After reviewing 60 domestic humanoid robot companies, we identified these three major characteristics.
Since 2023, humanoid robots have gained rapid popularity in China. Leading teams have continuously received capital increases, some enterprises have initiated the listing process, and the industry narrative has been constantly pushed to new heights.
However, beneath the apparent boom, what is the real structure of this industry? How many enterprises are there? How do the technological routes diverge? In which directions are the products converging? It has always been difficult to obtain a complete perspective on these issues from public information.
According to data from the National Development and Reform Commission, there are currently more than 150 humanoid robot enterprises in China. Silicon-based Observation has selected 60 representative companies from them and conducted a preliminary review from the background of the founding teams to the main products, in order to present a picture closer to the actual situation of the industry.
From these 60 humanoid robot companies, Silicon-based Jun has discovered three major characteristics:
First, more than half of the humanoid robot enterprises were established between 2023 and 2025. The key driving forces come from two events: the global outbreak of ChatGPT and the enhanced demonstration effect of Tesla's Optimus.
Most of the teams founded before this period have backgrounds in machinery, control, sensors, or scientific research. Their product forms are mainly robot dogs, dexterous hands, commercial robots, and industrial robots. The mainstream route is "motion control + vision/tactile perception + traditional algorithms".
The new companies in the past two years are significantly different: the founding teams generally have compound backgrounds in artificial intelligence or scientific research, emphasizing technological advantages such as large models, world models, and embodied intelligence. The industry narrative has also shifted from "engineering implementation" to "driven by intelligent capabilities", showing an obvious generational change.
Second, humanoid robot enterprises are mainly concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, etc., and a small number of enterprises are scattered in provinces such as Sichuan, Hunan, and Shandong.
This distribution is not accidental:
On the one hand, these regions have a more mature industrial system, especially the automobile industry chain. Key components such as sensors, actuators, reducers, and electronic controls are more easily available for supply.
On the other hand, humanoid robots are a typical talent-intensive industry. Beijing, the Yangtze River Delta, and Shenzhen have stronger talent attraction in the fields of artificial intelligence, automation engineering, and manufacturing technology, forming a continuous innovation potential.
The regional structure of the industry also indicates to some extent that the future innovation centers may continue to be strengthened in these regions.
Third, the product routes are significantly different, but the downstream scenarios highly overlap, and the competition is rapidly converging.
Although each company has made differentiated attempts in aspects such as motion architecture, control systems, sensing solutions, and AI capabilities, and the public product displays also show their own characteristics, the application scenarios they ultimately target are highly concentrated - factories, scientific research and education, dangerous working conditions, and household chores.
This means a reality : in the short term, the downstream scenarios that can be scaled up are limited, and the competition among enterprises will inevitably be fierce.
In the stage when the demand has not really increased significantly, technological investment, supply chain capabilities, customer resources, and the speed of pilot implementation will all become key factors determining whether an enterprise can survive the industry fluctuations.
The following is the specific list of these 60 humanoid robot companies:
1. Unitree, the currently most concerned humanoid robot enterprise
Hangzhou Unitree Technology was established in August 2016, focusing on the independent research, development, production, and sales of consumer-grade and industry-grade high-performance general-purpose legged/humanoid robots and dexterous robotic arms. It has a leading position in comprehensive fields such as core robot components, motion control, and robot perception. Currently, its valuation has exceeded 10 billion yuan, and it has completed the IPO counseling.
Unitree's robot products include robot dogs and humanoid robots: the industrial-grade robot dogs Unitree B1/B2/A2 are mainly used in power inspection, fire rescue, etc., while the consumer-grade robot dogs Unitree Go1/Go2/A1 can be used in scenarios such as family entertainment, pet companionship, and guarding the house. The general-purpose humanoid robots include Unitree H1/H1 - 2, Unitree G1, Unitree R1, and Unitree H2 (H2 humanoid robot).
2. UBTECH, one of the earliest domestic humanoid robot enterprises
UBTECH was established in March 2012 and listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2023. It is the world's first listed humanoid robot company.
