In-depth Analysis: Who Will Build the “Android” Ecosystem for Humanoid Robots?

Over the past month, tech giants such as Apple, Meta, Google, and Huawei have successively open-sourced their latest robotics models and tools, aiming to attract developers and build their emerging and rapidly expanding robotics technology ecosystems. Meanwhile, the booming development of the Chinese market is particularly eye-catching. Following the humanoid robot half-marathon, China successfully held the world’s first humanoid robot boxing match, and the support from the national level for this field continues to strengthen. Reports indicate that the total amount of special investment funds set up by local governments in China to attract robotics industry settlements has reached 187 billion RMB (approximately 26 billion USD). The report argues that American investors generally underestimate China’s significant leading advantages in the field of humanoid robots, especially in manufacturing capabilities. Manufacturing capacity is closely linked to physical intelligence, which is the key to acquiring training data and driving the AI flywheel effect. At the application level, large-scale commercial deployment is imminent. Companies such as Foxconn, NVIDIA, Amazon, Hyundai, and Tesla all plan to deploy thousands of humanoid robots in actual production and logistics scenarios in the next few years. The global automotive industry chain is also actively seeking transformation into the robotics field.

01

Recent Developments and Trends ofGlobal Humanoid Robots

1.1 Financing Dynamics: Unprecedented Heat in the Chinese Market

Capital markets continue to show growing interest in the field of embodied intelligence/humanoid robots, with the Chinese market in particular seeing a record 25 monthly financing transactions in May 2025.

Chinese financing activities: A new high of 25 transactions was set in May 2025, indicating capital’s favor for integrator startups (such as Unitree, Agibot, etc.). A number of industrial chain companies (such as Zhaowei Electromechanical, Standard Robots) have announced plans to list in Hong Kong to accelerate product iteration and capacity expansion.

• Unitree: It is reported that the company has completed its Series C financing with a valuation of 12 billion RMB (1.7 billion USD). Investors include Geely Automobile, Ant Group, Tencent, Alibaba, and Sequoia China.

• Agibot: Following investments from Tencent and others,JD and Shanghai Embodied Intelligence Fund have been added as new investors.

• Galbot: It has completed a new round of financing of 1.1 billion RMB (153 million USD) led by CATL, which is the largest single financing in this field in China.

• Fourier Intelligence: Its pre-investment valuation reached 8 billion RMB (1.1 billion USD).

• D-Robotics: It completed a 100 million USD Series A financing and launched the humanoid robot System-on-Chip (SoC) development kit RDK S100 in June 2025.

1.2 New Entrants and Hardware Iteration

The industry has attracted new heavyweight players, while existing enterprises are also accelerating the iteration speed of robot bodies and core hardware.

New Entrants:

Hexagon, a Swedish measurement and simulation company, launched its self-developed humanoid robot “AEON” after establishing a robotics division. Kedali plans to form a joint venture with Veichi Electric, Kepler, etc., to enter the field of dexterous hands.

New Models and Hardware Improvements:

• Unitree previewed a new robot with 26 degrees of freedom (DoF), which may be priced below $10,000.

• Hugging Face released two new open-source humanoid robots, “HopeJR” and “Reachy Mini”, aiming to lower the development threshold.

• The RDK S100 development kit launched by D-Robotics aims to reduce hardware costs and improve system performance by integrating CPU, BPU, and MCU on a single chip.

• Estun released the new generation robot Codroid 02, which has 31 degrees of freedom (excluding hands) and a single-arm load of 5 kg.

1.3 Revolutionary Progress in Software and AI

Software and AI are the core drivers for the intellectualization of humanoid robots. Global tech giants are building ecosystems through open-source tools, while robotics companies are also releasing their own AI models.

Apple: Released the open-source dexterous hand operation dataset “EgoDex”, which is collected based on Apple Vision Pro and contains 829 hours of first-person perspective videos, aiming to accelerate the development of humanoid robots.

• Google Deepmind: Launched Gemini Robotics On-Device, allowing its AI models to run locally on robots to reduce latency and enhance robustness.

• Meta: Released the open-source 1.2-billion-parameter general robot world model V-JEPA 2, which is trained through self-supervised learning and used to understand, predict, and plan tasks in the physical world.

• 1X: Released the “Redwood” Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model tailored for its NEO humanoid robot, which can perform end-to-end mobile manipulation tasks.

• Figure: Released a 1-hour-long video showing its Figure 02 robot using the Helix VLA model for package sorting, in response to external doubts about the authenticity of the demonstration.

• Huawei: Launched the CloudRobo embodied intelligence platform based on the Pangu large model at its developer conference.

1.4 Commercial Deployment and Ecosystem Cooperation

The commercialization process is accelerating, with many companies having started or planning practical scenario deployments. At the same time, cooperation within the industry is becoming increasingly close.

