China's Humanoid Robot Startups Dominate Global Shipments — 90% of Units Sold Globally Were Chinese in 2025

CNBC reported April 21 that Chinese humanoid robot startups are shipping more robots than their US rivals and captured approximately 90% of all global humanoid robot units sold in 2025. Chinese companies occupied the top six spots in Omdia's global humanoid robot shipment rankings for 2025. Unitree (Shenzhen) was the world's top seller with 5,500 humanoid robots shipped last year; Shanghai-based AgiBot came second with 5,168 units. Figure and Tesla Optimus were the only US companies in the top 10 — but at significantly lower volumes. The report also noted a fundamental divergence in how investors value humanoid robots in each country: US startups like Figure, Physical Intelligence, and Apptronik are valued as broad AI platforms at $1B+ valuations on limited revenue, while Chinese companies are valued more as industrial hardware plays on actual shipment volumes. This valuation divergence mirrors China's EV playbook — where BYD's dominance was initially dismissed as 'just cheap hardware' before the company achieved software-driven competitive advantages at scale. China's humanoid robot output is projected to surge 94% in 2026, with Unitree and AgiBot expected to capture nearly 80% of market share. China's deep industrial supply chains for servo motors, actuators, and sensors give Chinese companies structural advantages in rapid cost reduction analogous to their dominance in EV battery supply chains.