Why Building a Robot Without China Is Nearly Impossible
A comprehensive analysis published by The New York Times reveals that China has become nearly indispensable in the global robotics supply chain, manufacturing robot parts at a scale and price point that competitors cannot match. The findings highlight the growing dependence of global robotics manufacturers on Chinese components and the strategic implications for technology supply chains worldwide.
The Scale of China’s Dominance
China now controls approximately 63% of the global humanoid robot supply chain, according to research from CapitalSight cited in industry analyses. This dominance is particularly pronounced in body hardware and macro-actuation, where China holds a 45% market share. The country’s component ecosystem is vastly denser than that of the United States: China has 25 robot hand actuator suppliers compared to just 7 in the U.S., and 30 leg linear actuator suppliers versus 6 — a fivefold advantage in both categories.
According to Barclays Research, China accounted for roughly 85% of global humanoid robot installations in 2025, with approximately 15,000 units installed worldwide. That number is projected to surge to 60,000 units in 2026, driven by companies like Unitree Robotics and AgiBot.
The Cost Advantage
Chinese humanoid robot manufacturers can produce at roughly 50% the cost of Western competitors for equivalent capability, according to Bank of America analysis. Unitree Robotics, the world’s largest humanoid robot seller by volume, exemplifies this trend. The company sold 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025 — roughly one-third of global sales — while its average robot price fell from approximately $85,000 in 2023 to roughly $25,000 in 2025. Remarkably, Unitree’s gross margins improved to nearly 60% during the same period.
At the consumer end, the Unitree R1 sells for just ¥29,900 ($4,150) for a 123cm humanoid with full articulation, while the Songyan Power Bumi sells for under ¥10,000 ($1,380). These price points are reshaping expectations for what robots can cost.
The EV-to-Robotics Pipeline
China’s robotics dominance did not emerge in a vacuum. It is built on the foundation of the country’s electric vehicle industry, which developed the actuators, sensors, and batteries that overlap substantially with robotics components. As the Foundation for Defense of Democracies noted, Chinese firms have relied on supply chains developed for electric vehicles and drones, supported by state investment.
This industrial strategy dates back to the “Made in China 2025” initiative, which designated robotics as a strategic priority. Subsequent five-year plans and the 2023 “Robot+ Action Plan” extended robotics beyond manufacturing into healthcare, agriculture, logistics, and elderly care. In March 2025, “embodied intelligence” was written into the Chinese Government Work Report for the first time.
The Data Flywheel
China’s large-scale deployment creates a self-reinforcing advantage: more robots deployed generates more operational data, which improves AI training, which produces better robots, which drives further deployment. With 85% of 2025 installations, China is generating operational data at a pace the U.S. is not matching. As one industry analysis put it: “The question is no longer whether China will lead in embodied intelligence manufacturing. It already does. The question is whether Western companies can compete at all when the cost structure is this asymmetric.”
U.S. Policy Response
In response to these developments, Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduced the American Security Robotics Act on March 26, 2026. The bipartisan bill, as Reuters reported, prohibits the federal government from buying or using Chinese-made unmanned ground vehicles, including humanoid robots. However, the legislation does not address Chinese components inside American-branded robots — a significant gap, given that an investigation by the Wall Street Journal found American humanoid robots from companies backed by major U.S. investors rely on Chinese-made components inside their frames, as reported by Ranked Brief.
Demographic Drivers
China faces acute demographic pressures that are accelerating automation demand. The population peaked in 2021 at 1.42 billion and is now declining. The working-age population is expected to shrink by 6% between 2026 and 2035 — roughly 57 million fewer people — while the share of elderly (65+) is set to double to over 30% by 2050. Under optimistic projections, humanoid robots could offset approximately 60% of the projected workforce decline over the next decade.
What’s Next
The robotics supply chain is becoming a critical infrastructure issue. As a Guardian investigation detailed, China now accounts for more than half of the world’s new factory robot installations annually, and the country’s robotics ecosystem — from component suppliers to final assembly — operates at a speed and scale unmatched anywhere else.
Western companies retain advantages in chips, AI models, and autonomy software. But as one analyst observed: “China now controls the physical layer of the robotics industry: the lidar, the actuators, the gears, and increasingly the factories that assemble them at scale. American companies lead in chips and AI models. The robot itself is increasingly a Chinese product with an American brain.”
The question now is whether the West can build competitive domestic supply chains before China’s lead becomes structural and irreversible — or whether the future of robotics will be defined by a fundamental dependence on Chinese manufacturing that no amount of policy can undo.