China Sends Robots Into the World to Learn How to Be Human - Insurance Journal
American firms have deployed some humanoids to factories,with Tesla Inc. sending some of its Optimus models to its own manufacturing facilities. Startups including Figure AI, Apptronik Inc. and Agility Robotics Inc.
Key takeaways
- Humanoid robotics is seeing a surge of commercial milestones in July 2026.
- A UK‑based startup called Humanoid announced a $152 million Series A round that lifted its valuation to $1.35 billion, making it Europe’s first pure‑play humanoid‑robotics unicorn; the funding will back a next‑generation wheel‑based platform, mass manufacturing, and the rollout of beta robots to logistics, manufacturing and retail sites in Q4 2026, as well as development of its proprietary AI brain, KinetIQ.
- In the United States, Agility Robotics opened a 60,000‑square‑foot research and training campus in Fremont and emphasized a sustainable growth model that avoids the “bidding wars” for scarce AI and robotics talent while expanding deployments of its bipedal Digit robot across industrial operations.
- Meanwhile, San Francisco‑based Weave Robotics launched Isaac 1, a wheeled home‑humanoid aimed at everyday chores and priced at $7,999 (or $449 per month), with deliveries slated for this fall.
- Generative Bionics introduced Gene.01, a full‑body tactile‑sensing humanoid that combines physics‑native AI and was unveiled at AMD Advancing AI 2026, following a €70 million funding round to build its first production plant.
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American firms have deployed some humanoids to factories,with Tesla Inc. sending some of its Optimus models to its own manufacturing facilities. Startups including Figure AI, Apptronik Inc. and Agility Robotics Inc. have all sent small numbers of their machines to industrial partners. Still, that pales in comparison to the efforts by Chinese firms like Shanghai-based Agibot, which is rapidly scaling up factory deployment by the thousands.
In May, Sunnyvale, California-based Figure AI celebrated a milestone after it released a 50-hour livestream during which its humanoid robots sorted packages at its logistics hub with no mistakes. The robots processed nearly 60,000 packages on a moving belt at about the same speed as a human, Chief Executive Officer Brett Adcock told Bloomberg News. China is deploying more humanoids than ever before, sending thousands to logistics hubs, battery factories and other industrial locations at a faster pace than the US. Buoyed by support from the government and a flood of investment, startups are getting their most advanced machines out into the world in a bid to gather torrents of data that can fuel the development of smarter, more humanlike machines.
President Xi Jinping is looking to the robotics industry for help beating the US in a global technology race. China’s manufacturing prowess and robust supply chain management position it well to reap the benefits of humanoids before its geopolitical rival. Xi is due to address the country’s flagship AI conference this week for the first time, where the latest humanoids will be on display. After Unitree Robotics turned heads with the popular kung fu moves of its G1 model, China’s humanoid industry is now undergoing a seismic shift from body to mind. Investors are pouring cash into firms developing AI for robots, known as embodied intelligence, and the biggest names in Chinese tech, from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. to Xiaomi Corp., are joining the fray with their own models.
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