The Chinese robots are coming
China is miles ahead in the race to dominate a technology that could define the 21st century.
Selina Xu leads China and AI research in the office of former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. Helen Zhang is deputy chief of staff and director of research and projects there. Schmidt invests in a variety of emerging technologies, including in the robotics industry.
Robot dogs. Humanoid helpers. Entirely automated dark factories without human workers. These might seem straight out of a sci-fi novel, but they are arriving full force in China as we speak. After years of patient investment, China is on the cusp of a robotics revolution.
If embodied intelligence — think AI-powered robots that can navigate the real world — is the next frontier of AI, then China appears poised to dominate. Though the United States still has distinct advantages in software, advanced AI chips and foundational research, China leads in robot hardware, deployment and policy support.
Last year, China installed nearly 300,000 robots in its factories, more than the rest of the world combined, according to a September report by the International Federation of Robotics. More thanhalf were made domestically. The United States installed only 34,000 robots, with most of these imported from Japan and Europe.
A rising new era of Chinese technological supremacy has been proclaimed repeatedly over the past two decades, but we had never felt it more acutely than on our trip this summer to China. There, we took the high-speed train from Shanghai to Hangzhou — a city that has emerged as a global powerhouse for AI and robotics (in large part thanks to DeepSeek). Speaking to founders and engineers from Hangzhou’s “Six Little Dragons” — an online moniker for the city’s best-known tech start-ups — we could feel the ground beneath our feet shifting.
Part of the reason is sheer manufacturing prowess. From actuators to sensors to batteries, China has built a comprehensive supply chain that allows start-ups to rapidly fine-tune robot prototypes until a viable, affordable and scalable product emerges. Most of the companies we visited build their robots close to their research labs, creating fast feedback loops. Companies are also prioritizing vertical integration, with many producing key components in-house and procuring base materials domestically. Entry prices for humanoid robots are dropping drastically. In July, Unitree released its R1 bot for under $6,000, about a third of the price of its G1 robot from a year earlier.
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The world’s second-largest economy is eager to deploy this technology. With an aging population, China hopes to address its labor shortage with AI and robotics. Most of the start-ups we learned about were already deploying their robots on factory floors, spurring data collection that’s necessary to train the robots’ brains.
Public enthusiasm is growing, too, in part driven by policymakers’ support and high-profile showcases of the technology. At the glitzy World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai this summer, the exhibition halls were filled with humanoid boxers fighting in the ring, quadruped dogs on their hind legs and robots serving popcorn. A few weeks later, Beijing hosted the first World Humanoid Robot Games, where droids raced, danced, played soccer and navigated obstacle courses.
Chinese robot companies are running at full speed. Founders we spoke to talked about going from double-digit unit counts to tens of thousands within months. China is full of hubs — from Shenzhen to Hangzhou — that are “communities of engineering practice” where entrepreneurs, investors and engineers can mingle with the world’s most experienced manufacturing workforce to innovate quickly. As China analyst Dan Wang writes in his recent book, “Breakneck,” “In China … tech innovation emerges from the factory floor, when a new product is scaled up into mass production.”
Expect these innovations to charge abroad. Almost every founder we met wanted to expand overseas, including into the United States. Part of the reason is brutal price wars at home, with razor-thin profit margins amid competition against a glut of other companies (what some dub neijuan, or “involution”). Despite these headwinds, the founders’ zeal was notable — they sincerely believed that “Made in China” was the sign of world-class quality, especially in high-end manufacturing. Already, Chinese companies such as BYD, CATL, DJI and Huawei are global leaders in electric vehicles, batteries, consumer drones and 5G networks, respectively. The emerging crop of start-ups in robotics and AI are determined to follow in their footsteps.
Born in the 1990s, this new generation of entrepreneurs and engineers appears to be starkly different from the more Westernized previous generation. While China’s older tech pioneers tend to idolize Silicon Valley, younger founders find their role models in people such as DeepSeek’s Liang Wenfeng and Unitree’s Wang Xingxing — both of whom studied exclusively at Chinese universities and are known to predominantly hire domestic talent.
A December analysis from Citi GPS projected that the world would be populated by 648 million humanlike bots by 2050, unlocking an enduring production advantage and immense economic potential as robots manufacture more robots — better, cheaper, faster.
Much ink has been spilled about how the U.S. can reindustrialize. When it comes to robotics, the U.S. needs to invest in infrastructure to power the industries of the future — from building a better electrical grid to joint ventures with allies that can onshore manufacturing expertise for critical robotics components. America also needs to double down on its strengths in ways that could prove difficult in this turbulent political moment: university-driven fundamental research, immigration policies that welcome the best talent from abroad, and a vibrant entrepreneurship ecosystem that’s not mired in regulatory hurdles.
The robot race isn’t over. But unless the United States ups its game, it seems clear that this is a race China will dominate.
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