China dominates humanoid robots race as robot coworkers move from labs to factory floors

Your First Humanoid Robot Coworker Will Probably Be Chinese

Explosive acceleration, limited dexterity, eyes in the back of its head. What could possibly go wrong? The 4-foot-tall humanoid robot that's in front of me seems, quite honestly, a bit drunk. It leaps from one leg to the other, waving its arms. After 30 seconds or so it abruptly stops, then strides toward me with an arm outstretched. The little robot is at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, on the banks of the Huangpu river in Shanghai. The convention center is teeming with humanoids -- dancing ones, box-toting ones, robot dog-walking ones doing circuits around trade show booths. A few lie slumped in a corner as their batteries recharge. It's a balmy day in July, and I've come to Shanghai to learn how China's AI world differs from the Western one I usually cover. I'd immediately noticed the sleek electric cars from BYD, Xiaomi, and Huawei that fill the streets of the city's fashionable old French Concession. At Manner, a high-end coffee chain, I sampled an avant-garde beverage called a "sparkling citrus iced Americano." Now that I'm at the convention, I can't help but picture these dancing robots strolling Shanghai's streets and perhaps carrying their owner's shopping bags. A group crowds around a small boxing ring, where two humanoids throw punches at each other. One falls down, then gets back on its haunches and straightens up. A young woman offers to let me punch a humanoid. I feel certain that this would make me feel bad, so I decline. The activity in this convention center is a bit of a mirage, of course. Amid the throngs, you can spot people holding game controllers. They're giving the robots high-level instructions. The humanoids can control their balance and execute short routines, but it's humans who tell them which way to walk, whom to shake hands with, or when to backflip. Another limitation: Many humanoids don't have fingers. Their arms usually end in stumps, meaning that while they can hold and lift boxes (or wear boxing gloves, they can't grasp anything. Even so, experts predict that robots will have profound effects on the workforce and the economy. Amazon is testing humanoids from an American startup called Agility and, according to leaked memos, expects to replace a significant number of workers with robots in the next few years. Bank of America analysts predict that by 2035, robot makers will ship 10 million humanoids a year. Morgan Stanley forecasts that by 2050 a billion will be in use, with almost a third of them -- 302.3 million -- in China, compared with 77.7 million in the US. Perhaps no humanoid maker has a bigger lead than a Hangzhou-based company called Unitree. While Elon Musk's Optimus staggers through its demos, Unitree's robots are doing sprints, kung-fu kicks, and acrobatic backflips. (The conference's dancing door greeter was a Unitree.) Unitree's legged robots are also incredibly cheap, costing tens of thousands of dollars or less, a tenth of what a typical humanoid in the US costs. Unitree is China's most prominent robotics startup, a national champion for its tech industry, and is reportedly targeting a $7 billion IPO listing in Shanghai. And if Unitree fails? A staggering 200-plus other Chinese companies are also developing humanoids, which recently prompted the Chinese government to warn of overcapacity and unnecessary replication. The US has about 16 prominent firms building humanoids. With stats like that, one can't help but suspect that the first country to have a million humanoids will be China.

Robot coworkers are closer than expected as labour shortages hit hard

China leads robot production while Europe anchors the precision supply chain A rise in recent deployments across manufacturing environments shows humanoid robots are no longer confined to experimental settings, and evidence now points to a shift toward real-world use, new research has claimed. A new Barclays report states advances in artificial intelligence and mechanical engineering now allow robots with human-like forms to operate outside tightly controlled labs. These machines are now undergoing testing on production lines, in warehouses, and in other workplaces designed around human movement and reach. Labor shortages across several sectors, including manufacturing, agriculture, logistics, and healthcare, are a key factor driving this shift, as employers struggle to attract workers for repetitive, physically demanding, or hazardous roles. Aging populations, urban migration, and changing job preferences continue to reduce the supply of workers willing to perform physically demanding or repetitive work. These pressures create gaps that existing automation systems cannot fully address, which opens the door for humanoid robots. Humanoid robots differ from earlier machines because designers build them to function within human environments rather than requiring redesigned spaces. They include legs, arms, and sensors, and in theory can move through narrow spaces, climb stairs, and switch between tasks without major redesigns. Recent advances in perception and motion control software have reduced earlier failures that limited practical use, particularly errors tied to object recognition and spatial judgment, and other AI tools also play a central role by allowing these systems to respond to unstructured settings. Another contributing factor is that production costs have dropped from millions of dollars a decade ago to roughly $100,000 today. Developers attribute this reduction to progress in computing hardware, batteries, and especially actuators, which translate digital commands into movement. Like electric cars, manufacturers already build humanoid robots at scale in China, but Europe continues to supply many of the high-precision mechanical components that allow these machines to function reliably. Despite the growing attention, Barclays acknowledges large-scale adoption is neither guaranteed nor imminent. Energy efficiency still lags behind human performance, deployment costs remain high, and reliance on critical minerals introduces supply risks. Similar claims over the past few years have unsettled many workers, although there is little reason for alarm. Humanoid robots are expected to take on tasks that many people already avoid, but the report relies heavily on forecasts and early trials rather than long-term operational data. This leaves open questions around reliability, regulation, and whether these machines will spread widely across industries or remain limited to narrowly defined, undesirable roles.