UBTECH has full-stack technical capabilities for humanoid robots, including humanoid robot hardware and control technologies (robot motion planning and control technology, high-performance servo drives), artificial intelligence technologies (humanoid brain, humanoid cerebellum), robot and artificial intelligence integration technologies (SLAM and autonomous technology, visual servo operation and human - machine interaction), and the robot operating system application framework ROSA2.0.
Currently, UBTECH's humanoid robots mainly include the industrial humanoid WalkerS2, WalkerS1, Walker S, the commercial humanoid Walker C, Walker X, the wheeled humanoid Cruzr S2, and the panda robot Youyou. It is the world's only humanoid robot company that has announced cooperation with multiple automobile enterprises and has taken the lead in realizing the application of humanoid robots.
3. AgiBot, a robot company founded by "Zhi Hui Jun"
AgiBot was established in February 2023, committed to the integrated innovation of A1 + robots and the coordinated development of the three core AI capabilities of robot motion intelligence, interaction intelligence, and operation intelligence. AgiBot has three humanoid robot families: Expedition, Elf, and Lingxi. Its products cover a variety of commercial scenarios such as interactive services, flexible manufacturing, special operations, scientific research and education, and data collection.
In July this year, AgiBot announced that it would obtain the control rights of Shangwei New Materials through a dual - track model of "agreement transfer + tender offer" via a shareholding platform, and the transfer was completed on November 6th this year.
4. NOETIX, a small robot with excellent motion performance
NOETIX was established in September 2023. Jiang Zheyuan, the founder and chairman of the company, was born in 1998 and dropped out of school to start a business during his Ph.D. studies at the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University.
The N2 robot under NOETIX is positioned as a sports star. It is 1.18 meters tall, with a maximum moving speed of 3.2 m/s. It won a silver medal in this year's Beijing Yizhuang Half - Marathon and the Humanoid Robot Half - Marathon, and its price starts at 39,900 yuan.
In addition, there are products such as the humanoid robot Hobbs and Xiaonuo, the general - purpose humanoid robot Dora, and Bumi. Dora is 1 meter tall and can perform voice and visual interactions with a large model. Bumi, launched in October this year, has a pre - sale price starting from 9,998 yuan. It is also the world's first humanoid robot priced below 10,000 yuan, targeting the education market.
NOETIX N2
5. Booster Robotics, an enterprise that enables robots to play football
It was established in 2023. The founder, Cheng Hao, graduated with a master's degree from the Department of Automation of Tsinghua University. He studied under the domestic robot expert Zhao Mingguo and served as the captain of the Huoshen Team of the Tsinghua Robot Football Team for three terms. He first worked at Amazon for one year before starting a business. His startup project was acquired by ByteDance, and he served as the vice - president of the Feishu product. Then he resigned to start a business. The team is from Tsinghua University, and Zhao Mingguo serves as the chief scientist.
Its products are mainly targeted at the competition and scientific research and education markets. The BOOSTER T1 robot is 1.18 meters tall and weighs about 30 kg. It is lightweight, flexible, and durable. It can remain stable even after being subjected to a large stone on the chest, a beer bottle hitting the head, a wooden stick strike, and a robot collision. The BOOSTER K1, an entry - level platform for embodied development, is 0.95 meters tall and weighs 19.5 kg, with a price starting at 39,900 yuan.
6. GALAXEA, an "academic school" favored by capital
It was established in September 2023, focusing on the research and development of embodied intelligence basic models and embodied intelligent robots.
The founding team has a profound technical background. Gao Jiyang, the CEO, graduated with a doctorate in computer vision research from the University of Southern California. He successively joined Waymo and Momenta. Li Tianwei once served as a senior director at Momenta. Zhao Xing and Zhao Huazhe are both assistant professors at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences of Tsinghua University.
GALAXEA's products are divided into the A1 series of robotic arms and the R1 series of robots. The R1 series is divided into three models: R1 lite, R1, and R1 Pro. The R1 lite is a dual - arm mobile platform for data collection. Both the R1 and R1 Pro are general - purpose humanoid robots, using a wheeled chassis instead of a bipedal design.
According to media reports, in just over two years since its establishment, GALAXEA has raised nearly 1.5 billion yuan in financing. Meituan, Today Capital, Ant Group, and Hillhouse Venture Capital have all invested in it.
