China Is Going All-In to Beat the U.S. on Humanoid Robots - The Wall Street Journal

The most recent coverage shows that China is accelerating its push to dominate the humanoid‑robot market, with more than 140 companies emerging and a coordinated effort to develop “embodied AI” as a strategic technology over the next five years; firms such as Unitree, Agibot, Galbot, Noetix and MagicLab are showcasing full‑size humanoids in the high‑visibility CCTV Lunar New Year gala and preparing for possible IPOs, while the government’s backing is prompting rapid scale‑up of production and deployment in factories, hotels and offices. In the United States, Boston Dynamics unveiled a production‑ready Atlas that recently performed a backflip combined with a cartwheel, Tesla’s Optimus is entering training at the Austin gigafactory, and Hyundai has announced plans to manufacture tens of thousands of Atlas units annually by 2028; meanwhile, LimX Dynamics secured a $200 million Series B round to advance whole‑body motion control and cognitive planning, Deft Robotics raised seed funding to bring AI‑powered wheeled humanoids into automotive and electronics assembly, and Faraday Future announced the imminent delivery of commercial full‑size and compact humanoid robots for public and private use. These developments collectively indicate that humanoid robots are moving from high‑profile demos toward more practical industrial, commercial and consumer applications, though experts caution that widespread efficiency and reliability are still being refined.

Mentioned in this article