China can build humanoids at scale. The hard part is finding enough buyers - Greenwich Time
## China leads the global humanoid robots market Last year, Chinese humanoid robots accounted for around 85% globally, according to a recent research report by Barclays.
Key takeaways
The most recent headlines show a surge of activity around commercial‑grade humanoid robots. At NVIDIA’s GTC event in Taipei in early June, the company unveiled an open‑source reference design built on the Isaac GR00T platform that pairs a Unitree H2 Plus humanoid body with NVIDIA’s Jetson Thor board featuring the new Blackwell GPU, along with Sharpa five‑fingered hands and a full suite of AI models and simulation tools; sales of the research‑focused system to labs such as Stanford and ETH Zurich are slated to begin later this year. NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang emphasized that “physical AI” could generate a multi‑trillion‑dollar market, and the partnership is intended to lower the barrier for embodied‑AI research. Unitree, the Chinese robot maker supplying the H2 Plus, is preparing an October launch of the upgraded H2 Plus and is pursuing a Shanghai STAR‑board IPO that could raise about 4.2 billion yuan, while reporting that over 40 % of its revenue already comes from overseas customers. In the United States, 1X Technologies has started full‑scale production of its NEO humanoid in Hayward, California, marketing the robot as quieter than a refrigerator for domestic environments, and London‑based Humanoid announced a joint proof‑of‑concept with Bosch aimed at scaling production. Fraunhofer IPA introduced a new benchmark suite for evaluating humanoid performance, underscoring the growing focus on real‑world manipulation rather than just locomotion, a point echoed by Columbia professor Yunzhu Li who warned that general‑purpose manipulation in fully unstructured settings remains a longer‑term challenge. China continues to dominate shipments, with analysts projecting roughly 28 000 units shipped in 2026—up from 13 000 in 2025—and forecasts that global advanced‑robot deliveries could exceed one million per year by the early 2030s, driven by state support and rapidly falling prices.
China leads the global humanoid robots market
Last year, Chinese humanoid robots accounted for around 85% globally, according to a recent research report by Barclays.
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Startups in China have the advantage of massive state support, in line with the ruling Communist Party’s 2026-2030 five-year plan targeting the frontiers of technology, including advancements of humanoid robots.
Of the more than 13,000 humanoid robots shipped in 2025, AGIBOT and Unitree, two of China’s leading robotics companies, each shipped over 5,000, while U.S. rivals like Figure AI and Tesla each shipped a few hundred or less, according to Omdia.
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China had more than 140 humanoid robot manufacturers and more than 330 models in 2025, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Last year, the Chinese government even publicly warned about the risk of a bubble in the industry given the lagging state of commercialization and applications.
Corporate and academic labs are buying humanoid robots for research. And in China, many of the more than 2 billion yuan ($295 million) worth of orders in 2025 came from state-owned enterprises for use in places such as power plants, data centers or for entertainment, Morgan Stanley said. Morgan Stanley expects China’s humanoid sales to more than double this year to around 28,000 units. Omdia forecasts that annual shipments of advanced robots could surpass 1 million units by the early 2030s.
Some robot makers say they are already profitable. Unitree said it made 1.7 billion yuan (around $250 million) in revenue last year, with a profit of over 278 million yuan ($41 million).
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Robot makers argue that as production of humanoid robots increases, costs will drop. Using more locally made parts also helped make Chinese robots 20% or more cheaper than foreign models on average, Morgan Stanley said. It estimates the average price could fall to about $21,000 by 2050, from $46,000 last year.
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