China dominates the global humanoid robot market with 90% of worldwide shipments — 13,000 units delivered in 2025, mostly Chinese-made. Backed by the 15th Five-Year Plan and the "AI+" initiative, the sector drew over US$5 billion in investment in 2025 alone. A decisive edge is pricing: Unitree's G1 costs around RMB 84,800, a fraction of US rivals priced above $100,000, thanks to a complete domestic supply chain with core component costs one-third of competitors.
Still, the technology remains in its infancy. Robot "brains" are stuck in the earliest training stage, and reliability is the chief bottleneck — Xiaomi's robot achieved only 90.2% task success over three hours, well below the 99.9%+ industrial standard, with efficiency at roughly 30% of human workers. Buyers are mainly government agencies, universities, and state-owned firms; consumer adoption has barely begun.
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