The impressive kung fu performances and dances of humanoid robots hide a fundamental problem: they are too slow and often make mistakes for most industrial tasks. Reuters reports that Beijing's ambitions exceed the current level of technology development, leading to a market situation where production capacities significantly exceed actual demand.
According to BofA Global Research, around 20,000 humanoid robots were shipped worldwide last year, with 95% of that volume accounted for by Chinese manufacturers. The company's analysts predict that by 2030, global annual shipments of humanoid robots will reach 1.2 million.
According to Reuters, in the first half of the year, central, provincial, and local authorities in China spent at least $230 million on the procurement of humanoid robots and related products. For comparison, a year ago, this amount was $62 million, while in the same period in 2024, it was only $6 million.
However, government funding and investments in the manufacturing sector are growing much faster than the ability of robots to operate outside of meticulously prepared demonstrations. This refers to the kung fu, dance, and boxing routines that have made these machines a true internet sensation.
Humanoid robots are slow and clumsy. Although Chinese robotics companies produce world-class equipment, humanoid robots currently lack sufficient “intelligence” to perform a wide range of tasks, limiting their practical applications. Robots particularly struggle to handle situations where intuition or the ability to deviate from a pre-programmed sequence of actions is required.
Some analysts doubt that it makes economic sense to create a universal machine that resembles a human. After all, robotic arms specifically designed for particular production tasks are cheaper, more reliable, and already widely used.
“From an economic perspective, mass deployment of such robots is not justified today,” says analyst and author of the Hello China Tech guide, Po Zhao. He adds that at the same time, China's capital market views humanoid robot technologies as “extremely optimistic”: investors are essentially betting that these robots will indeed become useful in the future.
