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 UBTECH unveiled the UWorld U1, a full-size consumer humanoid priced from $17,600, claiming 11,000-plus orders since June 2 and first deliveries on September 16.
Robotics UBTech's consumer brand UWORLD opened JD.com pre-sales for a full-size hyper-bionic companion humanoid: two SKUs, 88 degrees of freedom, 2-4 hour battery, 3,000 yuan deposit, shipping by September 15.
Robotics State Grid Corp. of China just issued the single largest procurement order in the history of embodied robotics: 6.8 billion yuan ($994.7M) for 8,500 units in 2026. The mix is 5,000 quadrupeds, 500 humanoids, and 3,000 dual-arm wheeled manipulators — split among Unitree, Deep Robotics, AgiBot, UBTECH, and Fourier Intelligence, all five of which are pre-IPO. The first ten-billion-yuan vertical market for physical AI is the Chinese power grid, and the buyer is the state.