China registered 116,000 new humanoid robot companies in the first half of 2026. Not units. Companies.
The figure comes from the State Administration for Market Regulation, published on 8 August. New humanoid robot registrations rose 9.5 per cent year on year to 116,000. Across the eight emerging industries and nine future industries the government tracks, 561,000 new companies were registered in the same period. Humanoids were the standout line.
Guo Tao, deputy director of the China Electronic Commerce Expert Service Centre, described the sector as being in a phase of rapid expansion, with a wave of new entrants filling out niches alongside incumbents, accelerating product iteration and the search for a business model that actually pays.
Policy, technology and capital arrived together
On the policy side, in June the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the General Office of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission jointly issued a notice launching a 2026 programme of real-world training for humanoid robots and embodied AI. The stated tasks are to build physical training spaces, form joint innovation consortia and close the gap on practical work skills.
On the technology side, domestic supply of the parts that matter has moved. Sensors, reducers and planetary roller screws are increasingly made in China, and motion control has improved sharply as a result.
The capital number is the one to watch
Embodied AI companies in China raised 93.5 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, five times the figure for the same period in 2025. Deal count reached 322, up 137 per cent year on year.
Unitree, the sector bellwether, opened subscription for its STAR Market listing on 10 August and is set to become the first pure humanoid robot stock on the Chinese A-share market.
From six prototypes to six figures
Production is following the money. Ministry of Industry and Information Technology data puts 2025 domestic humanoid output at roughly 20,000 units. The first half of 2026 alone cleared 40,000, and the full year is expected to break 100,000.
AgiBot said in early June it had rolled 15,000 units off the line. Unitree completed volume production of about 11,000 units in March. In 2023 the entire Chinese industry shipped six prototype machines.
That is the arc worth holding in view. Six prototypes to a six-figure annual run rate in three years, with a state training programme, a domestic parts base and 93.5 billion yuan of fresh capital pushing behind it. The laboratory phase is over. What follows is a manufacturing problem, and manufacturing problems are the kind China tends to win.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original Gasgoo report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience.