Hyundai strike breaks out over robot fears, a world first

A world first. After 16 rounds of talks between the union and management stalled, the long-brewing strike at South Korea’s Hyundai Motor finally erupted in full. Unlike earlier small gestures of leaving two hours early, this was real: an eight-hour full strike, Hyundai’s first since 2016 a decade ago, involving more than 39,000 union members. … Read more

Chery’s MoJia Robotics prepares IPO at RMB 2.5 billion valuation

On 21 August, during the 2026 World Robot Conference, news emerged that MoJia Robotics (AiMOGA), under Chery Automobile (09973.HK), had started IPO preparation. Zhang Guibing, who also serves as president of Chery’s international business, said publicly that MoJia is discussing potential listing venues and expects to sharply raise humanoid-robot deliveries next year to join the … Read more

Unitree shares surge more than 460 per cent on trading debut

Unitree Technology rang the opening bell and its shares exploded higher at the start. “The first humanoid-robot stock” formally listed on the Shanghai STAR Market. On its first trading day Unitree opened at 1,100 yuan per share, a surge of 629.44 per cent over the 150.80 yuan issue price, and its total market value instantly … Read more

2,056 robots, 16 countries: Beijing’s Humanoid Robot Games become a procurement fair

On 22 August the second World Humanoid Robot Games opened at Beijing’s National Speed Skating Oval, themed “Competing intelligently toward the future”, hosted by the Beijing municipal government and China Media Group. The event runs five days, up from three, with 51 events and 1,301 matches. It drew 666 teams and 2,056 robots from 16 … Read more

Shangwei’s Qiyuan humanoids open for consumer pre-order, with first shipments due in September

On 23 August, Qiyuan Robot, under Shangwei Advanced Materials, opened pre-orders for its Qiyuan Q1 and Qiyuan T1 humanoids through its mini-program, Tmall, Douyin, Bilibili and offline events. A 1,000 yuan deposit deducts 2,000 yuan from the final price, and first shipments are expected in September. For an industry hunting for a landing path, this … Read more

Galbot’s humanoid just played a live tennis rally, and called it the ‘AstraTennis moment’

On 22 August, at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, the opening of the second World Humanoid Robot Games put a live tennis court on air. A humanoid robot faced incoming balls travelling above 50 km/h, judged the bounce in milliseconds, moved its feet, twisted its body and swung, landing the ball inside the … Read more

Ninebot’s profit and market value both halved as growth slows and the robot story fades

Ninebot rode high-growth and a robot narrative to a rich valuation, then spent a year testing investor trust. The 2025 full-year numbers still looked strong: revenue of 21.278 billion yuan, up 49.89 per cent and the first year above 20 billion, with net profit of 1.758 billion, up 62.17 per cent. E-bikes reached 11.86 billion … Read more

UBTECH’s ace at WRC 2026 is an in-house ’embodied brain’ spanning factory, shop and home

UBTECH arrived at WRC 2026 with a ‘working crew’ rather than a dance troupe. Walker C1 hosted the booth, more than ten Cruzr Y1 and S2 units ran a copied factory line doing stamping and machining feed, depalletising and e-commerce sorting, and the new UWORLD U1 home humanoid drew the longest queues. The through-line was … Read more

Vbot quietly took 6 per cent of the quadruped market Unitree dominates, then bet it on a home humanoid

While humanoids packed the WRC floor, a quieter fight played out one level down. Unitree still leads the quadruped market, but its grip is loosening, and a young firm called Vbot (Weita Power) found the gap: the consumer. SAG estimates global quadruped shipments of about 26,000 units in the first half of 2026, with Unitree … Read more