China’s humanoid robots flood market, outshipping Western rivals

Chinese manufacturers shipped between 13,317 and 18,000 humanoid robots last year, according to industry tallies from Forbes and IDC, a surge that has driven down prices and left many Western firms operating at pilot scale. The difference in the two shipment totals underscores how quickly the market is moving and how uneven industry accounting remains.

Forbes, cited broadly in trade coverage, put global shipments at 13,317 last year and cautioned it was unclear how many units were commercial sales versus demo models or pilot deployments. IDC data, reported by Autonews Gasgoo, said shipments in 2025 approached 18,000 units and showed a year-on-year surge of 508 percent. Gasgoo also reported that AGIBOT and Unitree Robotics each shipped more than 5,000 units, while overseas rivals such as Apptronik, Figure AI and Agility Robotics remain at volumes in the tens or hundreds.

The volume advantage has translated into lower retail prices and faster product cycles. Former Xiaomi and ByteDance executive Rui Xu summarized the structural edge: "China's robots aren't advancing this fast because of some grand government masterplan. It's the same reason the U.S. leads in AI: infrastructure," he told Newsweek. "When Unitree wants to test a new joint design, they walk down the street." Rui Xu added that "Unitree's G1 costs $16,000 while Tesla's Optimus Gen2 will be over $20,000," a comparison that has become a focal point in coverage of cost competitiveness.

TechCrunch quoted Selina Xu, China and AI policy lead at the office of Eric Schmidt, on the manufacturing advantage: "China has a more robust hardware supply chain, much of it built up through the EV sector, from sensors to batteries, and the world's strongest manufacturing base, allowing companies to iterate far faster than Western competitors." TechCrunch also noted high-profile demonstrations, including humanoid robots performing "kung fu flips" on national television and plans by phone maker Honor to unveil a humanoid at MWC in Spain.

Supply-chain depth is a recurring theme. Autonews Gasgoo highlighted domestic suppliers in critical components: Shuanglin, Xinjian Transmission and Wuzhou Spring in the ball screw sector, with Shuanglin revealing it "has developed 63 robot-use ball and planetary screw products for 3 customers." Gasgoo further reported that "Leader Harmonic Drive has engaged with almost all top Chinese humanoid robot makers and has begun bulk shipments." Gasgoo's CEO Zhou Xiaoying described the humanoid wave as a "spillover effect" from the automotive sector, noting that "the overlap between supply chains for robots and smart EVs is very high."

Government and market scale bolster the ecosystem. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reported more than 140 domestic humanoid manufacturers and over 330 models released in 2025. Newsweek cited the International Federation of Robotics to note that almost 300,000 industrial robots were installed in Chinese factories in 2024, and Chinese registrations show more than 451,000 companies involved in intelligent robotics by the end of 2024 with about $884 billion in registered capital.

Analysts and investors are already projecting larger volumes: Morgan Stanley raised its forecast, expecting Chinese humanoid robot sales to reach 28,000 units this year. But observers and the original reporting warn that headline shipment numbers mask early-stage uncertainties about how many machines represent full commercial deployments versus demonstrations. For now, cheap hardware, dense supplier networks and fast iteration have given Chinese firms a demonstrable edge as they push from domestic validation into global markets.