---
title: "Humanoid Robots Run Wild 2026: Who Will Foot the Bill for the Feast?"
type: "News"
locale: "en"
url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/276190831.md"
description: "The 2026 Spring Festival Gala showcased the technological achievements of four domestic robot companies, marking the rapid development of China's humanoid robot industry. Yushu Technology, Songyan Power, Magic Atom, and Galaxy General's robots performed excellently in the program, attracting the attention of billions of viewers. This event was not only a display of technology but also a critical moment for commercialization, as companies hope to convert their visibility into market share. However, there are risks associated with the high costs of the Spring Festival Gala and the actual delivery volume"
datetime: "2026-02-18T02:19:35.000Z"
locales:
  - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/276190831.md)
  - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276190831.md)
  - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/276190831.md)
---

# Humanoid Robots Run Wild 2026: Who Will Foot the Bill for the Feast?

Author | Huang Yu

Editor | Song He

When the stage lights of the 2026 Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala finally dimmed, this event, humorously dubbed by netizens as the "most hardcore" Spring Festival Gala in history, marked a futuristic note with the collective appearance of four domestic robot companies: Magic Atom, Galaxy General, Yushu Technology, and Songyan Power.

That night, Yushu Technology's G1 and H2 humanoid robots wielded long poles in the martial arts program "Wu BOT," competing alongside young students from the Tagou Martial Arts School, showcasing drunken boxing and nunchaku skills fluidly, while the red-robed sword dance added a touch of chivalry; Songyan Power's bionic robot transformed into "Robot Grandson," snuggling up to Cai Ming in the skit "Grandma's Favorite," displaying neck extensions and acrobatic flips; the Magic Atom's MagicBot series traversed the main venue "Intelligent Manufacturing Future," performing alongside artists like Chen Xiaochun, Yan Chengxu, Luo Jiahao, and Yi Yangqianxi, with its robotic dog and humanoid robot also appearing at the Yibin sub-venue "Standing Upstream," interacting with pandas and adding a touch of technological fun; Galaxy General, as the designated embodied large model robot for this year's Spring Festival Gala, showcased its Galbot G1 in the New Year microfilm "The Night I Remember Most," stunning the audience with a segment of rapid-fire dialogue.

From Yushu Technology's solo breakout with "Yang BOT" in 2025 to the four manufacturers showcasing their strengths in different programs in 2026, this "All-Star Positioning Competition" unfolding before millions is a microcosm of the rapid development of China's humanoid robot industry over the past year.

As robots step off the demonstration stage in laboratories and onto the national stage of the Spring Festival Gala, this top-tier gamble in the tech world has reached a critical juncture, transitioning from technical narratives to commercial realities.

In this feast referred to as the "Billion Dollar Club," each company taking the stage attempts to anchor its position before hundreds of millions of viewers, converting national-level recognition into winning odds on the commercial map. However, behind the bustling spotlight, a subtle yet dangerous contrast is forming between the high "ticket price" of the Spring Festival Gala and the yet-to-explode real delivery volumes.

This round of humanoid robots' "mad dash" is not just a showcase of technical dimensions but also a strategic shift from the laboratory to the "budget sheet." What the industry is truly competing for is no longer about whose joints are more flexible or who can perform more difficult flips, but rather who can be included in the annual capital expenditure list of major clients.

As Zhu Xiaohu, a managing partner at Jinsha River Venture Capital, previously provocatively questioned, "Who would spend over a hundred thousand to buy a robot to do these tasks?"

This question is becoming a must-answer for the entire industry in the early spring of 2026.

## 1 The Choice of Exposure

In the past year, the humanoid robot industry has undergone an accelerated transition from laboratory demonstrations to real-world applications and mass deliveries. For the Spring Festival Gala, each company's industry position and self-development orientation also determine their different expectations The official statements from the four participating companies after the Spring Festival Gala precisely align with their respective market positioning.

Yushu Technology, as a veteran of the Spring Festival Gala, released an official tweet late at night on February 16, stating that it presented the world's first fully autonomous humanoid robot cluster martial arts performance with G1 and H2, showcasing "cyber real kung fu" in the Year of the Horse. It broke through the limits of athletic performance and set multiple global firsts, including the world's first continuous trick table parkour, a height of over 3 meters for spring flips, continuous flips on one foot + two-step wall flips, Airflare big spin seven and a half times, and the fastest cluster rapid positioning at 4m/s. It also featured a newly developed dexterous hand for quick changes and stable grasping of martial arts props.

