Asia-Pacific · Analysis
Why Asia Is the Epicentre of the Humanoid Robot Boom
Asia now ships almost all of the world's humanoid robots. Here is how China's scale, Japan's labour shortage, Korea's industrial push and Taiwan and Singapore's supply chains are combining, and why the boom still faces real limits.
5 min read
The numbers behind the boom
In the first half of 2026, the world's humanoid robot makers shipped nearly 25,000 units, according to IDC, up more than 430% from a year earlier. Revenue passed US$740 million. Other trackers counted between about 19,000 and 22,000 units for the same period, but they all agree on one point: Chinese companies shipped more than 95% of them, and nine of the top ten vendors were Chinese.
AgiBot alone shipped around 8,600 units in the half-year and says it produced its 20,000th robot in September 2026. Unitree shipped around 5,000. UBTech, Leju, Galbot, Astribot, Fourier and Booster round out a list that would have seemed unlikely three years ago. Chinese buyers took about 78% of global shipments, showing how much of the boom is driven by domestic demand.
China: scale, supply chain and policy
China's lead rests on three advantages. First, its electric-vehicle and electronics supply chains make motors, reducers, sensors and batteries at very high volumes. Local production now covers most of the core components that account for the bulk of a robot's cost. Second, prices are falling fast: the average humanoid price dropped from about US$37,000 to around US$29,600 within a year, and entry-level models have fallen below 10,000 yuan. Third, policy is pushing hard. China's 15th Five-Year Plan places robotics and embodied AI at the centre of industrial upgrading, and Shanghai has set a target of 100,000 humanoid robots in factories by 2030.
Capital markets have joined in. Unitree's Shanghai listing in August 2026 raised about 6.1 billion yuan and was oversubscribed thousands of times. Its shares closed 460% higher on the first day before falling sharply from their peak, a reminder of how excited and how volatile the sector is.
Japan: a labour shortage that robots must help solve
Japan's push is driven by demographics. The government has set a goal of deploying 10 million AI-powered robots by 2040 across 18 areas, from manufacturing and logistics to healthcare and care services. More than 40 Japanese companies, including major groups such as SoftBank and Fujitsu, have committed to developing AI-powered humanoids. Japanese startups are trialling humanoids in hospitals and nursing homes, and insurers have begun designing cover for robot deployments, a sign that the industry is preparing for real operations.
South Korea: from the world's most automated factories to humanoids
South Korea already has the world's highest density of industrial robots, at more than 1,000 per 10,000 manufacturing workers. Its government-backed K-Humanoid Alliance brings together around 40 organisations with targets of more than ₩1 trillion in investment by 2030 and a domestic robot foundation-model platform. Hyundai Motor Group, which owns Boston Dynamics, plans to build capacity for 30,000 robot units a year by 2028. Samsung Medical Center has demonstrated humanoid surgical assistants, and regulators have opened sandboxes for humanoid factory trials.
Taiwan and Singapore: the brains and the hands
Taiwan's role is less visible but essential. Its chip, server and precision-component industries supply the computing that robots need. Computex 2026 in Taipei dedicated a full exhibition zone to robotics and physical AI for the first time, and NVIDIA used the show to launch an open reference humanoid. Foxconn is building robot manufacturing platforms, including a joint venture focused on mass production. Singapore's Sharpa, which makes tactile robotic hands, is a partner on that reference humanoid, and Singapore continues to position itself as a hub for testing and governance.
The limits of the boom
The boom is real, but much of it is still early-stage. About 69% of first-half shipments went to research and education, performances and exhibitions, or government data-collection centres rather than full-time productive work. The International Federation of Robotics counted only about 7,000 full-size humanoids sold globally for commercial and professional use in 2025, and notes that most applications remain specialised and often depend on remote human operators.
Geopolitics is another constraint. In July 2026, US restrictions targeted new Chinese humanoid and quadruped robot models on national-security grounds. The measures were not a blanket ban on every existing robot: previously released models were outside the stated scope, although existing authorisations could be revoked. Asian manufacturers will need to rely more on regional and emerging markets while Western companies rebuild their own supply chains.
What this means for APAC businesses
For companies in the region, the message is clear: humanoid hardware is becoming affordable and available, and much of it is made in Asia. A growing part of the competitive challenge lies in applications: turning a capable machine into a reliable tool for a specific task. Businesses that start with focused pilots, collect their own operating data and build internal skills will be best placed as the technology matures.