At WAIC, Qiling’s Robots Ran a Shop With No Remote Control
At WAIC 2026 in Shanghai, Qiling did something many robot demos avoid: it let the machines run the shop by themselves.
Humanoid Robots
China’s AgiBot Files for Hong Kong IPO as the Humanoid Race Hits the Capital Markets
The humanoid-robot sector has entered its capital-realisation phase. AgiBot has confirmed it has launched the process for a Hong Kong listing, and it timed the announcement to land on the very day the exchange’s new listing rules took effect. The message was not a surprise. Rumours of an IPO have circulated for half a year. … Read more
US Adds Chinese Humanoid and Quadruped Robots to Its Controlled List
On July 28, the US Federal Communications Commission updated its “Covered List,” adding foreign-made advanced robotics — humanoids and quadrupeds — and grid-tied power inverters. The stated rationale was familiar: supply-chain vulnerabilities, cyber risk, threats to critical infrastructure. Officially the rule names “foreign-made” equipment. But Reuters, the BBC and Politico all put China in the … Read more
China’s RMB 20 Billion Embodied-AI Club
China’s embodied AI sector has attracted over RMB 20 billion in collective investment as tech giants and VCs race to back humanoid-robot startups. (Source: Sina Tech) The robots still can’t reliably do the job – but the valuations have already arrived. As of June 2026, eight Chinese embodied-AI companies have crossed a RMB 20 billion … Read more
Faraday Future’s Robot Pivot: The Numbers Don’t Add Up
After 12 years and roughly $3.2 billion in cumulative funding (per Tracxn data), Faraday Future has delivered fewer than 20 vehicles. Now the Jia Yueting-led company is abandoning the EV label altogether: an August shareholder meeting will vote on a renaming that rebrands FF as a “physical AI ecosystem company,” with humanoid and embodied-AI robots … Read more
China’s Dexterous-Hand Gold Rush: RMB 25 Billion in Six Months
In 2025, capital chased complete humanoid robots — a walking, talking demo unit could raise hundreds of millions. In 2026, the money has pivoted to a single component: the dexterous hand, what the industry calls the “last millimetre” of robot-world interaction. The numbers are stark. According to IT Juzi data cited by OFweek, China’s dexterous-hand … Read more
NVIDIA’s GR00T Reference Humanoid Runs on a Chinese Dexterous Hand
When NVIDIA unveiled its Isaac GR00T reference humanoid at GTC Taipei during ICRA 2026, the industry noted the obvious choices: a Unitree H2 Plus body, Jetson Thor onboard compute, and the open-source Isaac GR00T model as the brain. But the component that drew the sharpest questions was the one few had heard of: the hands. … Read more
A Chinese Bionic Robot ‘Too Real’ Triggers Global Uncanny Valley Storm
A bionic robot developed by a Shanghai startup has ignited a fierce debate on overseas social media — not because it failed, but because it looked too human. At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on July 17, Shouxing Tech unveiled OriginF1: a desktop-scale bionic android with 26 degrees of freedom across … Read more
Humanoid Robots’ Weak Link: Some Dexterous Hands Break After 50 Grabs
Figure Robotics’ F02 humanoid robot featuring a high-degree-of-freedom dexterous hand.Illustration: humanoid robot dexterous-hand durability concerns. (Source: Sohu IT) China’s humanoid robots are being tested by reality, and reality is winning. A manager at one robotics firm, whom we will call Wang Hao, told Chinese business outlet Yicai that the dexterous hand his company sources from … Read more
Raised $300M, Backed by Bill Gates — Robot Startup Vicarious Files for Bankruptcy
In the midst of a global humanoid robot boom, a sobering reminder of how hard the robotics business actually is: Vicarious Surgical, a US surgical robot startup that raised $300 million from investors including Bill Gates and Jerry Yang, has filed for bankruptcy. Founded in 2014 by two MIT graduates, Vicarious set out to build … Read more