It also revealed that the performance utilized a high-concurrency cluster control system and self-developed AI fusion positioning algorithms, combined with 3D laser radar for precise positioning, overcoming the challenge of cumulative motion errors. Yushu Technology also clearly stated that by 2025, its humanoid robot shipment volume will exceed 5,500 units, a figure higher than previous market research forecasts.

Galaxy General and Yushu Technology, as the first tier with valuations exceeding 10 billion, are more focused on enhancing their influence in the capital market to accumulate momentum for the upcoming IPO wave.

On February 17, Galaxy General stated that its robot "Xiao Gai" completed a dialogue performance during the Spring Festival Gala, showcasing the interactive capabilities of embodied large models.

According to its official interpretation, this robot also possesses technical capabilities for detailed operations such as cracking walnuts, picking up glass shards, folding clothes, and skewering sausages, all achieving end-to-end autonomous perception, decision-making, and execution, distinguishing it from traditional pre-programmed robotic performances.

Galaxy General also elaborated on the technical difficulties of cracking walnuts— the irregular surface of the walnut and the real-time changes in force points require the robot to practice repeatedly in a virtual world before correcting in reality to accumulate "physical feel" for precise operation.

A relevant person from Galaxy General previously revealed that the company's robots highlighted their "ability to work" during this year's Spring Festival Gala, with a greater significance being that the ability to work implies opportunities for commercialization.

Songyan Power and Magic Atom, with valuations around 3 billion, represent the third tier, looking to leverage the Spring Festival Gala to "push themselves closer to the front line," attempting to establish market coordinates before the industry reshuffling period arrives.

In a tweet late at night on February 16, Songyan Power stated that it presented a custom bionic humanoid robot on stage, perfectly coordinating with Cai Ming to complete a skit performance. To adapt to the complex scheduling of the stage, the company completed rapid technical iterations of the entire product within a month, allowing the bionic robot on stage to achieve near-human facial expressions and smooth movements.

Songyan Power emphasized that the bionic robot is not a "laboratory product," and by 2025, its bionic facial products will have landed in commercial guide scenarios. The company is also one of the few in the industry capable of mass-producing bionic humanoid robots, and this Spring Festival Gala performance is a groundbreaking attempt to push domestic humanoid robots into households and unleash consumer demand.

Magic Atom stated in its official statement that the company is the only robot enterprise at this year's Spring Festival Gala stage that combines "show performance" and "ability to work," completing a high-density technical debut: eight humanoid robots assisted in the performance of "Intelligent Manufacturing Future" at the main venue, while in the Yibin sub-venue's program "Standing Upstream," its robotic dog MagicDog and humanoid robot MagicBot Z1, Gen1 also made a surprising appearance, adding a lot of technological fun. It stated that the simultaneous debut of multiple scenarios and models is a concentrated test of product consistency, control architecture, and engineering reliability, as well as a concrete presentation of collective intelligence.

The stage effect of this year's Spring Festival Gala provided the most direct market feedback.

According to data released by JD.com on the 17th, during the two hours after the start of the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala (February 16, 20:00-22:00), the search volume for platform robots increased by over 300% compared to the previous period, customer service inquiries grew by 460%, and order volume increased by 150%, with new orders covering more than 100 cities nationwide; on New Year's Eve, the "Spring Festival Gala same model" robots launched by JD.com were quickly sold out within minutes, with products from brands like Magic Atom, Yuzhu Technology, and Songyan Power all sold out, and two GALBOT general-purpose robots G1 worth nearly 630,000 yuan were also snapped up.

Although the Spring Festival Gala showcased the capabilities of these robots and pushed them back into the trending topics, a reality is that humanoid robot development is still in its early stages. In the past, humanoid robots frequently appeared at major exhibitions, but there seem to be few practical landing scenarios in daily life.

For small and medium-sized startups, finding a balance between high marketing costs and core technology R&D investment is a life-or-death decision. Many CEOs believe that rather than performing a remote-controlled dance on a TV screen, it is better to allocate funds to R&D personnel to actually produce results in the factory.

An insider from a Shenzhen robotics company told Wall Street Insight that relevant personnel had discussions with the company during the preparation phase for the Spring Festival Gala, but the company felt the costs were still too high and chose not to participate. "The price for appearing on the Spring Festival Gala has been changing. At that time, we talked with four or five robotics companies in Shenzhen about forming a team to perform a program together, sharing a budget of 100 million yuan, which would average to over 20 million yuan for each company."

