BEIJING, Feb 16 (Reuters) – China’s most-watched TV show, the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala, will be watched later on Monday to showcase China’s cutting-edge industrial policies and Beijing’s push for future dominance of humanoid robots and manufacturing.
Four emerging humanoid robotics startups – Unitree Robotics, Galbot, Noetix and MagicLab – will showcase their products at the televised event, which is as much a touchstone for China as it is the Super Bowl in the United States.
The hype surrounding China’s humanoid robot industry comes as major players such as AgiBot and Unitree prepare for initial public offerings this year and as domestic artificial intelligence startups release a slew of cutting-edge models during the lucrative nine-day Lunar New Year holiday.
At last year’s gala, 16 full-size Unitree figures twirled handkerchiefs and danced in unison with human performers, wowing the audience.
A few weeks later, Unitree’s founders met President Xi Jinping at a high-profile technology seminar, the first of its kind since 2018.
Xi Jinping has met with five robotics startup founders in the past year, bringing unusual visibility to the nascent industry compared with the four electric car and four semiconductor entrepreneurs he has met in the same time frame.
The CCTV program, which attracted 79% of live TV ratings in China last year, has been used for decades to highlight Beijing’s technology ambitions, including its space program, drones and robotics, said Georg Stieler, Asia managing director and head of robotics and automation at technology consultancy Stieler.
“What sets this event apart from similar events elsewhere is its direct transition from industrial policy to a prime-time event,” Stiller said.
“Companies that make it to the ceremony receive tangible rewards in terms of government orders, investor attention and market access.”
China’s advantages
Behind the spectacle of robots running marathons, kung fu kicks and back flips, China has put robotics and artificial intelligence at the heart of its next-generation AI+ manufacturing strategy, betting that productivity gains from automation will offset pressure from an aging workforce.
“Humanoid robots combine many of China’s strengths into one narrative: artificial intelligence capabilities, hardware supply chains and manufacturing ambitions. They are also the most ‘readable’ form factor for the public and officials,” said Poe Zhu, a Beijing-based technology analyst.
“In early-stage markets, attention becomes a resource.”
China accounted for 90% of the roughly 13,000 humanoid robots shipped globally last year, far ahead of U.S. rivals including Tesla’s Optimus, according to research firm Omdia. Morgan Stanley expects sales of humanoid robots in China to more than double this year to 28,000 units.
Elon Musk says he expects the biggest competitors will be Chinese companies as he shifts Tesla’s focus towards embedded artificial intelligence and Optimus Prime. “People outside China underestimate China, but China’s strength is even higher,” he said last month.
So far, real-world rollout has been limited to demonstration projects and often requires support. Galbot, for example, has a contract to use its humanoid robots in factories run by battery giant CATL, one of its major investors. UBTech won a government contract last year to send humanoid robots to do logistics and support work at border crossings in Vietnam.
Chinese startups are also rapidly iterating on artificial intelligence models to train humanoid “brains”, using real-world data collection to improve their environmental awareness and understanding of natural language commands.
Analysts will be watching Monday for innovations that include manual-related tasks such as multi-robot coordination, failure recovery and delicate object manipulation.
“A robot doing a backflip is still much more spectacular than a robot gingerly holding a plastic cup of water — even though the latter is more technically demanding,” Stiller said.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen; Editing by Jamie Freed and Neil Fullick)