7. GALBOT, a "master" in the field of embodied intelligence large models
It was established in May 2023. The founder, Wang He, graduated from the Department of Electronics of Tsinghua University with a bachelor's degree and then obtained a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He once served as an assistant professor and doctoral supervisor at the Center for Frontier Computation Studies (CFCS) of Peking University and founded the Embodied Perception and Interaction Laboratory (EPIC Lab) at Peking University.
GALBOT currently has the GALBOT G1, a generalizable and operable embodied large - model robot.
GALBOT is more prominent in the research of large robot models. The general action tracking framework Any2Track it once released enables robots to accurately imitate various complex human actions and can adapt to various real - world interferences in real - time.
The navigation large model TrackVLA it released enables robots to complete autonomous movement, obstacle avoidance, etc. in untrained venues and can understand voice commands.
The recently released Navigation Foundation Model (NavFoM), the world's first cross - ontology and full - domain panoramic navigation base large model, enables robots to master the full - stack "basic knowledge of movement" and supports full - scene, multi - task, and cross - ontology replication.
8. Fourier, an early humanoid robot startup
It was established in July 2015. The founder, Gu Jie, graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and once worked at National Instruments Corporation in the United States.
Currently, Fourier's robot products mainly include three GRx general - purpose humanoid robots, the open - source robot Fourier N1, and rehabilitation robots.
Fourier GR - 2
9. DEEPRobotics, focusing on reliability solutions for specific scenarios
It was established in November 2017. The founder, Zhu Qiuguo, graduated from the major of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering of Zhejiang University and serves as an associate professor at Zhejiang University. Currently, DEEPRobotics has completed the shareholding reform and is sprinting for an IPO.
It mainly studied quadruped robots in the early stage. In August 2024, DEEPRobotics released the DR01, a general - purpose embodied intelligent humanoid robot, which has highly flexible movement and operation capabilities, adaptability to complex environments, integrated perception capabilities, and a strong self - learning ability.
In October this year, it released the DR02, which has an IP66 protection level for the whole machine and can operate continuously in an environment from - 20°C to 55°C. It has become the world's first full - size humanoid robot that can adapt to complex outdoor environments such as rain, humidity, and dust.
10. ROBOTERA, a robot company held by Tsinghua University
Beijing ROBOTERA Technology Co., Ltd. was established in August 2023 and was incubated by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences of Tsinghua University. It is a humanoid robot enterprise held by Tsinghua University. The company is led by Professor Chen Jianyu, a doctoral supervisor at Tsinghua University and an expert in the field of robotics and AI.
Currently, it has two humanoid robot products, Xingdong L7 and Xingdong Q5. The former is a full - size bipedal humanoid robot, and the latter is a humanoid service robot. The Xingdong L7 is 1.71 meters tall, with 55 degrees of freedom throughout the body and a maximum joint torque of 400 N·m, leading in the industry.
11. LimX Dynamics, committed to building a general platform
LimX Dynamics was founded in January 2022. Zhang Wei, the founder, published the world's first paper on controlling humanoid robots based on reinforcement learning in 2018. Another co - founder is Zhang Li, the former COO of the unmanned driving startup WeRide.
LimX Dynamics focuses on legged robots. Zhang Wei once proposed the concept of "AI - enabled cerebellum". The company is positioned to make it easy for robots to be put into practical use, aiming to reduce hardware costs, launch useful software tools, and build a robot platform.
Currently, its main products include the CL series of full - size humanoid robots and the multi - form bipedal robot TRON1, which are applied in fields such as intelligent manufacturing, industrial inspection, logistics and distribution, and household services.
12. Leju Robot, an established humanoid robot startup
Leju Robot was established in March 2016. Its founding members are from Harbin Institute of Technology. Since its establishment, it has always focused on the research, development, and industrialization of humanoid robots. In August 2016, it launched the first - generation humanoid robot AELOS.
Currently, it has the general - purpose humanoid robot KUAVO - MY, which is about 1.47 meters tall, with more than 40 degrees of freedom throughout the body and is connected to Huawei Cloud's CloudRobo embodied intelligence platform. In addition, the company also has 4 small - and medium - sized bipedal humanoid robots, including ROBAN, AELOS PRO3, AELOS open - source Hongmeng version, and AELOS SMART.
