Humanoid Robots

Figure

2026-10-01 08:46:22

Figure says it melted retired F.02 robots in Finland after Schwarzenegger suggested it

Humanoid robotics company Figure said on Sept. 30 that it decommissioned its second-generation F.02 robots by transporting them to a foundry in Imatra, Finland, where the machines were trained to jump on their own into a 75-ton electric arc furnace. The company said the plan took shape after actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger replied on X to CEO Brett Adcock on Aug. 19 with a blunt suggestion: 「You should melt them down.」 Figure said F.02 marked several milestones for the company, including its first deployment at BMW, the birth of the Helix model, its first household robot, and its first logistics deployment. As the F.03 fleet expands, Figure said maintaining the older F.02 fleet no longer made sense. The company added that the robots contained in-house actuators and other intellectual property, and dismantling them one by one would have consumed time and delayed the release of F.04. According to Figure, foundries in the United States and Mexico declined to take robots equipped with lithium batteries, leaving a facility in Finland as the only site willing to handle the job. The metal recovered from the process has since been shipped back to the U.S., where Figure said it is being turned into limited-edition F.02 commemorative items.

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Tesla

2026-10-01 07:13:04

Tesla had factory workers wear motion-capture gear to train Optimus on their own jobs

Tesla asked workers at its Texas and California factories earlier this year to wear motion-capture equipment and demonstrate their tasks step by step so Optimus could learn them, according to a report by The Information. Some employees complained because they understood the robots were ultimately being built to replace human labor. Rather than abandoning the approach, Tesla shifted the work to dedicated data collectors and moved much of the data-gathering process away from active production lines. The report says the company also installed cameras in factories to record operations. Electrek later reported that Tesla expanded the effort over the summer by opening training centers in Colorado, Arizona, and Florida. Those workers wore camera helmets and motion-capture suits, and Tesla had accumulated more than 500,000 hours of training data, with a goal of doubling that total by year-end. Even so, the report says Optimus is still far from fully replacing people: its hands and forearms contain more than 100 small parts, including screws, that still require manual assembly, and some newly built robots need immediate fixes. Robots also still need task-specific programming for particular settings.

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IDC

2026-09-30 03:53:45

IDC says global humanoid robot shipments neared 25,000 in the first half of 2026

According to a Cailian Press report cited by ChainCatcher, International Data Corporation (IDC) said the global humanoid robot market kept expanding at a rapid pace in the first half of 2026. Shipments came close to 25,000 units, up 432.1% from a year earlier, as the industry moved faster from technical validation toward commercial deployment. China accounted for more than 19,000 units, or about 77.9% of the global market, while AgiBot shipped more than 8,600 units. IDC also projected that global humanoid robot shipments will exceed 750,000 units by 2030, pointing to a period of faster large-scale adoption.

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Generative AI

2026-09-29 07:42:14

China report says generative AI users topped 700 million in the first half of 2026

China Internet Network Information Center’s Policy and International Cooperation Institute released the 2026 Report on the Development of Generative Artificial Intelligence Applications at the 2026 (7th) China Internet Basic Resources Conference on Sept. 29. The report said China’s generative AI user base exceeded 700 million in the first half of 2026, with penetration rising above 50.0%. Intelligent Q&A remained the biggest use case. According to the report, 76.0% of users relied on generative AI to answer questions. The shares of users applying it to image or video processing, text drafting and work summaries, meeting minutes, and PPT creation were 47.8%, 37.6%, and 32.5%, respectively. Usage frequency for AI general assistants and AI productivity office tools both rose by more than 100% year over year. The report also covered computing power, industrial adoption, and financing. As of June 2026, China’s intelligent computing capacity reached 2,185 EFLOPS, up 177% from a year earlier, while the country’s first fully domestic 100,000-card AI super cluster had entered operation. It added that AI-related investment and financing totaled 1,255 deals worth about 250.14 billion yuan during the same period.

