Chinese humanoids gain scale and profit as Korea lags in mass production - CHOSUNBIZ - Chosunbiz
Published 2026.09.07. 10:45 Prefer Chosunbiz EN on Google 66.8%. This is the gross margin that Chinese robot corporations UBTECH recorded in its humanoid business in the first half of this year.
Key takeaways
- XPENG Inc. announced on September 7 2026 that its humanoid‑robot production lines in Guangzhou are now fully operational, with the world’s first advanced general‑purpose humanoid robot—IRON—autonomously walking off the line after completing production.
- The plant boasts over 80 % core process automation, 76 degrees of freedom across the body and 21 degrees of freedom per hand, and is powered by three Turing‑AI chips capable of 2 250 TOPS.
- XPENG plans to begin mass production by the end of 2026, with the first robots slated for delivery in 2027 to Chinese and overseas markets.
- Meanwhile, China’s military has intensified efforts to transition humanoid robots from laboratory prototypes to combat training, following the World Humanoid Robot Games that showcased robots running faster than Usain Bolt and performing various tasks; the People’s Liberation Army’s official newspaper has called for accelerated deployment of humanoid “combatants” alongside robot dogs and unmanned vehicles.
Published 2026.09.07. 10:45
Prefer Chosunbiz EN on Google
66.8%. This is the gross margin that Chinese robot corporations UBTECH recorded in its humanoid business in the first half of this year. It is the ratio left after subtracting product cost from revenue, and it does not reflect expenses such as research and development and selling and administrative costs. It rose 19.5 percentage points from a year earlier, while humanoid revenue jumped 15.4 times and unit sales increased more than 20 times. As "economies of scale" emerge among China's leading humanoid makers that had expanded volume while tolerating losses, profitability is rising quickly. Korea is still at the stage of knocking on the door of the humanoid market. Rainbow Robotics posted 8.65 billion won in sales in the first half with a Humanoid Robot equipped with wheels on the lower body and two arms on the upper body, but its annual production capacity is around 120 units. The company's overall operating loss was 3.59 billion won, up about 3.9% from a year earlier. ROBOTIS, which is preparing mass production of a bipedal humanoid, succeeded in turning to an operating profit for the full year last year, but most of its results come from robot joint components. Of 27.2 billion won in first-half sales, 98% came from actuators, the core components of robot joints, while wheeled humanoids accounted for 2%. ROBOTIS plans to mass-produce 1,000 units per year of its bipedal humanoid "AI Sapiens K1" starting next year. Robros, which is selling the bipedal humanoid "Egris-C," has produced 36 units to date and sold 18 for a fee.
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