China

With over 10 billion yuan poured into the sector in just two months, China’s humanoid industry is shifting from "showbiz" spectacles to a brutal race for industrial commercialization and survival.

Industrial giant Schaeffler has signed its first Chinese humanoid partnership with Leju Robotics and opened a specialized innovation factory in Taicang, even as leadership prepares investors for a conservative 2026 fiscal year.

New data from Xiaomi shows its humanoid robots hitting production-speed cycle times and high reliability in complex nut-installation tasks, signaling a shift from lab prototypes to factory-ready labor.

With the launch of a new Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) platform and a global online store, AgiBot is attempting to bridge the "utility gap" by turning high-end humanoids into accessible, short-term rentals.

At the inaugural HEIS conference in Beijing, industry giants Unitree and AgiBot joined regulators to release China’s first comprehensive humanoid standard system, signaling a shift toward industrial utility and mass-production reliability.