How China Is Turning Commercial Humanoid Robots Into Next-Generation Soldiers — UNITED24 Media
4 min read Google logo Prefer U24 Media on Google Authors: Katherina Popilnichenko News Writer A humanoid robot takes part in a wushu contest during the second World Humanoid Robot Games at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, China August 26, 2026.
Key takeaways
- In September 2026 a wave of high‑profile announcements underscored the rapid expansion of humanoid robotics.
- NVIDIA unveiled “SONIC,” an AI controller that converts VR, video and natural‑language commands into robot actions, promising to broaden the motion repertoire of humanoids, while related work on “touch‑dreaming” techniques lifted task‑success rates by over 90 percent earlier in the year.
- Goldman Sachs dramatically raised its market outlook, projecting shipments of roughly 6.5 million humanoid robots by 2035—a five‑fold jump from its previous estimate—and valuing the sector at about $138 billion.
- In China, the People’s Liberation Army allocated about $300,000 in June to collect and label sensor data for fielded robots, and Reuters reported that the PLA is urging researchers to accelerate the transition of commercial humanoids into combat roles.
- That push coincided with Xpeng’s release of a video on September 11 showing its IRON humanoid walking off an assembly line unaided, and a Chinese startup, JoyIn, claiming its “Aether” model, built on a perceptive‑control approach, can achieve a 90 percent first‑attempt success rate—a claim it says mirrors OpenAI’s technology.
4 min read
Google logo Prefer U24 Media on Google
Authors: Katherina Popilnichenko
News Writer
A humanoid robot takes part in a wushu contest during the second World Humanoid Robot Games at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, China August 26, 2026. (Source: REUTERS) Official procurement records show that in June 2026, the PLA allocated approximately $300,000 for a system to collect and label data from cameras, radars, and robot movements across varied terrain.
The military interest follows the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, where machines competed in sprinting, boxing, and dancing. Two days after the event, the official PLA Daily called on researchers to speed up the transfer of technologies from laboratories to military proving grounds.
New robots, funding, and signals. Every Thursday.
Unsubscribe anytime.
Mentioned in this article