Beijing’s Lingyi iTech factory is ramping up production of humanoid robots for various startups.
CNBC | Evelyn Chen
Hello, I’m Evelyn. I am writing to you from Beijing. Welcome to the latest edition of The China Connection. This is a snapshot of what I’ve seen and heard from local businesses.
Humanoids are popping up everywhere and may even reshape smartphone manufacturers. Who will survive the bubble?
big story
Just a few weeks after opening in late April, the humanoid factory in Beijing says it has already produced 300 robots for customers, increasing towards 10,000 this year.
Linyi iTech, a 20-year-old smartphone and electronics manufacturer, aims to expand annual production to 500,000 units by 2030. Producing robots at that scale could cut the price of humanoids, which currently run about $30,000, in half, said Philip Yang, vice president of the company.
More than 100 humanoid startups are competing to develop domestic helpers in China. Some robots can already dance and serve coffee.
The question is, who will buy them?
Most orders for humanoid robots so far have been for just one or two robots, said Xin Chen, a partner at Beijing-based Bain. He is watching to see whether companies place repeat orders.
Chinese authorities are also keen to attract customers. In August, the city of Beijing opened a showroom with robots such as the soccer-playing humanoid robot Booster T1 (199,000 yuan (about $29,400)) and the luggage-sorting R1 Pro (349,999 yuan) made by startup Galaxy.
According to the store’s representative, the cumulative order value exceeded 30 million yuan as of the end of May.
But the showroom reflects how broad the definition of humanoid is. The Booster T1 is child-sized, while the human-adult-sized R1 Pro has wheels instead of legs.
Software is the key
While robotic hardware often attracts investor attention, “embodied intelligence is really about the convergence of AI and robotics,” said Lian Jie Hsu, principal analyst at Omdia. He noted that companies such as UBTech and Fourier offer open source robotics software.
Nvidia plans to launch its robotic system for developers later this year in collaboration with humanoid maker Unitree, which is planning an IPO in Shanghai in the coming weeks. This is Nvidia’s attempt to step into the world of “physical” AI after dominating AI development with processors and CUDA software systems.
For Chinese companies, software is just another layer of humanoid development added to systems for manufacturing, low-cost parts and collecting training data, Bain’s Chen said.
“Humanoid is not a single product; it is an ecosystem,” he said.
Government-backed centers in Beijing and other parts of China train robots, with humans guiding them through daily tasks so they can learn from real-world applications and reproduce them in the future. A representative from one state-backed data collection center said it is also working on providing robot training data to partners in South Korea and Germany.
These developments provide a glimpse into how China’s rapid human development is having a global impact. Lingyi’s Yang said the company currently operates a power outlet factory in Texas, among other facilities, and has plans to open humanoid facilities overseas. Meanwhile, Unitree already claims that about 40% of its revenue comes from outside China.
But participating in the humanoid industry appears to have become politically correct business, even as Chinese regulators warn of a bubble in the industry.
“China’s humanoid enterprises carry a mandate from the government to create China’s image as a strong industrial economy with deep technological capabilities and deep technical expertise,” said Omdia’s Su. “They receive support from the government just by flying that flag and carrying out that mission.”
That may affect who survives in the global humanoid race.
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