The Spring Festival Gala's "New Product Promotion": Why Are Embodied Robots in High Demand?
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As the applause of the Spring Festival Gala gradually faded away, a more real business story quietly unfolded.
On the evening of Chinese New Year's Eve, all 100 Spring Festival Gala limited - edition "Robot Pandas" of Magic Atom were sold out as soon as they went on the market. The No. 001 was auctioned off by a netizen from Beijing for 57,000 yuan within two hours. All of its products, from MagicDog to the development version of the humanoid robot Z1, were marked as "out of stock".
During the same period, the search volume for robots on the JD platform increased by more than 300% month - on - month, and the order volume increased by 150%. The new orders covered more than 100 cities across the country, from first - tier cities to county - level areas, and from geek players to ordinary consumers. What they voted with real money was not just toys, but a collective judgment: This is the robot I want.
This is not simply "sales promotion by the Spring Festival Gala". It is a historic moment for the embodied intelligence industry. In 2026, this industry has stepped out of the "eve" of concept verification and is accelerating its commercialization.
From "One Dominant" to "Four - Power Rivalry", the Industry Enters the "GPT Moment"
Before the four major robot companies "dominated the Spring Festival Gala", there was an early consensus in the industry: in 2026, the Chinese embodied intelligence industry would continue to experience explosive growth. Previously, a report by Morgan Stanley pointed out that 2026 would be a key turning point for the explosion of the Chinese market; IDC predicted that the application scenarios of humanoid robots in China would increase to more than three times the current level; UBS estimated that the global demand for humanoid robots would reach 30,000 units this year.
The popularity of the Spring Festival Gala was just a "catalyst" for the industry's explosion. When the national - level stage became a touchstone for technology, the commercialization process of the robot industry was given an "accelerator".
If the robot stage at the 2025 Spring Festival Gala was a "technical show" by a single company, then the "four - power rivalry" in 2026 marked an essential change in the industry's development. Unitree's top - notch motion control technology, Songyan's bionic form research and development, Galaxy's breakthrough in dexterous operation, and Magic Atom's full - link capabilities. The four companies each showed their strengths and jointly outlined the technical map of the Chinese embodied intelligence industry.
The significance of this on - stage competition far exceeded the "show of skills" itself. It was very similar to the emergence of ChatGPT, which instantly elevated the level of domestic large - scale models to the international leading position. For the robot industry, the core sign of the ChatGPT moment was that technology moved from the "lab demo" to "usable in real scenarios", and products moved from "niche novelty" to "large - scale implementation".
In this "battle of gods", Magic Atom's performance was particularly eye - catching. It was the only company that achieved a full - link demonstration of "performance - clustering - service".
In the main venue, the MagicBot Z1 and MagicBot Gen1 humanoid robots danced with artists. Their movement trajectories were perfectly aligned with the beats with zero error. Even for complex movements such as high - speed rotation and mid - air leaping, they showed millimeter - level motion control accuracy.
In the Yibin sub - venue, a hundred MagicDog quadruped robots in the shape of "Robot Pandas" completed the world's first large - scale group - controlled performance. Their cute postures combined with the seamless coordinated scheduling became one of the most - watched segments of the Spring Festival Gala.
More breakthroughly, Magic Atom brought the real service scenarios of robots to the Spring Festival Gala for the first time. The MagicBot Gen1 transformed into a "noodle - fishing master" and accurately completed the whole process of picking up noodles and draining water. The MagicBot Z1 served as a "waiter", shuttling between tables, navigating autonomously, avoiding obstacles, delivering food, and recycling tableware, achieving a closed - loop service. This scene made global audiences directly feel that the entry of robots into daily life was no longer a scenario in science - fiction movies but a reality right in front of them.
It can be said that Magic Atom, Unitree, Songyan, and Galaxy inspired the needs and impulses of ordinary consumers through such a grand show, which was also the root cause of the frenzy for the Spring Festival Gala - same - style robots on the e - commerce platform.
Dual - Wheel Drive and Hierarchical Layout: Magic Atom Breaks the "Certainty Dilemma"
The robots at the 2026 Spring Festival Gala amazed not only C - end users but also the entire industry and potential customers.
