Feb 21, 2026
3 min read
Four Chinese companies are preparing to debut on the stock market, while Tesla stopped car production to focus on 15,000 android units installed in the world by 2025.
China angers anti-human robots: $200 billion in hit market
Four Chinese companies are preparing their market debuts while Tesla halts car production to focus on android.In 2025, 15,000 units will be installed worldwide
"I've seen things you won't believe: a ship on fire outside Orion. I've seen sea lights burning in the dark near the Tannhäuser door. All those moments will disappear in time like tears of rain. With less music than in the movie Blade Runner, but with great power, China showed its technological progress. This Monday in the human campaign of Grobots Spring-Fe, the hyperwalled government wants to show its power in this industry against the United States and physical nature in the age of generative AI.Seeking to raise its voice about the potential of intelligence, investments by large technology companies and their impact on the market are sources of investor attention.
Barclays estimates that the market value of this industry will reach $1 trillion by 2035, including robotics, autonomous vehicles, industrial automation and drones.While acknowledging the growing popularity of autonomous vehicles, it estimates the value of the humanoid robot segment at $300 million to $200 million today.
"Physical artificial intelligence marks a fundamental paradigm shift: it moves from AI limited to the digital space to smart systems that understand, think and act in the real world," the investment bank's report says.
The progress of humanoid robots shows the statistics: last year alone, 21 new models of humanoid robots were launched worldwide, compared to only three in 2022. This speed is mainly due to the significant reduction in production costs, which have been reduced 30 over the past decade, increasing its financial strength and making it attractive to investors. Investments in projects related to the market rose to $8.8 billion in the second quarter of 2025, doubling15 level in 2017, according to Barclays.
China's dominance in this field is almost gone.Of the top ten manufacturers of humanoid robots, five are Chinese and accounted for 70% of new devices last year: Engine AI, Fourier Intelligence, Unitree, Ubtech Robotics and Xpeng.Together with them are the Japanese Toyota Group, the Americans Tesla, Boston Dynamics and Figure and the Norwegian company 1XTechnologies.Among them all, Tesla, Toyota, Ubtech Robotic and Xpeng are listed alone in the group, although there are many companies.The Chinese are already working on their IPO.
Chinese strength is also seen in industries that have humanoid robots.Barclays estimates that 85% of bots installed worldwide last year were found in China and only 13% in the US.
The leader in this sector is the Chinese company Agibot, responsible for 34% of all robots installed last year and for the kung fu exhibition that more than 600 million Chinese could see on their TVs last Monday.The company, founded by former Huawei engineers, hopes to go public this year and reach a valuation of up to $6.4 billion.To this end, there is now a syndicate of coordinating banks led by Chinese entities CICC and CITIC Securities and Morgan Stanley.
Unitree, the second company that sold the most robots last year (28%), is also preparing its debut.Its employment will reach $7,000 million in the second half of the year, Reuters reported in November.Lejoux and Fourier also hope to join them, while Figure AI secured $39 billion in its last round of funding in September.
Among those already listed, Ubtech Robotics appeared on the stock market in Hong Kong in 2023. at the end of the year and has more than 50 percent since then. Xpeng has underperformed, losing 55 percent since its Hong Kong stock market debut in 2020. The company hopes to take its flying car unit, Xpeng Aeroht, public this year and has already hired JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley as coordinating banks.
The growth of the humanoid robot market can be boosted by the commitment of two of the largest American technology companies: Tesla and Alphabet.The company founded by Elon Musk has placed its Optimus humanoid robot platform among its main strategic lines and is targeting large-scale production, leaving aside the production of electric cars."It is an honorable time to end the Model S and Model X programs. Because we are moving towards a future based on automation," explained Musk during the presentation of the latest results.
Alphabet, for its part, has led a round of financing for Uptronic just starting with Mercedes-Benz, which has allowed the company to reach a valuation of 5.3 billion dollars.
