{"id":4315,"date":"2025-10-22T15:04:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bccmedianews.com\/?p=4315"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:04:08","slug":"good-news-keeps-coming-short-term-commercialization-of-humanoid-robots-and-long-term-sector-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bccmedianews.com\/?p=4315","title":{"rendered":"Good news keeps coming! Short-term commercialization of humanoid robots and long-term sector trends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In recent days, domestic humanoid robot companies have continuously released new products and announced new orders, and the heightened industry sentiment driven by short-term event catalysts is encouraging. With ongoing delivery and application in the industrial field, China\u2019s humanoid robot industry is accelerating toward commercialization. Coupled with potential listing plans by leading companies, whether the industry can truly grasp \u201ccertainty\u201d has become a key point of long-term attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interpretation of developments among leading humanoid-robot players<\/strong>
At present, there are quite a few Chinese humanoid-robot body startups that meet the (quasi) unicorn valuation standard, such as Leju Robotics, Galbot (Galaxy General), Fourier Intelligence, and Stary Sea (Xinghaitu). But the ones that truly deserve to be called \u201ctop-tier traffic drivers\u201d are likely still Unitree and Zhiyuan Robotics. The former became a sensation at home and abroad thanks to its Spring Festival Gala performance, while the latter stirred up market waves in 2025 with a round of capital backing. Both founders, Wang Xingxing and Peng Zhihui (Zhihuijun), received the honor of \u201cOutstanding Builders of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics from the Non-Public Sector of the National Economy (Sixth Session),\u201d underscoring the state\u2019s emphasis on the robotics industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Of course, the spotlight should also not overlook UBTECH (HK:09880), which bears the halo of being the \u201cfirst humanoid-robot stock.\u201d Its successive announcements of new orders signal an accelerating pace of commercialization and are set to consolidate the \u201cBig Three\u201d status in China\u2019s humanoid-robot field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Since September, UBTECH has successively announced: a CNY 250 million (USD 35.7 million) procurement contract with a well-known domestic company; a CNY 32 million (USD 4.6 million) procurement contract with a certain A-share listed auto-technology company; and winning the bid for the \u201cGuangxi Embodied Intelligence Data Collection and Testing Center\u201d worth CNY 126 million (USD 18.0 million). The Walker series\u2019 total contract value for the full year has exceeded CNY 630 million (including nearly CNY 50 million already delivered in the first half, USD 90.0 million and USD 7.1 million respectively; not including the full-size research-education humanoid robot Skywalker jointly developed with the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center). The 2025 target delivery volume exceeds 500 units, marking a surge compared to the 2024 situation (~CNY 35 million in humanoid-robot revenue and 10 units delivered; USD ~5.0 million), corresponding to a year-to-date share-price increase of over 130%!<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Even more valuable is that UBTECH has already explored a set of replicable solutions in real-world applications. According to BCC Global Research, in the cooperation case between UBTECH and a certain automobile company, the UBTECH Walker S1 undertook tasks such as picking auto parts and handling multiple types of material transfers, fully serving the logistics links of the final assembly line. The success rate of its picking task has risen to 80\u201390%, and the single-day workload is about 40\u201350% of human labor, i.e., about 400 picking tasks completed per robot per day. The handling task is still in the testing stage; each operation currently takes 1.5\u20132 minutes, with 30\u201340 operations completed per day, mainly constrained by high load requirements and stability issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


At the same time, UBTECH has deployed multiple on-site engineers responsible for O&M and emergency development, while also retaining a manual review step within the picking pipeline. They not only correct missed or incorrect picks but also label relevant data to ensure overall process accuracy and continuous data optimization. The resulting picking model has begun trial migration to other production lines and enterprises, including cooperation with companies such as Geely and Foxconn, greatly shortening the early-stage development cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Zhiyuan Robotics has seen major advances toward mass production. Partner and Senior Vice President Wang Chuang stated in a media briefing, \u201c(Zhiyuan) is already the company with the largest shipments among global humanoid robots, even larger than Musk (in shipments).\u201d On October 9, the company officially announced a framework order with Longcheer Technology (SH:603341), a leading global consumer-electronics ODM, worth several hundred million yuan and nearly a thousand units, with initial focus on applications in tablet production lines to achieve batch deployment of embodied-intelligence robots in consumer-electronics assembly and manufacturing scenarios. On October 16, together with Joyson Preh (Junpu Intelligent, SH:688306), the company held the offline global debut and commissioning ceremony of the Zhiyuan Sprite G2 in Ningbo, under which a production line with an annual capacity of more than 3,000 units will be built, and initial commercial deliveries will simultaneously begin toward a procurement contract exceeding CNY 100 million (over USD 14.3 million) for Joyson Electronics (SH:600699), creating a demonstrative sample of \u201cembodied intelligence + industrial production\u201d in auto-parts manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Experts interviewed by BCC also pointed out that Zhiyuan Robotics\u2019 goal for the second half of 2025 is to raise the success rate of robot operations in practical application scenarios such as logistics sorting to 98\u201399%, to achieve 24-hour continuous operation to match human efficiency, and\u2014through in-house motor R&D and cost-reduction measures via scale production\u2014to bring single-unit cost to the CNY 100,000\u2013200,000 level (USD 14,300\u201328,600), thereby truly empowering broader potential applications in manufacturing scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Unitree, for its part, continues to hold its position akin to \u201cselling shovels in a gold rush\u201d with hardware. There is a continued push downmarket from H1 to G1 and then to the R1, whose starting price is only CNY 39,900 (USD ~5,700). There is also the release of the new-generation full-size H2, which excels in performance, motion capabilities, and openness for education and research scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deep dive into overseas leading humanoid-robot players
<\/strong>However, in terms of the secondary market, domestic leading manufacturers at most have a single investable target or only limited influence. The true catalyst for the entire sector still depends on Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA). Ahead of the third-quarter earnings call in October and the shareholders\u2019 meeting in November, Tesla will need to complete a series of tasks such as domestic and overseas factory audits and the finalization of Optimus Gen3. In addition, there is news that Nidec Corporation has become the designated supplier of harmonic reducers for the rotating joints of Tesla\u2019s humanoid robots, with an order volume of 410,000 units for 2026; likewise, Xinjian Transmission has obtained an order for over 1,000 sets of Tesla dexterous-hand assemblies (including ball screws, motors, sensors, etc.), and Hengli Hydraulics (SH:601100) has received positive evaluations for its products and mass-production capability. All signs indicate that the mass-production roadmap for Tesla\u2019s humanoid robots is getting back on track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


This also aligns with Tesla\u2019s four-phase training-system plan for the Optimus robot. BCC Global Research shows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n