The global embodied intelligence industry has always faced a core contradiction: customers need "success every time", but in the past, the industry could only offer "probable success". This "certainty dilemma" was also the key bottleneck restricting the commercialization of embodied intelligence.
Imagine: in an industrial workshop, if a robot makes an operation error, it may cause the entire production line to stop; in a household scenario, if a robot fails to stably complete tasks such as food delivery and cleaning, it will be difficult to gain user recognition. This extreme requirement for "certainty" has become the biggest obstacle for robots to move from the laboratory to all industries.
"Many companies can make amazing technical demonstrations, but they 'fall short' in real scenarios. The core reason is that they haven't solved the 'certainty' problem," said a partner focusing on hard - tech investment. "Investors don't just look at a single success on the stage. They care about whether the service ability can be stably reproduced in complex and dynamic real - world environments."
When Magic Atom's robots steadily completed seemingly ordinary actions such as fishing noodles and pouring wine, it indicated that the "certainty dilemma", a recognized hard nut in the industry, was being cracked. Magic Atom has been able to transform highly uncertain daily operations into stable and continuous task - closed loops.
Magic Atom's way to break the deadlock lies in its precise hierarchical product layout. It uses quadruped robots to build a "cash cow" business and humanoid robots to tackle technological high - grounds, with dual - wheel drive to solve the "certainty dilemma".
Quadruped robots (such as MagicDog, MagicDog w, MagicDog Y1, etc.) play the role of "certainty production capacity". They can stably output certain values in structured scenarios. Whether it is the equipment inspection of photovoltaic power plants and chemical factories at night, they can steadily shuttle on steps and rough roads, accurately detect hidden dangers such as liquid leakage and high temperature, and replace high - risk and repetitive manual work; or the all - weather security of underground garages in residential areas and large - scale logistics warehouses, they never slack off and make no mistakes, and can timely identify abnormalities such as strangers and fires; even in dangerous areas such as mines and tunnels where it is difficult for humans to reach, they can complete exploration tasks with their stable movement ability, becoming the core business that can actually generate profits at present.
Humanoid robots (such as Gen1 and Z1) undertake the task of exploring technological frontiers, focusing on tackling semi - open scenarios that require dexterity and flexible adaptation, with almost infinite imagination space.
Based on their precise performance of fishing noodles and pouring wine at the Spring Festival Gala, in daily restaurants, they can serve dishes, arrange plates, and make coffee. With their dexterous hand movements and precise force control, they can avoid spills and collisions and can also avoid pedestrians in real - time; in the production lines of mobile phones and small household appliances, they can accurately complete tasks such as dispensing glue and handling, liberating productivity and helping enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency; at the same time, they are continuously being refined in scenarios such as delivering objects and tidying up sundries at home, and sorting goods and packing in shopping malls, gradually achieving the leap from "doing well occasionally" to "meeting the standards stably every time".
Magic Atom's confidence in completing high - difficulty demonstrations at the Spring Festival Gala comes from its hardcore approach of self - research on the entire software and hardware stack. "Robots are complex systematic projects. Relying on external suppliers in any link may lead to a decrease in certainty," said the technical director of Magic Atom.
At the hardware level, Magic Atom's self - research rate is as high as 90%, covering core components such as joint modules, dexterous hands, and reducers; at the software level, Magic Atom self - develops a general embodied intelligence large - scale model, integrating multi - modal perception, autonomous navigation, and motion control technologies. Through imitation learning and reinforcement learning frameworks, robots can learn movement trajectories from massive data and achieve real - time optimization.
For example, the "noodle - fishing" action of the MagicBot Gen1 was formed by collecting data, building models, and training based on the operations of dozens of senior chefs. Eventually, a stable operation process was formed. Even when facing noodles of different thicknesses and textures, it can adjust the movement parameters to ensure success every time.
The advantage of full - stack self - research lies in the end - to - end optimization from perception, control to the actuator, enabling Magic Atom to quickly respond to long - tail problems in real scenarios. "In an environment with strong interference and zero tolerance for errors like the live broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala, any tiny error could lead to the failure of the performance. Through our full - stack self - research system, we achieved millisecond - level response from environmental perception to action execution, ensuring zero mistakes," the technical director of Magic Atom added.
