The 2026 World Robot Conference (WRC) will be held in Beijing from August 19 to 23, featuring more than 300 exhibiting companies and over 2,000 exhibits, organizers announced at a press conference. China's robotics industry, which accounts for 90% of global humanoid robot shipments, continues its rapid expansion that is increasingly benefiting the global industrial chain. This year's conference has secured the support of nearly 30 international organizations, including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the World Federation of Engineering Organizations and the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, with international guests accounting for 30% of speakers at the main forum, Zhao Yunfeng, Vice President and Secretary General of the Chinese Institute of Electronics (CIE), said at the press conference.
The number of exhibitors is up 36% from last year, while the number of exhibits and debuting products are expected to rise 27% and 21% respectively, with more than 150 new products making their premiere, according to Zhao. The expanding scale of the conference mirrors the leapfrog development of China's robotics industry. China has been the world's largest industrial robot market for 13 consecutive years, with domestic brands' share of the home market exceeding 50%, while the supply capacity of key components such as reducers, servo systems and controllers has been significantly enhanced, Xu Xiaolan, President of the CIE, told the press conference. In the humanoid robot sector, China has built a complete industrial chain spanning materials, core components, system integration, scenario operation and data services. In 2025, Chinese humanoid robots recorded explosive growth with 90% of global shipments and more than 330 models, and in the first quarter of 2026, exports surged 210% year-on-year, becoming “a new calling card of Chinese high-end manufacturing exports,” Xu said.
Recalling the first WRC in 2015, when China had only a handful of robot makers and relied on imports for more than 90% of core components, Xu said that in just 11 years, the country has become one of the world's most competitive innovation hubs for robotics. Over the same period, the conference's offline attendance has grown from 50,000 to 271,000, and online participation has gone from 65,000 to 52 million. In the first five months of 2026, the operating revenue of China's major robot enterprises exceeded CNY90 billion, up 26.9% year-on-year, with average annual growth topping 20% over the past five years, about 5 percentage points higher than during the 13th Five Year Plan period (2016-20), Hao Lishun, an official with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said at the press conference, as reported by the Global Times.
