For the second time in a year, Unitree Robotics caused a stir on social media recently with videos of its humanoid robot’s acrobatic accomplishments. This time around, the G1 robot completed a standing side flip and a kungfu move known as a carp jump—both more complicated than the standing front flip that the startup’s H1 model performed last year.
The H1 also appeared on China’s state-broadcast Lunar New Year gala this year, while Unitree’s founder Wang Xingxing took part in a high-profile meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that included tech heavyweights such as Alibaba founder Jack Ma. All this recent publicity underscores the excitement gathering around humanoid robots as Beijing positions the sector as a new growth engine in the vein of electric vehicles.
China’s robotics industry has been rapidly evolving and is now in the midst of a full-fledged boom. According to data company Qichacha, more than 190,000 robotics-related companies were registered last year, with an additional 44,000 registered since the start of this year. Robot China, an industry website, reports that in 2024, humanoid robots led the sector’s funding, accounting for half of major investments, defined as those around RMB 100 million (USD 14 million) each.
Compared to industrial robots, humanoid robots need to be more flexible and capable of conducting complex tasks in ways that make them interchangeable with humans. Startups like UBTech, Unitree, AgiBot and Fourier Intelligence are scaling rapidly, with Unitree’s Wang predicting an “iPhone moment” within three to five years.
Similar to EVs and smartphones, China’s government policies have prioritized humanoid robots as “disruptive products,” with the market expected to reach USD 43 billion by 2035. After Elon Musk introduced an Optimus prototype in 2022, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued industrial development guidance the following year, saying the country would strive to mass produce humanoid robots by 2025 and seek to build a globally competitive industrial ecosystem.
UBTech, whose humanoid robots have been tested in multiple EV facilities including those of BYD, Nio, Foxconn and Geely, aims to produce 1,000 humanoid robots in 2025 and increase annual shipments to 3,000–5,000 in 2026, and more than 10,000 by 2027. Meanwhile, Shenzhen-based Dobot recently announced it would begin taking preorders of its latest humanoid robot, called Dobot Atom, which has been undergoing trials in car factories, electronics plants and coffee shops, for RMB 199,000 (USD 27,860) each.
“China views humanoid robots as a strategic frontier to drive continued economic growth, enhance industrial automation to enhance productivity, and solidify its position in global tech leadership,” said Joseph Li, head of capital formation and portfolio development at C Capital.
“China’s cost advantage and the country’s robust supply chain will further fuel this bet,” he added. “While the US remains a leader in R&D, we expect China’s scale and policy momentum could close the gap by 2030.”
Humanoid robots have advanced significantly since 2023, driven by rapid progress in artificial intelligence, particularly the continuous evolution of large language models and visual language models. The rise of EVs has also played a role. Experts say that at the manufacturing level, approximately 70% of the components of humanoid robots are interchangeable with those of EVs. This fact, coupled with Musk’s activities in the area, has spurred notable Chinese automakers including BYD, Xiaomi, Xpeng Motors, Chery, GAC Motor, and SAIC, as well as Huawei, drone giant DJI, and home appliance maker Midea to enter the market through investments or in-house development.
He Xiaopeng, a National People’s Congress deputy and chairman of Xpeng, even proposed during this year’s NPC that Beijing should leverage its experience in cultivating and promoting the EV market to develop similar supportive policies for humanoid robots, arguing it could turn into a major industry with the same potential over the next 5–20 years.
As with EVs, one of China’s great advantages in humanoid robots is cost. For example, Unitree’s G1 and H1 were recently priced at RMB 99,000 (USD 13,860) and RMB 650,000 (USD 91,000) respectively, while Bank of America Global Research estimates that Tesla’s Optimus Gen 2 robot would cost between USD 50,000–60,000 (USD 7,000–8,400) if all major components were sourced outside China. If most of its hardware is produced in China, the cost could drop to USD 35,000 by the end of 2025 and further decline to USD 17,000 per unit by 2030, the investment bank said. Musk himself said in January that he is confident that at one million units a year, the production cost of Optimus will be less than USD 20,000.
In a previous interview with Chinese media outlet LatePost, Unitree’s Wang said the key to lowering the cost is that the company has its own factory and makes progress every year on its goal to “fully develop in-house whatever we can.”
Between the world’s top two economies, the US has the edge in AI chips, software, and algorithms, while China has the advantage in AI algorithm development as well as a strong supply chain that can offer quality components at low costs, according to Ming Hsun Lee, head of greater China automotive and industrial research at BofA Global Research.
“The humanoid robot industry is still in its early stages, with noticeable deficiencies in current technology. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we are only at the starting line. It’s too soon to determine a clear leader or predict which company will ultimately come out on top,” Lee said.
Most Chinese humanoid robot makers rely on Nvidia’s graphic processing units (GPUs) and robot training platforms. To prevent disruption from potential US restrictions, some Chinese companies are already looking for potential local sources of GPUs, according to a recent note by Citi.
And while Japan and Europe have leading technology for industrial robots, the US and China have taken the lead in developing humanoid robots. Some analysts estimate that Japan’s research is more than five years behind its competitors, as the industry focus has shifted from developing manufacturing robots with increasingly delicate movements to a race for AI sophistication.
Although Japanese developers, including Toyota Motor and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, are developing humanoid robots and trying to catch up, US and Chinese companies are leading in terms of patents and government funding for research and development, said Yoshihisa Ohara, a specialist in robotic systems engineering at the Japan Research Institute.
Hirohiko Nakamura, senior expert at the Mitsubishi Research Institute, said Japanese robot manufacturers are also struggling to attract global investors more interested in AI advances. “Japanese companies possess competitive hardware knowledge, but advancements in AI are spearheaded by overseas startups,” he said.
Not everyone is so gloomy, however. Motou Sato, a lead specialist at KPMG Consulting, said Japan has a chance of catching up on AI. The development of AI base models for humanoid robots is being spearheaded by just a small number of US tech companies, which means the door is open for newcomers to create with their own innovative and disruptive approaches.
“Researchers can close some of the gaps with leading players by generating new ideas and not necessarily having to conceive a brand-new concept,” Sato said. The industry has already seen this happen, with Chinese startup DeepSeek shocking the AI industry when it managed to rival OpenAI’s chatbot in certain capabilities at only a fraction of the cost incurred by US companies.
Japan, an island nation that is suffering from severe population decline, also provides an excellent environment to test new humanoid robots, he added. Sato said his team has seen increasing demand for robots from aging farmers who cannot find enough workers or successors for their businesses as younger generations increasingly move to larger cities. This makes the country an ideal place to discover a viable robot business model that could then be marketed to other developed countries.
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.