Experts Say Demand for Humanoids Lags Capacity to Build Them - Manufacturing.net
# Experts Say Demand for Humanoids Lags Capacity to Build Them Morgan Stanley estimates the market is worth $5 trillion. Chan Ho-Him Olivia Zhang Jun 8, 2026 Workers assemble robot at the LY iTech Beijing Super Factory for Embodied Artificial Intelligence d...
Key takeaways
The most recent coverage shows that China’s humanoid‑robot sector is moving from prototype showcases to large‑scale production while buyers remain tentative. Lingyi iTech’s new Beijing factory has already built about 300 units and is targeting 10,000 robots this year, with a long‑term goal of 500,000 annually by 2030—a scale that could halve the current $30,000 price tag—but most orders to date are for just one or two machines, and analysts are watching whether companies will place repeat purchases. Beijing’s government‑run showroom, opened in August, displays a child‑sized soccer‑playing Booster T1 and a fully adult‑sized R1 Pro that costs roughly $29,400, and cumulative showroom orders have topped 30 million yuan. At the same time, the industry is attracting major financing: Standard Bots secured a $200 million Series C that lifted its valuation to $1 billion, and Figure announced a rapid manufacturing ramp‑up that could accelerate delivery of its humanoids for logistics partners such as Catalyst Brands. China is also introducing a national digital‑ID system to track each robot’s lifecycle, aiming to improve safety and standardisation. Outside China, the UK‑based Humanoid company confirmed a partnership with Bosch to move toward scaled production, while Rotaku opened reservations for its Domo developer platform at a starting price of $2,999. Market analysts note that supply is outpacing demand: Morgan Stanley projects Chinese humanoid sales to rise to about 28,000 units in 2026 after 13,000 were shipped in 2025, and Omdia expects total advanced‑robot shipments to exceed one million per year by the early 2030s. Companies such as Matrix Robotics are already shipping higher‑priced models like the $99,000 MATRIX‑3 to coffee chains and hotels, though they have received only around 1,000 orders so far. Researchers caution that while hardware and locomotion improvements are realistic, general‑purpose manipulation in unstructured settings remains a longer‑term challenge. Early commercial use cases are emerging in airports (Japan Airlines testing baggage‑handling humanoids), last‑mile delivery (Amazon’s prototype units), and warehouse logistics, suggesting that the next wave of adoption will focus on semi‑structured environments before household deployment becomes widespread.
Experts Say Demand for Humanoids Lags Capacity to Build Them
Morgan Stanley estimates the market is worth $5 trillion.
Chan Ho-Him
Olivia Zhang
Jun 8, 2026
Workers assemble robot at the LY iTech Beijing Super Factory for Embodied Artificial Intelligence during a media tour in the Beijing E-Town on the outskirts of Beijing on May 29, 2026.
AP Photo/Andy Wong
HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese-made humanoid robots are making waves with their ability to do backflips, direct traffic, and even make coffee as the companies developing them seek ways to expand and dominate the market. 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.
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). ### Robot makers say real-life demand is growing
The Shanghai-based startup Matrix Robotics makes humanoid robots that employ AI. Its flagship humanoid robot, the "MATRIX-3," stands nearly 5.6 feet (1.7 meters) tall and is equipped with hands able to make finely controlled movements. They are priced at around $99,000 per unit.
Customers for the roughly 1,000 orders it has received include coffee chains and hotels, its founder and CEO Allan Zhang, who formerly worked for Tesla, said at a recent robotics expo in Macao.
So far, Matrix has made only a few hundred of the robots, though it said it will be capable of delivering 5,000 units within this year, depending on the number of orders.
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