In this person's view, aside from the expensive promotion costs, they believe this year's Spring Festival Gala is difficult to replicate the success achieved by Yuzhu last year, because by 2025, the public will have a certain understanding of humanoid robots. Unless something particularly impressive is presented to amaze the audience, the significance of appearing on the Spring Festival Gala is minimal.

The highly anticipated Zhiyuan Robotics also withdrew from the Spring Festival Gala competition before the Spring Festival. A relevant person in charge of Zhiyuan Robotics told Wall Street Insight that the core reason for giving up the Spring Festival Gala was that the company's budget would prioritize investment in embodied intelligence technology R&D and product iteration, and large-scale stage exposure investments were not being considered for the time being.

Additionally, a person close to a startup robotics company stated: "At this stage, humanoid robot companies are most focused on being seen by investors in their promotions and bringing in direct large customer orders. After the past year, the benefits brought by public promotion have significantly diminished."

## 2 Orders and Financing

By 2025, humanoid robots have rapidly refreshed public perception through unique events such as marathon running, boxing, and soccer. Concurrently, the commercialization of humanoid robots is also accelerating.

In July last year, Zhiyuan Robotics and Yuzhu Technology won the bid for the humanoid biped robot OEM service procurement project from China Mobile (Hangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd. (wholly owned by China Mobile), with a total budget exceeding 120 million yuan CITIC Securities pointed out that the procurement tender's implementation is an important milestone in the commercialization process of the domestic humanoid robot industry, which is currently in a critical stage of "from 0 to 1."

There have also been several benchmark orders.

Known as the "first stock of humanoid robots," UBTECH refreshed the largest global humanoid robot order with a contract worth 250 million in September 2025. In October, it won the bid for the "Guangxi Embodied Intelligence Data Collection and Testing Center Equipment Procurement and Installation" project, with an order amount of 126 million.

The enthusiasm in the humanoid robot industry is reflected not only in the stage and multiple large orders but also in the financing and listing pace of companies.

According to IT Juzi data, as of December 21, 2025, over 600 investors have invested "real money" in embodied intelligence, with more than 304 financing events throughout the year, totaling 37.9 billion yuan, which is 2.95 times and 4.05 times that of 2024, and 7.24 times and 4.37 times that of 2023.

At the same time, humanoid robot companies are also experiencing a listing boom. Yushu Technology completed its IPO counseling in November 2025 and is sprinting for the "first stock of humanoid robots" in the A-share market; Zhiyuan Robotics obtained a listing platform through the acquisition of Shangwei New Materials and completed a management change; leading players like Leju Robotics and Yundongchu are also accelerating their listing processes.

## 3 The Difficulty of Mass Production

For a long time, humanoid robots have been regarded as the ultimate carrier of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) in the physical world, but the high R&D costs and vague commercial boundaries have always been a shadow. This situation has fundamentally reversed in the past year.

The crazy influx of capital and the intensive introduction of industrial policies have pushed this industry, which was originally in deep water, into the spotlight. However, based on the actual production capacity for the entire year of 2025, although the scale production of humanoid robots has clearly increased, it is still in its infancy.

Omdia's data for the entire year of 2025 shows that the global humanoid robot shipment volume is about 13,000 units, more than five times that of 2024.

However, from the perspective of specific companies' shipment volumes, currently, only three companies have shipped more than 1,000 units, all from China, namely Zhiyuan Robotics, Yushu Technology, and UBTECH, with corresponding shipment volumes of 5,168 units, 4,200 units, and 1,000 units.

At this stage, shipment volume is something every company values highly, and the market's top position is particularly important. Therefore, for the most watched Yushu, it has also questioned the list on which it did not take the first position.

On January 22, Yushu Technology clarified that its actual shipment volume of humanoid robots exceeded 5,500 units for the entire year of 2025, with more than 6,500 units of the main body rolling off the production line.

The company also emphasized that these figures are purely for humanoid robots and do not include other robotic products such as dual-arm wheeled robots. In this statement during the Spring Festival Gala, Yushu Technology reiterated this data, which is higher than previous market predictions The positive "rebranding" of itself reflects that humanoid robot companies will face more stringent tests by 2026.

An investor in the robotics industry told Wall Street Journal: "Last year, the robotics industry was very lively, but it was more of a year for popularizing public awareness, and there were many unrealistic expectations from the outside world regarding this industry. This year, the market has turned objective and calm, which tests the companies' delivery capabilities and the ability to stably put products into use."

This viewpoint reflects a certain reflection in the market beneath the hype: without real market orders to support it, even the most splendid Spring Festival Gala performance can only be an expensive "firework."

