Agibot, a Chinese robotics start-up launched in February 2023, has stirred significant excitement in the industry with its announcement of having already begun mass production of general-purpose robots, while Tesla, the U.S. electric car giant, envisions launching mass production of humanoid robots by 2026. As 2024 closes, Silicon Valley startup Figure AI is delivering its first AI robots, and a Chinese startup coming directly for the Tesla Optimus is already mass producing advanced AI robots. The company delivered nearly 1,000 general purpose robots by the end of 2024.
Agibot, also known as Zhiyuan Robotics, shared footage of its Lingang Fengxian factory in Shanghai, including inventory shelving, component assembly, component testing, aging tests and performance testing. The production line features self-manufactured humanoid robots working in collaboration with human workers for tasks such as inventory shelving and component testing. Moreover, the company has established what it calls a “data collection factory” for real-world data gathering, including training scenarios such as folding clothes, organizing, cleaning and doing the laundry. Elon Musk, Founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said in an X post in July that “Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla's internal use in 2025 and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026.”
Agibot's mass production of robots has instilled confidence in its investors regarding high revenue projections for 2025 and signals an exciting development for the market, industry observer Hong Shaodun told the Global Times. He noted that humanoid robots have evolved from laboratory prototypes to tangible products, with the latest robots entering a phase of increased intelligence and versatility. Although Chinese robotics companies have announced mass production ahead of firms like Tesla, essentially, both nations, making the most significant progress in humanoid robotics, are advancing simultaneously, Wei Jiaxing from the Beijing-based National and Local Co-built Embodied AI Robotics Innovation Center, told the Global Times. U.S. tech companies, such as Tesla and NVIDIA, have certain advantages in areas like precise upper limb manipulation and operational capabilities, as well as in high-end chip manufacturing and cloud computing services. Meanwhile, Chinese companies excel particularly in motion control and the exploration of advanced AI models, as well as a variety of application scenarios, Wei noted.
At the end of 2023, China's Fourier Intelligence became the first leading humanoid robot player to officially announce mass production. This year, the company revealed that over 100 units of its first bipedal humanoid robot, the GR-1, have been delivered. Some industry insiders believed that the “mass production of humanoid robots” does not have a clear boundary. The key issue is whether customers truly have the willingness to purchase such robots, or whether there are scenarios that provide for the large-scale use of humanoid robots. Compared with other global competitors like the U.S., China is better positioned to achieve higher output of humanoid robots at lower costs, following the gradual maturation of technology and products in this field, as well as the advantages of its manufacturing supply chain, Wei said, as reported by the Global Times.
