China’s fast-developing humanoid robot market segment is seeing demand from enterprises gather speed, as prominent start-ups AgiBot and Unitree Robotics have landed orders totalling 124 million yuan (US$17.3 million) from state-owned China Mobile , the world’s largest telecommunications firm by number of subscribers.
That order from China Mobile’s subsidiary in Hangzhou , capital of eastern Zhejiang province, involves the supply of 78 million yuan worth of full-size humanoid robots from AgiBot and 46 million yuan in smaller machines – with computational capability and nimble-fingered hands – from Unitree, according to a notice from the telecoms network operator’s procurement and tender website in late June.
The deal with China Mobile – with about 1 billion mobile network customers and 320 million broadband business clients in the first quarter – covers a two-year period. The total number of humanoid robots to be supplied was not disclosed.
“Humanoid robots are expected to become the next groundbreaking innovation – following computers, smartphones and new-energy vehicles – to profoundly transform human production and lifestyles, while reshaping the global industrial landscape,” the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in its 2023 guidelines.
The director of China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Zhang Yuzhuo , last week visited Unitree’s facility in Hangzhou to learn how enterprises can “effectively gather innovative resources and stimulate vitality” in the fields of artificial intelligence and robotics.