Highlights

• Chinese manufacturers captured 71% of global humanoid robot shipments in 2025, totaling 13,000 units.
• Leading manufacturers in this sector are Agibot and Unitree.
• The industry is shifting from pilot projects to mass production.
• Each humanoid robot requires approximately 1.3 kg of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) for motors and actuators.
• Morgan Stanley's scenario of 1 billion robots by 2050 would lead to increased demand for rare earth magnets.
• The strategic risk for Western industries lies not in robot technology, but in their dependence on materials.
• China controls critical areas such as rare earth separation, metals, and magnet manufacturing, which are essential for humanoid robot production.

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China’s humanoid-robot story just got a consequential new datapoint—and for Western industry, it’s far less about futuristic machines than the quiet materials bill embedded in their joints.

A Chinese financial outlet reports (opens in a new tab) that global humanoid robot shipments reached approximately 13,000 units in 2025, a level it characterizes as the sector’s first true inflection into “rapid growth.” The figures are attributed to Omdia’s (opens in a new tab) market radar for general-purpose embodied robots. According to the report, Chinese manufacturers swept the top six shipment rankings, led by Agibot/ (opens in a new tab)Zhiyuan (just over 5,100 units, 39% share) and Unitree (opens in a new tab) (4,200 units), together accounting for roughly 71% of global shipments.

For business readers, the most important update isn’t the leaderboard—it’s the tone shift. The narrative has moved from lab demos and pilot projects to capacity planning. Executives are quoted forecasting multiplying shipments in 2026, alongside factory expansion to meet industrial and commercial demand. Analysts frame 2026 as the leap from “1 → 10” into “10 → 100”: early mass production and faster commercialization.

The Rare Earth Exchanges™ Edge

Here’s what many headlines miss: humanoids are a downstream story that boomerangs upstream. Every humanoid is a dense cluster of motors, actuators, and precision motion systems—meaning magnets, and often neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) at scale.

Will the Bank’s Prediction Come True?

In our prior review of Morgan Stanley’s humanoid thesis, the bank modeled a world with 1 billion humanoids by 2050 and estimated ~1.3 kg of NdPr per human-sized robot. If even a fraction of that scenario materializes, the demand shock for rare earth magnets would be material, potentially reshaping long-term NdPr pricing and supply security.

So what’s the real “breakthrough” here? Not a single actuator design. It’s the market structure. If Omdia’s shipment data is directionally correct, China isn’t just assembling robots—it’s reinforcing a flywheel where embodied-AI scale drives motor and magnet scale, which in turn strengthens midstream rare-earth processing leverage.

For the U.S. and European industry, that’s the strategic pinch point. Competing in humanoids may quietly increase dependence on the same chokepoints—separation, metals, and magnet manufacturing—that China already dominates.

The race isn’t only about software or form factor. It’s about materials.

Disclaimer: This news item is based on reporting from Chinese media with state-linked influence. Figures and claims should be independently verified before informing investment, procurement, or policy decisions.

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