
Robotics was flagged as a priority under the country’s “Made in China 2025” plan, albeit originally focused on factory automation, rather than humanoids. Now, rapid advances in multimodal AI are accelerating so-called embodied AI — autonomous machines operating in the real world — a push officials say could help offset labor shortages and drive productivity gains.
At this early stage of humanoid robot development, Chinese companies are outpacing their U.S. rivals in both speed and volume, Selina Xu, a China and AI policy lead at the office of Eric Schmidt said.
“China has a more robust hardware supply chain — much of it built up through the EV sector, from sensors to batteries — and the world’s strongest manufacturing base, allowing companies to iterate far faster than Western competitors,” Xu told TechCrunch.
As a result, not only are Chinese robots cheaper but companies can also release new models more quickly, Xu noted, adding that leading Chinese player Unitree shipped roughly 36 times more units last year than U.S. rivals Figure and Tesla.
Global humanoid robot shipments totaled just 13,317 units last year, according to a Forbes report released last month. That is a tiny base for an industry expected to nearly double annually and reach 2.6 million units by 2035. (Still, the figures should be viewed with caution. The report notes it remains unclear how many units represent commercial sales versus demo models or pilot deployments, underscoring the early-stage nature of the industry.)
The top humanoid robot makers by 2025 shipments were led by China’s Agibot and Unitree, followed by UBTech, Leju Robotics, Engine AI, and Fourier Intelligence, underscoring Beijing’s early dominance in the sector.
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