Humanoid robot sales tally hit 7000 globally last year
AMSTERDAM, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Around 7,000 humanoid robots were sold worldwide last year for industrial and professional service use, figures compiled by the International Federation of Robotics showed.
Key takeaways
- The most recent developments in humanoid robotics show rapid advances in both hardware and software, along with growing commercial interest.
- Agility Robotics unveiled Digit 5, a “general‑purpose” humanoid that can detect nearby people with an Nvidia Thor IGX AI chip and automatically cower, sit or stop when a human appears, a safety feature highlighted in a September 2026 video.
- Boston Dynamics opened a Robotics Metaplant Application Center in partnership with Hyundai, where multiple Atlas units are being trained for manufacturing tasks, signaling the start of large‑scale deployment in auto factories.
- Chinese EV maker XPENG announced that its first advanced general‑purpose humanoid robot has completed a fully automated production line and walked off the line autonomously, marking the world’s first such line for humanoids.
- Global sales of industrial and professional‑service humanoid robots reached about 7,000 units in 2024, according to the International Federation of Robotics, and analysts now forecast shipments of roughly 90,000 units in 2026 and over a million by 2030.
AMSTERDAM, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Around 7,000 humanoid robots were sold worldwide last year for industrial and professional service use, figures compiled by the International Federation of Robotics showed.
The relatively small number contrasts with forecasts for a boom in the coming years, particularly in China, the world's largest market for industrial robots, which last month showcased humanoid running and boxing at its robot games.
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To qualify as humanoid under the IFR's criteria, a robot must have a human-like appearance and operate autonomously in an environment designed for humans. Legs are not required. Bank of America Global Research estimates that 90,000 humanoid robots will be shipped this year and 1.2 million by 2030. The IFR's tally is based on supplier and national industry association data, and excludes consumer and military humanoid robots, while medical robots are classified separately.
Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Alexander Smith
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Bieller said that among humanoids sold in 2025, many were not doing productive work but were bought by research institutions or companies using them to generate data for improving AI models.
Carmakers, key early adopters, are running pilots with "single-digit or sometimes double-digit numbers of robots in their plants," Bieller said.
IFR has compiled robotics statistics for three decades, and has begun collecting humanoid data alongside its much larger industrial robot and service robot figures for the first time.
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