The robotics boom is back, with concept stocks collectively surging, and the trillion-dollar track ushers in the 'Year of Mass Production'.
On September 3, the capital market once again boiled for robots, and the concept stocks of robots in the Hong Kong stock market collectively soared. MicroPort Robotics opened nearly 11% higher, ShouCheng Holdings rose more than 15% at its peak, and UB Tech received a strategic investment of 1 billion US dollars. An industrial revolution led by humanoid robots is accelerating.
Commercialization accelerates, the robot industry moves towards a new stage of "self-sustaining"
2025 is called the "mass production year" of humanoid robots by the industry. The Daiwa report pointed out that the delivery volume of humanoid robots in China this year will be stronger than previously expected. The brokerage expects that by the end of this year, the delivery volume will be close to 7,000 units, mainly led by Unitree, Agibot, X-Humanoid, and UB Tech.
Daiwa expects that China will become the main market for humanoid robots in the next five years, with an estimated delivery volume of about 400,000 units by 2030, of which China will account for about 70%.
Behind this robot investment boom is a key turning point from "technical exploration" to "commercialization." Many robot companies delivered impressive results in the first half of 2025, with the revenue growth rates of major robot manufacturers in the Hong Kong stock market all reaching double digits.
Among them, MicroPort Robotics led the industry with a 77% revenue growth rate in the first half of the year, mainly due to the rapid expansion of the commercialization of multiple products and the outstanding performance in overseas markets.
UB Tech achieved revenue of 621 million yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 27.5%, and the loss during the period narrowed by 18.5% year-on-year. According to the company, it is expected to deliver more than 500 industrial humanoid robots in 2025, with an annual production capacity of more than 1,000 humanoid robots.
ShouCheng Holdings achieved operating income of 731 million Hong Kong dollars in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 36%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 339 million Hong Kong dollars, a year-on-year increase of 30%; gross profit was 295 million Hong Kong dollars, a year-on-year increase of 26%. Moreover, as one of the earliest listed companies to systematically layout the robot industry in China, ShouCheng Holdings is accelerating its transformation from a pure investor to a full-chain service provider.
In addition, Zhiyuan Robotics and Unitree Technology recently won a humanoid robot procurement order worth 120 million yuan from a subsidiary of China Mobile, and UB Tech also won a robot equipment procurement project worth 90.5115 million yuan in July this year.
These orders are of symbolic significance, indicating that large state-owned enterprises and specific industries have begun to be willing to pay for humanoid robot solutions, greatly boosting the confidence of the capital market and the industry in the prospects of the industry.
As the production scale gradually expands and the expense rate continues to dilute, major robot companies are accelerating towards the breakeven point.
In the first half of this year, except for Horizon Robotics, which is still in huge losses and the loss has expanded, the losses of the other four companies have all narrowed to varying degrees.
Among them, Geek+ had a loss of about 48 million yuan during the period, a year-on-year decrease of 91.3%, and its adjusted EBITDA turned positive, reaching 11.621 million yuan; the loss of Dobot narrowed by more than 30% in the first half of the year, gradually approaching the breakeven point.
This trend is a positive and key signal for the Chinese robot industry, deeply reflecting that the industry is transitioning from "burning money for research and development" to a healthy development stage of "self-sustaining," and the effectiveness of the business model has been initially verified.
Technological breakthroughs and challenges, has the "ChatGPT moment" for robots arrived?
Despite the acceleration of commercialization, the robot industry still faces core technological challenges. Huatai Securities pointed out in its latest report that the current bottleneck of humanoid robots lies in the cost reduction and non-standardization of hardware, as well as the intelligence of the brain.
On the software level, the "ChatGPT moment" of the robot brain has not yet appeared. Robots not only need the empowerment of large language models but also must have embodied intelligence carriers with autonomous mobility or action capabilities.
However, Tesla's release of the fourth version of the "Master Plan" still injected a strong boost into the industry. Musk emphasized the potential of the Optimus humanoid robot and stated that about 80% of Tesla's corporate value will depend on the development of this robot project in the future. According to Tesla's plan, the robot is expected to be put into commercial application in early 2026.
Internationally renowned investment institution InfiniCapital and UB Tech officially signed a strategic partnership cooperation agreement worth 1 billion US dollars and will carry out deep cooperation in multiple fields such as the upstream and downstream industrial chain of humanoid robots, the construction of super factories and research and development centers in the Middle East.
At the same time, InfiniCapital also plans to increase its holdings of UB Tech stocks at an appropriate time, becoming an important shareholder with a holding ratio of no more than 5%.
In response, the capital market also gave a positive response. Citi published a report stating that it was encouraged by UB Tech's performance in the first half of the year and raised the delivery guidance for humanoid robots this year from 300-500 units to more than 500 units, and predicted the delivery of 2,000-3,000 units next year.
In the long run, to maintain technological leadership, major robot companies continue to increase research and development investment. Horizon Robotics' research and development expenditure surged 62% year-on-year to 2.3 billion yuan in the first half of this year; Geek+ focused on increasing research and development investment in embodied intelligence, achieving flexible scheduling of robots through AI+ robot technology.
With Tesla's Optimus expected to be put into commercial application in early 2026 and the expansion of Chinese manufacturers in overseas markets such as the Middle East, humanoid robots are moving from concept to reality.
Huatai Securities also pointed out that in the future, attention should be paid to the intelligent emergence of the "Scaling Law" of the robot brain, which will truly drive the positive flywheel of humanoid robots.
Looking at it now, the capital boom in the humanoid robot sector is not a castle in the air but is built on solid commercial progress and technological breakthroughs.
From the financial performance of the Hong Kong stock market robot companies in the first half of the year, with revenue generally rising and losses narrowing, to major companies such as Tesla and UB Tech winning major orders and strategic investments, all of them confirm that the industry is moving from "concept speculation" to "mass production landing" at a critical turning point.
However, the real explosion still needs to wait for the arrival of the "ChatGPT moment" of the robot brain—only when the software and hardware collaborate to break through, achieve cost reduction and intelligence leap, can humanoid robots truly start a trillion-dollar industrial wave.
The copyright of this article belongs to the original author/organization.
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not reflect the stance of the platform. The content is intended for investment reference purposes only and shall not be considered as investment advice. Please contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the content services provided by the platform.