Commercial Deployment:

• Amazon: It is reported that the company is developing a humanoid robot system for delivery services and will soon start field tests.

• Foxconn & NVIDIA: They are negotiating to deploy humanoid robots in their Houston server factory, with implementation scheduled for the first quarter of 2026.

• UBTech: The first batch of 20 Walker S1 humanoid robots has rolled off the production line and will enter the commercial vehicle intelligent manufacturing factory of Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor for training.

Ecosystem Cooperation: Huawei is actively building an ecosystem, announcing that it will not manufacture robot bodies itself but will develop together with partners. Its partners include iSoftstone, Hong Kong Robotics Company, UBTech, etc., covering multiple fields such as intelligent manufacturing and home services.

1.5 Government Support: National-level Promotion in China

The Chinese government’s support for the humanoid robot industry has reached a new height, creating a favorable development environment through organizing activities and establishing special funds.

Robot Competitions: China Media Group hosted the world’s first humanoid robot combat competition in Hangzhou, which was broadcast on CCTV, further enhancing public awareness and industry popularity.

Local Government Support: Wuhan announced the establishment of a 1 billion RMB humanoid robot industry fund and will provide subsidies to both suppliers and demanders for robot deployment, with a maximum of 1 million RMB.

02

Overview of China’s Policies: Top-down Strategic Determination

The report emphasizes that humanoid/embodied intelligence has become a key focus area of the Chinese government. Since the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the Guiding Opinions on the Innovative Development of Humanoid Robots in 2023, a series of supporting policies, special funds, and industrial alliances have been introduced from the central to local levels. These measures have provided strong impetus for China to catch up with the United States in this field, break through technical bottlenecks, and accelerate the implementation of applications.

Key policies: The national “Robotics +” Application Action Plan and Guiding Opinions on the Innovative Development of Humanoid Robots, as well as special action plans introduced by many provinces and cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Anhui, have clarified development goals such as industrial scale and the number of core enterprises.

Industrial funds: Multiple investment funds focusing on the robotics and AI fields have been established in places like Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangdong, and Wuhan. According to Morgan Stanley’s statistics, the total scale has reached approximately 187 billion RMB.

Innovation platforms: National or provincial – level embodied intelligence/humanoid robot innovation centers have been established in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, and other places, aiming to integrate industrial forces and tackle common technical problems such as general – purpose platforms and training facilities.

03

Industry Progress Tracking: From Patents to Product Launches

• Market Attention: The number of company documents and news reports mentioning the word “Humanoid” has significantly increased since the middle of 2023 and reached its peak in the first half of 2025, reflecting a sharp rise in global market attention.

Patent Layout：In the past five years, among the global patent applications mentioning “Humanoid”, China ranked first with 6,393 applications, far exceeding the 1,484 applications of the United States and the 1,109 applications of Japan. In the United States, the top three institutions in terms of the number of patent applications are Boston Dynamics, Roblox, and Sanctuary Cognitive Systems.

Product Launches: Since 2022, the global number of humanoid robot launches has witnessed explosive growth. Especially in 2024, as many as 51 models were released. Among them, China dominated the number of product launches with a 59% share, far exceeding the 24% of the United States and Canada. In terms of application scenarios, 59% of the robots are positioned for “general purposes”, indicating the industry’s high expectations for general – purpose robots.

04

Market Size Forecast: The Trillion-Dollar Track Unfolds

The report forecasts the potential market size (TAM) and application prospects of global humanoid robots, depicting a future market of grand scale.

Long-term Forecast: Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2050, the global stock of humanoid robots will reach 1 billion units, with annual sales revenue approaching 5 trillion USD. This market scale will far exceed that of the current global automotive industry.

Adoption Rhythm: By 2036, the global adoption of humanoid robots will reach approximately 23.7 million units. By 2040, the adoption volume will increase to around 134 million units. By 2050, the adoption of humanoid robots in commercial and household applications will reach approximately 935 million units and 84 million units respectively.

Regional Distribution: By 2050, the East Asia and Pacific region (including China) will become the largest market, accounting for 43% of global adoption; among them, the adoption volume in the Chinese market is expected to exceed 300 million units.

Price Assumptions: The report assumes that in high-income countries, the initial Average Selling Price (ASP) of humanoid robots will be 200,000 USD, dropping to 50,000 USD by 2040. In other middle- and low-income countries, the initial ASP will be approximately 50,000 USD, falling to around 15,000 USD by 2050.

This report clearly reveals that the humanoid robot industry is on the eve of a historic explosion. The technological singularity (AI advancement), capital boom, and national strategies (especially in China) have formed a powerful synergy, collectively driving the industry forward at a rapid pace. Competition centered on the core proposition of “building Android for robots” has fully unfolded. Both platform giants such as Google and Huawei, and dedicated robotics companies like Tesla, Figure, and UBTech, are sparing no effort to seize the future multi-trillion-dollar market.