Roland Berger says humanoid robot manufacturing could be $750 billion market by 2035 - Consultancy.uk
# Roland Berger says humanoid robot manufacturing could be $750 billion market by 2035 29 June 2026 Consultancy.uk 5 min. read The preserve of dystopian science-fiction for the best part of a century, a new study from Roland Berger claims that humanoid robo...
Key takeaways
- Humanoid robots are moving rapidly from showcase demos toward commercial deployment, with China leading the market through a booming rental sector that sees units such as Unitree’s androids hired for exhibitions, events and even marriage proposals at roughly 3,000 yuan a day; the company, now the world’s largest humanoid maker, is preparing a Shanghai listing while Beijing’s new nationwide initiative targets more than 100 high‑value application scenarios by the end of the year.
- In the West, AGIBOT unveiled its A3 humanoid in Europe and launched a robot‑as‑a‑service model in the United Kingdom to handle customer attraction, reception and smart‑retail tasks, while BMW announced the deployment of Figure 03 at its Spartanburg plant for logistics sequencing, building on a pilot that saw its predecessor assemble over 30,000 vehicles.
- Agility Robotics is set to go public via a SPAC merger, positioning itself as the only U.S. publicly listed pure‑play humanoid company with active commercial customers such as Amazon and Toyota.
- Meanwhile, Genesis AI introduced Eno, a wheeled general‑purpose robot with dexterous hands and a foundation‑model brain, aiming for industrial and laboratory rollouts by the end of 2026, and analysts at Roland Berger project the global humanoid‑robot manufacturing market could reach $750 billion by 2035 as labor shortages drive adoption, though they caution that safety standards and harmonised legislation will be critical for widespread industrial use.
Roland Berger says humanoid robot manufacturing could be $750 billion market by 2035
29 June 2026 Consultancy.uk 5 min. read
The preserve of dystopian science-fiction for the best part of a century, a new study from Roland Berger claims that humanoid robots are on the verge of moving from the prototype phase to industrial-scale rollout. According to the researchers, the machines could be used to cover for labour shortages, creating a robot manufacturing market worth as much as $4 trillion – though such an approach would require “harmonised legislation” to ensure ethical use. In the case of Japan, long touted as the way of the future, technology was touted as the way forward. With public and private investment accelerating markedly in the 2010s, by 2018, the national government alone had spent well in excess of $300 million funding research and development for humanoid robots to care for the elderly – and indirectly avoid loosening immigration controls. However, a major national survey of over 9,000 elder-care institutions in Japan showed that in 2019, only about 10% reported having introduced any care robot, while a 2021 study found that out of a sample of 444 people who provided home care, only 2% had experience with a care robot. While software maturity increases could grow the range of tasks, issues such as durability, safety, and liability will also determine the speed and breadth of industrialisation, the researchers believe. But this may move slowly, as while existing safety standards are designed for traditional, fenced-off automation, humanoid robots, “work dynamically and move in the same spaces as people”. As a result, new testing and certification approaches as well as “harmonised legislation” will be needed before their wider implementation. Even so, the researchers are confident in the technology itself – if not its application.
Source: Roland Berger
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