--- title: "China's humanoid robots ready for Lunar New Year showtime" description: "China's annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala will showcase the country's advancements in humanoid robotics, featuring startups like Unitree Robotics and Galbot. The event, akin to the Super Bowl in the U." type: "news" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/276041494.md" published_at: "2026-02-16T08:00:05.000Z" --- # China's humanoid robots ready for Lunar New Year showtime > China's annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala will showcase the country's advancements in humanoid robotics, featuring startups like Unitree Robotics and Galbot. The event, akin to the Super Bowl in the U.S., highlights China's industrial policy and ambitions in robotics and AI. With 90% of global humanoid robot shipments last year, China is set to double its sales this year. The gala serves as a platform for companies to gain government support and market access, emphasizing the importance of robotics in China's next-gen manufacturing strategy. Annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala is China’s most-watched TV show It is often used to showcase China’s tech ambitions Robotics, AI central to China’s next-gen manufacturing push China dominates global humanoid robotics exports By Laurie Chen BEIJING, Feb 16 (Reuters) - China’s most-watched TV show, the annual CCTV Spring Festival gala, will be viewed later on Monday as a showcase for the country’s cutting-edge industrial policy and Beijing’s push to dominate humanoid robots and the future of manufacturing. Four rising humanoid robot startups - Unitree Robotics, Galbot, Noetix and MagicLab - are set to showcase their products in the gala, a televised event and touchstone for China comparable to the Super Bowl for the United States. The hype surrounding China’s humanoid robot sector comes as major players including AgiBot and Unitree prepare for initial public offerings this year and domestic artificial intelligence startups release a raft of frontier models during the lucrative nine-day Lunar New Year public holiday. Last year’s gala stunned viewers with 16 full-size Unitree humanoids twirling handkerchiefs and dancing in unison with human performers. Unitree’s founder met President Xi Jinping weeks later at a high-profile tech symposium - the first of its kind since 2018. Xi has met five robotics startup founders in the past year, comparable to the four electric vehicle and four semiconductor entrepreneurs he met in the same timeframe, giving the nascent sector unusual visibility. The CCTV show, which drew 79% of live TV viewership in China last year, has for decades been used to highlight Beijing’s tech ambitions including its space programme, drones and robotics, said Georg Stieler, Asia managing director and head of robotics and automation at technology consultancy Stieler. “What distinguishes the gala from comparable events elsewhere is the directness of the pipeline from industrial policy to prime-time spectacle,” Stieler said. “Companies that appear on the gala stage receive tangible rewards in government orders, investor attention, and market access.” ### CHINA’S STRENGTHS Behind the spectacle of robots running marathons and executing kung-fu kicks and backflips, China has positioned robotics and AI at the heart of its next-generation AI+ manufacturing strategy, betting that productivity gains from automation will offset pressures from its ageing workforce. “Humanoids bundle a lot of China’s strengths into one narrative: AI capability, hardware supply chain, and manufacturing ambition. They are also the most ‘legible’ form factor for the public and officials,” said Beijing-based tech analyst Poe Zhao. “In an early market, 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 projects that China’s humanoid sales will more than double to 28,000 units this year. Elon Musk has said he expects his biggest competitor to be Chinese companies as he pivots Tesla toward a focus on embedded AI and Optimus. “People outside China underestimate China, but China is an ass-kicker next level,” he said last month. So far, the real-world rollout has been limited to demonstration projects, often with support. Galbot, for example, has a contract to use its humanoid robots in factories run by battery giant CATL (300750.SZ) , one of its major investors. UBTech (9880.HK) won a government contract last year to send humanoid robots to work in logistics and support roles at a border crossing with Vietnam. Chinese startups are also rapidly iterating AI models to train humanoid “brains”, using real-world data collection to improve their environmental perception and understanding of natural language commands. Analysts will watch Monday’s performance for innovations including multi-robot coordination, fault recovery and hand-related tasks like fine-object manipulation. “A robot doing a backflip is still far more spectacular than one carefully gripping a plastic cup of water — even though the latter is technically much more demanding,” Stieler said. ### Related Stocks - [ARTY.US - iShares Future AI & Tech ETF](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/ARTY.US.md) - [KITTW.US - NAUTICUS ROBOTICS INC C/WTS 15/03/2027 (TO PUR COM)](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/KITTW.US.md) - [BOTZ.US - Global X Robotics & Artificial](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/BOTZ.US.md) - [KITT.US - Nautics Robotics](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/KITT.US.md) - [ARBE.US - Arbe Robotics](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/ARBE.US.md) ## Related News & Research | Title | Description | URL | |-------|-------------|-----| | 木头姐：这轮市场波动是算法导致，而非基本面 | 木头姐凯茜·伍德称，近期市场急涨急跌 “多由算法交易制造”，程序化减仓与技术面交易容易形成连锁踩踏，导致 “先卖再问” 的非理性波动，而卖出的人很可能要后悔。她强调 AI 是毕生最大机遇，当前市场处于类似 1996 年的早期阶段，科技巨头激 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276045627.md) | | Affordable Robotic & Automation Ltd 与 Sai Green Mobility 签署了一份价值 1.5 亿卢比的谅解备忘录 | 可负担机器人与自动化有限公司：可负担机器人与自动化有限公司 - 与 SAI 绿色出行签署 1.5 亿印度卢比的谅解备忘录可负担机器人与自动化 - 通过优先发行获得投资的谅解备忘录 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275733138.md) | | 智元发布新一代全尺寸人形机器人远征 A3 | 智元机器人于 2 月 13 日发布了新一代全尺寸人形机器人远征 A3，专注于导览导购和文娱商演等人机互动场景。该机器人具备超拟人全身自由度，手臂负载可达 3kg，最高速度为 2m/s，配备灵巧手。其创新的电池嵌入式躯干设计和双电池系统使其在 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275868234.md) | | 瑞银：预计 2026 年人形机器人需求 3 万台，真正放量或在 2027—2028 年 | 瑞银报告指出，人形机器人正加速从概念验证迈向工业应用，2026 年全球需求量预计达 3 万台，若 AI 技术突破或客户反馈积极，乐观情境下可达 4 万台。2025 年全球出货约 1.86 万台，中国企业宇树科技与智元机器人合计出货近万台，占 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/275780289.md) | | 宇树机器人春晚武术表演再炸场，王兴兴：高动态高协同集群控制技术全球首秀 | 宇树科技创始人王兴兴表示，今年机器人的头部激光雷达、灵巧手等硬件和软件做了很多升级，“去年一整年，我们公司包括全中国的机器人的技术提升非常快，像我们公司的话，目前可以做各种的功夫动作，而且在舞台上面我们挑战了很多极限动作，可能一般的人，甚至 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276086555.md) | --- > **Disclaimer**: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.