China Masters the Humanoid Robot

“SUZHOU, China -- Elon Musk has been telling investors for months that Tesla Optimus humanoid robot will revolutionize the world and create a new megaindustry. But most of it could belong to China, he has warned.

 

"China is an ass kicker, next level," Musk said in January. "To the best of our knowledge, we don't see any significant [humanoid robot] competitors outside of China."

 

China is moving quickly to try to dominate the industry. Humanoid-robotics companies are sprouting up from Shenzhen to Suzhou, with more than 140 and counting. Tapping a vast ecosystem of parts suppliers and engineering talent, they are starting to produce humanoid robots at scale and actively introducing them into real-life scenarios in factories, hotels and offices.

 

Setting the broader industry direction is Beijing, which has identified "embodied AI" -- the fusion of artificial intelligence with physical systems -- as a cutting-edge technology area China wants to own in the coming five years.

 

Local governments are showering companies with land and discounted office rent.

 

Banks are offering favorable loan terms. Since late 2024, Beijing, Shenzhen and other cities have established investment funds totaling more than $26 billion to inject capital into the industry, Morgan Stanley calculates.

 

Government agencies and state-owned companies are also serving as early adopters, buying up humanoids and deploying them in museums, at events and on the street as robocops performing traffic control.

 

The deployments are helping firms to build a market and collect data to make the robots work better.

 

Some local governments are offering subsidies to buyers, paying around 10% of the price of humanoid robots to lower the bar for customers to try them.

 

The moves closely track the way in which China built up other industries, such as electric vehicles, which benefited from incentives for buyers to help stimulate demand. Now China has many of the world's most notable EV makers, including brands that are eating up the market shares of General Motors, Volkswagen and others in China, Europe and elsewhere.

 

With humanoid robots, "China is once again mobilizing state support, supply-chain depth, and rapid commercialization to build a new strategic sector," said Sunny Cheung, a fellow for China studies at the Jamestown Foundation. Success will depend on who can best solve the myriad technical problems associated with humanoid robots, he said.

 

The industry is still in its early days, and it may take years to take off -- if it ever does.

 

Skeptics say humanoid robots are a bubble and may never find a true use case.

 

China's push has come with lots of hype. A 13-mile humanoid marathon featured a robot that finished in under three hours with human help, but others sat down and refused to move.

 

Even so, China's momentum is a source of concern for U.S. policymakers and tech leaders.

 

The White House has been working on an executive order aiming to boost the development of the American robotics industry, people familiar with the matter said.

 

Among the U.S.'s concerns: Many American robotics companies will rely on China's supply chain.

 

Tesla's Optimus will count on Chinese suppliers for components such as roller screws for robot joints and motors for robot hands for mass production, people familiar with the matter said.

 

The U.S. still leads in one key area: the foundational AI models that serve as the brains of humanoids.

 

Companies including Tesla, Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics have made advances tapping cutting-edge technology from the likes of Nvidia and Google. But China has a broad supply chain of manufacturers that make the nuts and bolts of humanoids, including sensors, batteries and other components.

 

With the ability to source so much locally, Chinese humanoid companies are able to make design changes easily and at low cost, driving innovation.

 

Chinese makers of humanoid robots -- which include humanlike machines with wheels as well as those with legs -- announced orders worth more than $300 million in the second half of 2025. Shenzhen-based UBTech is selling humanoids to companies including Texas Instruments and Airbus.

 

Morgan Stanley predicts that up to 100,000 humanoids could be shipped in 2026, with adoption faster in China than in the U.S.

 

"Although we've heard of American robot companies, they're not in the market," said Jonathan Beh, a representative from an industrial park in Singapore that has been exploring ways to introduce humanoid robots to its operations.

 

"Chinese companies have great products, and they're the only available option."

 

On a recent weekday at UniX AI, a Chinese robot maker in the city of Suzhou near Shanghai, founder Fred Yang showed a group of investors how its wheeled humanoid Panther could adjust messy bedsheets, pick up trash and place dirty clothes in the laundry machine and start the wash.

 

The company, with about 100 employees, has developed three versions of its humanoid robots, with a starting price of around $12,600 each. It has deployed hundreds in places such as hotels, mostly in China.

 

Yang said it helps that UniX AI can secure about 80% of its components from suppliers within a one-hour radius. It can communicate immediately with the supplier to work out any problem.

 

Yang, who studied at the University of Michigan and Yale University, returned home to China to start UniX AI a year and a half ago. He said China's deep bench of technical talent and government support help to make it a good place to launch.

 

Some local governments offer free land and office space for three years, followed by three more years at half price, he said.

 

"Policy is one of the decisive reasons that embodied AI is doing so well in China," Yang said in August. "I treat the government policy as a force to crack the market, and our embodied AI startups are the force to push."

 

Other cities and provinces have set up their own action plans and embodied AI funds to provide capital for the industry.

 

In Shenzhen, home to Tencent, Huawei Technologies and EV maker BYD, a "Robot Valley" is emerging, with around 15 robotics firms. Shenzhen has said it was setting up a roughly $1.4 billion fund focused on AI and robotics industries and another valued at around $640 million focused on AI models.

 

One humanoid robotics firm there, AI2 Robotics, enjoys subsidized rent as well as access to interns from nearby universities. Their costs are also subsidized.

 

AI2's founder, Eric Guo, holds a Ph.D. from Purdue University and previously worked at Microsoft.

 

The firm's general-purpose humanoid, called AlphaBot, is used in factories including LCD television panel maker HKC. In late 2025, some Chinese airports started deploying AI2's robots for services such as pushing and managing luggage carts, a spokesman said.

 

"Our primary focus is to figure out how to make robots usable and operational, even when they haven't yet achieved full, 100% perfection in technology," Guo said in September.

 

Beijing also has an economic development zone with humanoid robot startups, and funds totaling $14 billion to support AI and robotics industries.

 

China's recipe of government support, low-cost supply chains and technical talent worked wonders for the EV industry.

 

But it also led to hundreds of brands crowding the market and severe price competition, with many companies unprofitable. As more robot firms emerge, fears of a bubble have risen.

 

Hoping to avoid that outcome, China's government is drafting a set of technical standards to guide development of the humanoid robot industry, weed out unqualified players and accelerate adoption, according to researchers involved in the process.

 

In November, China's top industry ministry set up a standards committee with executives from leading companies as well as state labs.

 

China's financial regulators have also tightened oversight on robotics companies seeking to go public, to reduce the risk of a bubble, people familiar with the matter said.” [1]

 

1. China Masters the Humanoid Robot. Kubota, Yoko; Huang, Raffaele.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 10 Feb 2026: B1.