Over 700,000 companies compete in China’s robotics market: Morgan Stanley

The market is set to double from 2025 to 2028

I recently wrote about Morgan Stanley’s April report titled Humanoid: A $5 Trillion Market (https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/morgan-stanley-predicts-china-will )

A couple of weeks ago, Morgan Stanley published another research paper on the Chinese robotics industry. According to the report, China’s robotics market is set to grow at an annual rate of 23 per cent to US$108 billion by 2028 from US$47 billion in 2024, solidifying the country’s dominant position in the fast-developing sector.

China’s share of the global robotics market was about 40 per cent last year, according to Margan Stanley. “China is not only the largest market but also is arguably the world’s innovation hub, propelling cost efficiencies and next-gen robotics development.”

“Robots have been reshaping China’s manufacturing and will have a deeper impact on society in the future as they become more intelligent, collaborative and affordable.”

Separate data published by China’s National Bureau of Statistics on Monday revealed that the country’s industrial robot output surged 35.5 per cent year on year in May, reaching 69,056 units, while service robot output jumped 13.8 per cent to 1.2 million units.

Robotics is a key component of the Made in China 2025 Initiative, launched a decade ago to position the country at the forefront of various hi-tech industries. The strategy aims to establish the country as a global leader in smart manufacturing. You can read my piece on the initiative (https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/revisiting-made-in-china-2025-mic25 ).

China dominates the global robotics landscape, accounting for over half of the world’s industrial robot installations last year – 7 times that of the US.

China is home to 741,700 robotics-related companies, including front runners such as Shenzhen-based DJI and UBTech Robotics, Hangzhou-based Unitree, and Shanghai-based AgiBot.

DJI is estimated to have 70% global consumer and commercial drone market. Unitree claims over 60% global market share in quadruped robots and is known as the DJI of robots. It is also a world leader in the most sophisticated humanoids.

Chinese EV firms such as Xpeng and Xiaomi have also moved in the humanoid and robotics industry aggressively. Xpeng has announced a $15 billion investment in the next 5 years in the humanoid sector.

Morgan Stanley predicted that drones would constitute China’s largest robotics segment, increasing in value from US$19 billion in 2024 to US$40 billion by 2028.

China’s humanoid robot market is also expected to expand rapidly at an annual rate of 63 per cent, from US$300 million this year to US$3.4 billion by 2030.

By 2030, China was projected to become home to 252,000 humanoid robots, increasing to 302 million units by 2050 to make up one third of the global humanoid stock, the report said.

This year would be “a milestone year in humanoid robotics history, marking the beginning of mass production of humanoid robots”.

The report said robotics had been reshaping manufacturing in China by driving unprecedented gains in productivity and quality, while laying the groundwork for future industrial upgrades.

Multiple Chinese cities including Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Zhuhai and Hefei are incubating local robotics champions. Government and private investors are pouring billions of dollars to fund next generation innovations and build an end-to-end supply chain.

We can expect the Chinese robotics industry to develop on a similar trajectory as the EV industry. The country will take the pole position in the global race for embodied AI.