New robots, new capabilities. Tracking what's coming for the workforce.
Robotics A Reuters investigation published August 31 puts Chinese government purchases of humanoids and related gear at $230M in the first half, against $62M a year earlier and $6M in 2024. In the training center those purchases funded, an experienced operator produces one usable movement per 50 attempts, and the robots work at roughly 20% of human speed.
Robotics A CAICT report surfaced on August 21 puts more than 70 embodied-AI training grounds in operation across China by the end of June, with 46 more under construction or planned. Industrial manufacturing appears in 86% of them.
Robotics BYD confirmed its first humanoid robot debuts in August at a Zhengzhou experience centre — 1.61m, 58.5kg, 31 degrees of freedom, and a spec sheet aimed entirely at talking to customers.
Robotics DeepMind's Gemini Robotics 2, announced July 30, controls a humanoid from feet to fingertips — and its own benchmark chart shows grippers still beating five-fingered hands.
Robotics Unitree filed its STAR Market prospectus on July 30, disclosing H1 revenue growth of 36-45% and an adjusted net profit that fell year-on-year.
Robotics Xinhua's July 24 tour of China's factory humanoids: 97% fabric-separation on one material, an 18-month payback, and a robot that still can't finish a shirt without a human.
Robotics Unitree is finalizing a $618M Shanghai IPO at a ~$6B valuation — the first time a market gets to price a profitable humanoid-robot maker.
Robotics The 2026 World AI Conference opened in Shanghai with 300-plus working robots, a humanoid-run retail store, and a live procurement desk — the demo era is ending and the purchase-order era has started.
Robotics China is deploying humanoids faster than the US not to replace workers yet, but to harvest the training data that will let them — and it has built 64 facilities to record humans on camera.
Robotics 1X unveiled a 25-degree-of-freedom NEO hand with tactile sensing on every joint — the dexterity bottleneck that has kept humanoids out of real manual jobs.
Robotics Ant Group led a $74M round in Zeroth, a Chinese startup building humanoids for homes — not factories — with 30,000 orders and 600% revenue growth.
Robotics Tsinghua's team defended its humanoid soccer world title at RoboCup 2026 in Incheon, where robots perceived, planned, and passed with no human control.