China bets big on humanoid robots, but buyers lag behind
China is accelerating its humanoid-robot industry with heavy state backing and large orders from state-owned enterprises for factories, data centers and consumer use, and it already leads global shipments. Yet high costs, data requirements, and reliability hurdles mean near-term demand is likely strongest in industrial and logistics settings rather than households; analysts warn a long runway before mass adoption, with Morgan Stanley forecasting around 28,000 units this year and Omdia projecting over 1 million annual shipments by the early 2030s, while domestic players like AGIBOT and Unitree push growth through cheaper local parts.