TrendForce pointed out that as manufacturers move towards mass production, finding the application value of humanoid robots has become the current focus, and the development focus of manufacturers has shifted from purely hardware and software research and development to the implementation of actual application scenarios.

## 4 Possible Diverse Paths

For humanoid robots to truly transition from the laboratory to large-scale commercial implementation in society, the question of "who will pay" must first be answered.

Based on scenario maturity and customer account logic, the current commercialization paths for humanoid robot companies can be roughly divided into four categories, and the technical demonstrations and official statements from four companies at this year's Spring Festival Gala outline the exploration direction of diversified commercialization in the industry.

The first is the "in-factory" logic in the manufacturing sector, which is currently the most certain and fastest path to implementation.

In highly controllable factory environments such as automotive manufacturing, 3C electronics, and warehousing logistics, humanoid robots are gradually transforming from "exhibition projects" to "production labor." The core logic is to address the labor gap in high-value positions, with tasks covering precise component assembly, material handling, and quality inspection with stringent accuracy requirements.

Representatives such as UBTECH, Yushu Technology, Zhiyuan Robotics, and overseas companies like Figure AI and Tesla have all focused on industrial scenarios as their commercialization emphasis. The high mobility performance, cluster collaboration capability, and dexterous hand technology showcased by Yushu Technology at this Spring Festival Gala are the core technological support for the implementation in industrial scenarios.

An investor related to humanoid robots told Wall Street Journal that the commercial closed loop of this path is entirely built on stringent ROI (Return on Investment) assessments.

Factory CFOs will not pay for "high-tech feel"; they only look at whether the comprehensive operating cost per hour can be lower than labor costs. Therefore, the mainstream procurement model is still "trial + small batch verification," and it is far from the stage of large-scale procurement.

In the service industry, entering public spaces such as government and business services, retail, guiding, hotel tourism, and education is the second path for the commercialization of humanoid robots. At the same time, this path is more feasible compared to entering factories given the current level of humanoid robots.

This path has more technological premium and marketing value, attracting traffic through "technological feel" and completing simple business closed loops. Some companies have launched targeted solutions to achieve smooth operations and intelligent interactions in complex pedestrian environments. The bionic humanoid robots from Songyan Power for commercial guiding and the lifestyle service operations from Galaxy General Robotics are core explorations of this path However, due to the high price of humanoid robots, some companies are exploring flexible and diverse business models to promote their large-scale use in public spaces: in addition to direct sales, monetization can also be achieved through project-based, leasing, RaaS subscription, IP co-branding, and other methods.

A typical representative is the "QingTianRent" platform launched by Zhiyuan Robotics, which adopts the RaaS (Robot as a Service) model, relying on a variety of brand robots within the platform, as well as Zhiyuan Robotics' delivery capabilities in humanoid interaction, multi-task execution, and stable operation. Such solutions are easily adaptable to various high-frequency, short-cycle commercial and public scenarios, such as corporate annual meetings, commercial promotions, exhibitions, and cultural tourism activities.

Data from the QingTianRent platform shows that after three weeks of launch, the number of registered users has exceeded 200,000, with an average daily rental order stabilizing at over 200.

Clearly modularizing the applicable service scenarios for humanoid robots is also an important commercialization attempt by current manufacturers. General robotics company Zhiyuan launched the embodied intelligent service space "ZhiMoFang" at the end of last year, which currently includes four independent functional modules: coffee, ice cream, entertainment, and retail. It has already been implemented in places like Beijing and Shenzhen.

In the next three years, Zhiyuan plans to establish 1,000 ZhiMoFang units nationwide, covering typical cultural, commercial, and tourism scenarios such as scenic spots, commercial districts, parks, and cultural venues. An insider from Zhiyuan told Wall Street Journal: "The effect of ZhiMoFang's launch has been very good, even exceeding our expectations. This modular embodied intelligent service has never been done before, and once launched, it has been very popular with the public, with many places willing to pay. Recently, we have received dozens of new ZhiMoFang orders."

The third path of commercialization is for research purposes, mainly targeting universities and research institutions. Companies like Yushu Technology, Zhiyuan Robotics, and Xingdong Jiyuan have made this a strategic focus or early core customer group. Yushu Technology's high-performance robots have become important experimental carriers in the research field.

The fourth path of commercialization for humanoid robots aims at C-end users, with the ultimate vision of bringing humanoid robots into thousands of households. Although this faces the most complex physical environments and the harshest cost challenges, the ice-breaking action has already begun.

Currently, attempts in this path are mainly focused on cultivating the "geek and education, entertainment" market. In this market, although humanoid robots currently struggle to handle heavy household chores, they have already shown good revenue-generating capabilities.

