8 in 10 Humanoid Robots Sold Worldwide Are Made in China

China’s top economic planning agency said Friday that eight of every ten humanoid and quadruped intelligent robots sold worldwide are made in China, a fresh signal of Beijing’s dominance in a sector now caught up in US-China technology competition.

At the National Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) monthly press conference in Beijing on July 31, spokesperson Jiang Yi said that “in the intelligent robotics field, for every 10 humanoid and quadruped intelligent robots sold globally, 8 are produced in China,” Xinhua reported.

The figure was part of a broader summary of China’s high-tech progress in the first half of 2026. Xinhua said the same briefing highlighted the approval of 38 innovative drugs, 31 of them domestically developed; the cumulative delivery of 41 C919 large passenger aircraft; and the successful first launch-and-recovery mission of the Long March 10B carrier rocket, which the agency described as a major breakthrough in reusable rocket technology.

The robotics announcement carried political weight because it came three days after the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it would ban imports of new foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots, along with power inverters, over “unacceptable risks” to US national security. The measure is widely seen as targeting China, the world’s largest producer of such machines. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the agency was doing its part “to secure America’s critical supply chains,” BBC News reported.

The ban applies to new foreign-produced advanced robotic devices and power inverters and does not prevent the sale or import of existing models that had previously been authorised by the FCC. The Chinese embassy in Washington said Beijing has long opposed the US “politicising” of trade issues and sanctions based on “groundless pretexts,” and will “take all necessary measures” in response to any moves that harm its interests, according to the BBC.

Market Dominance in Numbers

Independent estimates broadly support the official statistic. A July 2026 industry report from Sourcebotics says China holds more than 80 percent of global humanoid installations, with the domestic market expected to roughly double to about US$1.3 billion this year. The report also records that Chinese manufacturer AgiBot shipped more than 5,100 humanoid units in 2025, while Unitree—another leading Chinese firm—commands an estimated 60-70 percent global share in quadruped robots.

The report highlights how quickly cost and scale advantages have compounded. Basic humanoid hardware costs have fallen to roughly 100,000 yuan (about US$14,000), and Chinese humanoid-robot exports grew about 210 percent year on year in the first quarter, led by Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. That export momentum matters because the US market is now largely closed to new Chinese robots, and the world’s biggest robotics producers are increasingly looking elsewhere.

Analysis

The NDRC’s headline statistic is as much a political message as an industrial one. For Beijing, it reinforces the official narrative of “new quality productive forces”—the drive to convert manufacturing strength into leadership in emerging technologies such as embodied artificial intelligence. For Washington, the FCC ban shows the administration treating humanoid robots not as a niche consumer product but as critical infrastructure that could be used for surveillance or remote interference.

The contest is asymmetric. China’s edge rests on manufacturing scale, integrated supply chains and rapid cost reduction; the US retains strengths in frontier AI research and software. The FCC move protects American developers from price competition and addresses legitimate supply-chain concerns, but it does little to slow the expansion of Chinese production capacity aimed at other regions. If Chinese exports to Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East continue at their current pace, the 8-in-10 figure may prove to be a floor rather than a ceiling.

What’s Next

The immediate question is whether other Western governments follow Washington’s lead or keep their markets open to Chinese robots. The longer-term test is whether China can translate production volume into genuinely capable, deployable automation—especially in factory work, where questions about autonomy and real-world data remain unresolved. For now, the numbers are unambiguous: in the race to build the world’s humanoid robots, China is manufacturing at a scale no other country comes close to matching.