Running Through the Commercialization Closed Loop: Magic Atom's Three - Dimensional Growth Logic
What is more worth interpreting is the market signal behind the hot sales data of the Spring Festival Gala - same - style robots.
The new orders covered a wide range of regions from super - first - tier cities to county - level markets, indicating that the consumer demand for embodied intelligence is not an "elite game" in first - tier cities but is becoming a national market phenomenon. The rush to buy Magic Atom's quadruped robot dogs proves that consumer - grade robots have gone beyond the "toy" stage and become life companions with emotional value. The hot sales of professional - grade products show that industry applications are accelerating their implementation.
All signs indicate that the eve of the market explosion has passed, and the next stage is the critical period for commercialization. At this time, the commercialization ability and growth potential of relevant enterprises have become the core considerations for investors.
Magic Atom, with its clear strategic layout, has run through the complete closed loop from technology to the market. Its three - dimensional growth logic highlights extremely high long - term investment value.
Firstly, scenario implementation feeds back into R & D, forming a positive cycle between technology and the market.
"Defining products by scenarios" is the core of Magic Atom's commercialization. Different from the traditional model of "R & D first and then finding scenarios", it adheres to starting from real applications and builds a positive cycle of "scenario implementation - data collection - technology iteration - re - implementation".
After the release of the MagicBot Z1, it first entered scenarios such as cultural tourism and commercial complexes for verification. After nearly half a year of refinement, the overall structural strength of the machine increased by 30%, and the stability of the joint modules increased by 25%. Finally, it appeared at the Spring Festival Gala.
Secondly, scientifically balance short - term benefits and long - term layout to truly achieve sustainable commercialization.
For investors, a company's commercialization ability depends not only on short - term monetization but also on long - term growth potential. Magic Atom's dual - wheel drive pattern of "stable cash flow from quadruped robots and future - oriented humanoid robots" perfectly balances short - term benefits and long - term layout.
Currently, quadruped robots are being implemented on a large scale in scenarios such as inspection and security, providing stable cash flow to support R & D and market expansion. Although humanoid robots are in the early stage of commercialization, they have broad market space in fields such as industrial manufacturing (with a potential scale of over 100 billion) and household services (expected to reach the trillion - level scale).
This layout not only avoids the "money - burning trap" but also gets rid of the "short - sighted dilemma". As its founder said, "What we want to do is not a short - lived hit product but a long - term - oriented enterprise that can continuously create value for users and bring returns to investors."
Thirdly, adhere to globalization and ecological cooperation to simultaneously amplify the commercial scale effect.
Scenario implementation strengthens the "internal strength", while globalization and ecological cooperation expand the "external strength". In 2025, Magic Atom's overseas business accounted for more than 30%, with a single - month peak of 60%. It covered 27 countries and regions. Tailoring to the different needs of scientific research and education and high - end services in Europe and America, and industrial inspection and basic services in Southeast Asia, it provided customized solutions.
In terms of ecological construction, Magic Atom's three major plans have achieved remarkable results. The "Open - Source Plan" has gathered more than ten thousand developers and incubated dozens of innovative applications; the "Venus Plan" has joined hands with top global universities to tackle core technologies; the "Concentrated - Light Plan" has collaborated with industrial chain partners to promote scenario implementation.
In addition, the standardized solutions for unmanned coffee and milk tea launched by Magic Atom have been piloted in multiple cities in China. It is planned to cover 1,000 cities and open 10,000 stores within 1 - 2 years.
Based on previous investment and financing data, Magic Atom, which has been established for only 2 years, has become a star enterprise attracting the attention of many investors. At the end of 2024, Magic Atom received a 150 - million - yuan angel - round investment from Zhuichuang Venture Capital. In 2025, it received hundreds of millions of yuan in strategic investment. The latest news shows that Magic Atom plans to launch a sprint for an IPO in 2026.
Behind the continuous capital injection is the endorsement and trust in Magic Atom's practical and logically clear commercialization route.
The Era of Flourishing: The "Robot Narrative" of Made in China
The embodied intelligence industry in 2026 is very similar to the large - scale model industry last year. After ChatGPT became a global sensation, new players such as DeepSeek, Doubao, Qianwen, and Yuanbao entered the market one after another