AgiBot becomes China's top humanoid exporter with 8,400 units shipped

Shanghai-based AgiBot has emerged as the world's leading exporter of humanoid robots, shipping 8,400 units in the first half of the year and capturing 44% of the global market, according to a report from US-based firm Smart Analytics Global. This achievement surpassed the output of Unitree, a fellow Chinese robotics maker that held the leading position in 2025. The scale of AgiBot's growth is striking: its six-month shipment volume exceeded everything Unitree shipped across the entire year of 2025.

The growth reflects a broader surge in humanoid robotics adoption. Robots are increasingly deployed for entertainment and research applications, moving beyond early-stage prototypes into practical use cases. China has become the dominant force in hardware manufacturing, accounting for 97% of global humanoid robot shipments in the first half of the year. However, this dominance in physical production does not extend uniformly across the industry. According to experts cited in the report, European and American laboratories are leading in the development of robots' core intelligence systems—the artificial intelligence and control software that give humanoid hardware its practical capability. The geographic split between Chinese manufacturing leadership and Western research leadership suggests the market remains distributed across multiple regions and competencies rather than consolidated into single-source dominance.