China claims it plans mass-produced humanoid robots in 2 years that can 'reshape the world'

Tesla unveiled its Optimus humanoid
robot prototype in 2021. It remains to be seen whether
China’s plans could rival it.
VCG/ Getty Images

China revealed its bold plans to mass produce “advanced-level” humanoid robots by 2025. 
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published a roadmap of its plans last week.
The MIIT believes that humanoid robots will be as “disruptive” as smartphones and electric vehicles.

China revealed ambitious plans to mass produce humanoid robots, which it believes will be as “disruptive” as smartphones. 

In an ambitious blueprint document published last week, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the robots would “reshape the world.”

The MIIT believes that by 2025, the product would have reached “advanced level” and be “mass-produced,” the development goals listed in its roadmap said.

“They are expected to become disruptive products after computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles,” a translation of the document added.

Per Bloomberg, the document was “short on details but big on ambition.” However, some Chinese companies are seemingly helping to tackle the country’s ambition in earnest.

For example, Chinese startup Fourier Intelligence said it would start mass producing its GR-1 humanoid robot by the end of this year, South China Morning Post reported. The Shanghai-based company told the publication it aspires to deliver thousands of robots in 2024 that can move at five kilometers an hour and carry 50 kilograms.

It’s not the only humanoid robot-maker that’s ramping up its efforts with the goal of mass production. US-based Agility Robotics is opening a robot factory in Oregon later this year, where it plans to build hundreds of its bipedal robots that can mimic human movements like walking, crouching, and carrying packages.

E-commerce giant Amazon is testing Agility Robotics’ Digit robot at a research and development center near Seattle to see how it can be used to automate its warehouses, but it’s only in the pilot phase. 

Agility Robotics CEO Damion Shelton told Insider: “In the near term, we expect a slow and steady uptick of Digit deployments.” He added: “We believe mass integration will eventually occur, but bipedal robots are still a relatively new advancement.” 

Even Tesla is developing its own humanoid robots called Optimus, or Tesla Bot, as Elon Musk revealed in 2021. However, it still has a long way to go before it’s ready for mass production as Musk said at a Tesla AI Day event in 2022 that it was the first time the prototype had walked “without any support” when it walked onto the stage.