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humanoid robo

2026-09-26 03:43:09

Humanoid robot boom runs into weak orders and valuation pressure, IT Juzi says

China’s humanoid robot sector is drawing huge amounts of capital, but IT Juzi argues the commercial picture still looks thin. In a market commentary published by MarsBit, the research outlet said primary-market investors poured 93.5 billion yuan into the segment in the first half of 2026, while companies valued above 10 billion yuan jumped from three to 22 within a year. Some firms reportedly closed four funding rounds in three months, with a new term sheet signed before money from the previous round had even arrived. The article contrasts that fundraising pace with limited real-world deployment. Global annual sales were put at roughly 22,000 units, and about 80% of sold robots were said to be used for stage shows, research and education, or data collection rather than factory lines or warehouse logistics. IT Juzi also pointed to more than 70 completed robot training grounds in China, with another 46 under construction, while average effective data collection rates remained only in the low teens. The piece said pressure is now building in public markets. Unitree, described as the first listed humanoid robot stock, surged on debut in August and then quickly lost half its value. Against a backdrop of 82 broken IPOs out of 108 Hong Kong listings this year, IT Juzi said investor sentiment has shifted from fear of missing out to concern about being trapped in overvalued deals.

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Policy Regula

2026-09-21 04:24:38

China tightens IPO scrutiny for humanoid robot firms, with data-collection center revenue under review

China is tightening initial public offering scrutiny for humanoid robot companies, according to Reuters, which cited multiple people familiar with the matter. Regulators have used informal "window guidance" to slow the listing process for some companies and raise the bar for approval. One source said relevant IPOs are effectively on hold for now, while another said there is no formal ban and that the move should be seen as a sector-specific tightening rather than a blanket suspension. The main focus is revenue quality. Regulators are examining whether orders booked through local government-backed data-collection centers and joint ventures reflect genuine demand from independent customers or rely mainly on continued support from local projects. In some cases, local governments were said to have covered 80% to 90% of the initial investment. One person close to robot investors estimated that if revenue tied to data-collection centers were excluded, valuations for some robot companies could fall by 60% to 70%. Reuters said regulators are now placing more weight on whether robots have actually entered factories, whether companies have recurring orders, and whether revenue can be reproduced on a sustained basis. The report also pointed to earlier warning signs in the sector, including Unitree's post-listing share performance and recent public criticism from Megvii-backed Mech-Mind CEO Shao Tianlan, which Galaxy General later denied.

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Unitree Robot

2026-09-21 04:12:05

Unitree Robotics shares fall more than 50% from opening price one month after listing

Unitree Robotics, a Chinese robotics startup, has seen its share price drop by more than 50% from its opening price one month after listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, according to Nikkei Asia. At the opening price, the company’s market capitalization reached $66 billion. The report said that as the initial public offering boom has cooled, investors are reassessing the future of humanoid robots. Retail investors are also watching the sector more closely and weighing the potential of humanoid robotics. Unitree Robotics develops robot products including quadruped robots and humanoid robots. The move in its stock comes as market attention shifts from listing momentum to a closer review of business prospects in the humanoid robot segment.

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Spirit AI

2026-09-20 08:40:30

Spirit AI says humanoid robots could follow spoken instructions for most general tasks as early as next year

Reuters reported that Gao Yang, co-founder and chief scientist of Chinese humanoid robotics startup Spirit AI, said humanoid robots may be able to complete most general tasks based on verbal instructions as early as next year, though home adoption is still at least eight years away. He described the "brain" as the weakest part of the robotics stack and said the field could reach a GPT-3.0-like milestone by mid-2027, allowing people to speak to robots in natural language and have them attempt a sequence of physical actions to complete tasks. Spirit AI, founded in 2024, has about 300 employees and has raised $670 million in two years at a $2.9 billion valuation. The company relies mainly on real-world data, using around 1,000 contractors wearing data-collection devices at home or in factories. Its robots have reached a 90% success rate on simple tasks in a structured living-room setting. Dozens of Moz1 wheeled humanoid robots are already deployed on production lines at CATL and JD.com. Gao said the next one to two years will be an initial industrial deployment window, with simple commercial service use cases possible two years later.

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