Yushu Technology and Songyan Power are the main participants in this path.

Jiang Zheyuan, founder and chairman of Songyan Power, told Wall Street Journal that humanoid robots have not entered the consumer market because the technology is not mature enough and the models lack generalizability, making it impossible to perform tasks like elderly care and housekeeping. The bionic humanoid robot showcased by Songyan Power during the Spring Festival Gala is an important layout for exploring C-end family scenarios.

"Our idea of launching the Xiaobu Mi (released last October, priced at only 9,998 yuan) is that if humanoid robots cannot perform these tasks, they can first bring emotional value to people, accompany children, teach children programming, and learn English. This is a direction that can quickly enter households in the short term," Jiang Zheyuan said

## 5 The Outbreak Period is Still Far Away

How far is the humanoid robot industry from its true outbreak point?

The answer to this question may depend not only on the parameters in the technical white paper but also on the capital expenditure line in the company's financial statements.

The true maturity of the industry is marked by its formal entry into the company's fixed asset ledger, where it is depreciated alongside traditional industrial equipment.

At last year's XPeng IRON humanoid robot launch, He Xiaopeng stated that if IRON were to work in a factory tightening screws, the high wear and tear from frequent operations would require changing hands every few months, and the cost of each replacement "could hire a worker for several years."

At that time, XPeng's "offer" for IRON was to be the spokesperson for new cars, with plans to integrate it into applications such as guiding, shopping assistance, and patrol.

Zhang Zhengyou, Chief Scientist at Tencent and Director of the Robotics X Laboratory, believes that the commercialization of humanoid robots is far from the "big brother era." Currently, most are used for data collection, scientific research, and guiding. He pointed out that whether it is tackling core technological challenges or refining engineering implementation, significant efforts are still needed to meet the high standards and strict requirements of diverse scenarios, allowing embodied intelligence to enter thousands of households and frontline production services.

Optimists believe that the outbreak of humanoid robots will occur before 2030, while others think it will take longer. Wang Feili, an industrial analyst at UBS Securities, stated that a key milestone is the "electric vehicle moment," where, after overcoming technological bottlenecks, sales could leap from 1 million to 10 million units within five years. For humanoid robots, this moment is "unlikely to occur within five years."

To enable humanoid robots to truly perform tasks, the industry generally believes that the main issue is the lack of data for embodied intelligence. Jiang Zheyuan pointed out that the current data scale is insufficient, with many local governments and listed companies building training grounds for embodied intelligence to collect data, reflecting a severe data scarcity era. There is no significant improvement expected in data shortages by 2026.

Yao Maoqing, Partner, Senior Vice President, and President of the Embodied Business Division at Zhiyuan Robotics, also stated that Zhiyuan currently values the ability to have robots enter as many real scenarios as possible to obtain high-quality data, which is a crucial step for robot companies' current technological paths.

The stage performances of four companies during this year's Spring Festival Gala are also an important process for robots to accumulate data and validate technology in real and complex scenarios.

Even though the industry's outbreak period is still far away, there is a general belief that by 2026, the humanoid robot industry will reach a significant growth starting point. Morgan Stanley has doubled its forecast for humanoid robot sales in China in 2026 to 28,000 units, representing a year-on-year growth of 133%. Morgan Stanley believes this growth trend will continue to accelerate, with sales expected to reach 262,000 units by 2030 and 2.6 million units by 2035.

IDC predicts that by 2026, the application scenarios for humanoid robots in China will increase to more than three times the current level, with a market size approaching $1.3 billion, more than doubling year-on-year The mad rush of embodied intelligence essentially requires a shift from a technological narrative to an economic narrative.

The "robot carnival" of the 2026 Spring Festival Gala, with technological breakthroughs from four companies and official statements, outlines different paths for the commercialization of humanoid robots. The market enthusiasm and order growth brought by the Spring Festival Gala have also shown the industry the real possibility of technology landing.

Before humanoid robots are supported by the "profit and loss statement," they resemble a gamble on the digitization of the physical world; only when they are written into the CFO's fixed asset ledger do they truly transform from a technological dream into a mature industrial business.

In the midst of the rush, we must remain grounded. The "dawn moment" of global robot industrialization is getting closer, and no one wants to be absent. However, those who can endure until the day the budget sheet truly takes effect will be the ultimate winners.

Risk Warning and Disclaimer

The market has risks, and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account the specific investment goals, financial conditions, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article align with their specific circumstances. Investment based on this is at one's own risk

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