Where AI meets the physical world. Updated —.
The plan, issued by Beijing's economy and IT bureau, runs to the end of 2028. It aims for at least 5 internationally leading and 10 domestically leading humanoid makers, more than 50,000 PFlops of new compute dedicated to embodied AI, and over 1 million hours of data from at least 100 real settings. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is…
Georgian led the round, with Addition, Drive Capital, Tiger Global, Yamaha Motor Ventures, D. E. Shaw Ventures and NAVER Ventures. The Columbus…
DeepMind says the model beats its previous baseline by 30% to 100% in success rate across 200 tasks and finishes them 20% to 30% faster. In a proof…
The exclusions now run through 11:59 pm ET on January 9, 2027 (91 FR 72610). A second notice suspends the Section 301 action on China's maritime…
Units installed per year, 2015 to 2025, cobots included. Country-by-country figures are on US vs China.
IFR reports that factories in China installed about 354,000 industrial robots in 2025, or 59% of global annual installations; the United States installed almost 38,500.
Chinese suppliers accounted for 55% of China's domestic installations. Capital follows the same pattern: Crunchbase counts $13.2 billion of robotics venture funding in China in the first nine months of 2026 against $12.1 billion in the U.S., excluding defense companies. Unitree, now listed on the STAR Market, reported Q3 revenue of RMB 665 million, up about 70%.
Robotics foundation-model developers aim to use shared models across tasks and robot bodies.
Skild AI raised a $1.4 billion Series C at a valuation above $14 billion in January 2026. Bloomberg reported in October that Physical Intelligence was in talks to raise at about a $20 billion valuation; the company has not confirmed it. Google put Gemini Robotics-ER 2, a planning model that checks task progress from video, into public preview on Google Cloud. Company demonstrations and reported results do not establish performance across all workplaces.
1X began taking preorders for its NEO home robot in October 2025 at $20,000 for early-access ownership, with a separate $499 monthly subscription option.
Unitree’s G1 was introduced at a $16,000 starting price in 2024. Prices, subscription terms, capabilities and service costs differ, so these offers do not measure total industrial deployment cost.
The Department of Defense launched Replicator to accelerate fielding of autonomous systems.
In May 2024 it said about $500 million was secured for FY2024 and requested a roughly equal amount for FY2025; the earlier goal of multiple thousands of systems was a fielding target, not a verified count here. Replicator 2 shifted attention to countering small uncrewed aerial systems. H.R. 8189 remains a tracked proposal.
North American robot orders rose 24.8% in Q3 2026 to 10,989 units, A3 reports, led by automotive components and electronics.
In humanoids, GXO and Agility plan Digit deployments at two more U.S. sites from early 2027, Foxconn's industrial unit says more than 10 humanoids work at its Texas sites, and Korean outlet KED reports Boston Dynamics asked suppliers to prepare for 10,000 Atlas units. Walmart's expanded Symbotic deal commits about $6 billion to automate 25 U.S. distribution centers. Planned sites and supplier preparations are not operating deployments.
On October 28 the President found that imports of robots and industrial machinery threaten national security but imposed no tariff, directing Commerce and USTR to negotiate with trading partners and report within 180 days (Proclamation 11077).
Treasury's October 26 outbound-investment proposal names humanoid, quadruped and industrial robots among covered AI systems; comments close December 7. The FCC's Covered List restriction on foreign robots is in effect, with conditional exemptions granted to robots whose makers commit to U.S. production plans.
Physical AI combines AI with sensing and action in physical environments.
Skild AI introduced its S1 model in August 2026 and reports more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue; Google's Gemini Robotics-ER 2 is in public preview with Boston Dynamics among named users. Crunchbase counts $9.9 billion of robotics venture funding in Q3 2026, up from $4.3 billion a year earlier. These are developer-reported results and funding totals, not independent evidence of general performance across workplaces.
Robot manufacturing depends on motors, actuators, sensors, batteries and electronics.
Westmag says its South San Francisco motor and actuator factory is ramping; Foundry Robotics raised $100 million to build an AI-driven assembly factory; and Re:Build raised $2.1 billion to expand U.S. hard-tech manufacturing. The Section 232 proclamation covers robot parts and components but sets no tariff yet. KED reports Boston Dynamics' Atlas supplier list is led by Korean firms, with Hyundai Mobis on actuators. Company-reported stages are not proof of output at scale.
On the measures tracked here, the US leads on AI and capital, and China on robot installations and the supply chain. The site tracks those numbers. It does not predict which lead matters more.
Sources for each number are on the US vs China scoreboard. Its “edge” calls are editorial judgments, not scores.