- China's embodied AI robot sales rose 13% in the first two months after humanoids took the spotlight at the late-February Spring Festival Gala.
- The number of Chinese humanoid robot firms topped 140 in 2025, with over 330 products released throughout the year.
China's sales of embodied AI robots grew 13% in the first two months of 2026, highlighting market interest in what is seen as the next-generation super terminal.
China's Ministry of Commerce released the figures on Thursday, indicating steady growth in the broader consumer market.
The sales growth coincides with an unprecedented boom in China's humanoid robot sector, and follows a high-profile appearance by humanoids in front of a billion television viewers at the 2026 Spring Festival Gala in late February.
The number of Chinese humanoid robot companies topped 140 in 2025, with more than 330 products released throughout the year, according to a report by state broadcaster CCTV earlier this month.
The uptick in smart robot sales is part of a broader recovery in China's consumer market. Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 8.61 trillion yuan ($1.25 trillion) in the January-February period, representing a 2.8% year-on-year expansion and accelerating 1.9 percentage points from December.
Government-led trade-in policies for consumer goods and an extended Spring Festival holiday jointly drove the consumption trend.
The policy's boost to smart and green products was particularly evident, with sales of smart glasses on key platforms surging 1.8 times, while top-tier energy-efficient refrigerators saw an 8.1% increase.
Despite the growing sales and product lineup, the path to large-scale commercialization for the humanoid robot industry remains fraught with challenges.
Insufficient generalization capabilities of AI models and a high reliance on imported core components remain the primary bottlenecks restricting the industry's pace of development, the CCTV report noted, citing experts from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
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