Thought Leadership
A new report estimates the share of Chinese manufacturers in global humanoid robot shipments at around 97 percent.
An earlier analysis by investment bank Morgan Stanley had already shown that around 90 percent of the 13,000 to 16,000 humanoid robots shipped worldwide in 2025 came from Chinese manufacturers, while companies from the US, Japan, and other countries largely remained in the prototype stage. The Chinese manufacturer Zhiyuan alone shipped around 5,100 units last year, just under two-fifths of the global total volume, followed by Unitree with a similarly high number of units. American manufacturers such as Figure, Tesla, and Agility Robotics, on the other hand, each only reached a few hundred shipped units. According to calculations by Morgan Stanley, the leading Chinese manufacturer thus shipped about 36 times the volume of its main US competitor.
The current report primarily cites the domestic supply chain as the reason for this dominance: More than half of the world’s roughly 100 key suppliers for components such as gearboxes, servo motors, and 3D image sensors are located in China, allowing domestic manufacturers to produce faster and significantly cheaper than competitors who have to import the same components.
Added to this is extensive investment capital: As early as the beginning of 2026, almost half of the global venture capital for the sector went to China, while manufacturers like Unitree completed their IPO in Shanghai at the same time. Initial concrete demand is also already emerging in everyday life, for instance from Chinese automaker BYD, which plans to deploy a humanoid robot in its own showrooms.
Robot shipment numbers say little about actual practical suitability
At the same time, the report urges caution when interpreting pure shipment numbers: Many of the robots produced in China are still designed more for demonstration purposes and choreographed performances than for reliable, practical work, meaning shipment figures tend to paint an overly optimistic picture of the technology’s actual level of maturity. A separate survey by Morgan Stanley among potential Chinese buyers also showed that only 23 percent of the surveyed companies were satisfied with the currently available robots, partly due to a battery life that is often only two to three hours per charge.
Nevertheless, industry observers believe that sheer volume gives Chinese manufacturers a self-reinforcing advantage: Whoever operates the most machines in practical deployment also gathers the most operational data, lowers costs fastest, and strengthens existing supplier relationships. US companies counter this primarily by relying on their lead in the underlying AI models, which are at least as critical to a robot’s actual usability as the hardware itself.
(Editorial Team)
