Robots took center stage at this year’s China Central Television (CCTV) Spring Festival Gala, performing martial arts, participating in comedy sketches, and dancing alongside human performers. In one standout segment “Martial Bot,” robotic masters sparred with human performers, executing backflips and nunchaku routines that demonstrated impressive balance and force control. While the spectacle thrilled audiences and buoyed investor sentiment in robot-related stocks, industry analysts say the display masked deeper structural problems facing the sector.
According to financial media outlets Caijing and Lanjing Technology, each of the four participating robotics companies — Unitree Robotics, Galaxy General, Magic Atom, and Songyan Power — invested close to 100 million yuan (approximately $13.7 million USD) for the appearance. Despite the massive national exposure, analysts argue the return on investment is nearly impossible to quantify, as humanoid robots remain largely confined to what they describe as the “laboratory” of technology, capital, and commerce.
Tech platform Huxiu noted that the gala amounted to a “high-cost attention competition,” and that the industry’s real challenges are cash flow, scalable validation, and customer trust. Research conducted at the end of last year found that most embodied AI manufacturers are already struggling with insufficient orders, with real market demand unable to absorb projected 2025 production capacity.
According to IDC data cited by the Wu Xiaobo Channel, global humanoid robot shipments stand at just 13,000 to 18,000 units. Unitree founder Wang Xingxing predicted “tens of thousands” of units could roll off production lines in 2026 — a negligible figure relative to China’s 1.4 billion potential consumers.
Analysts draw a sobering comparison to China’s electric vehicle industry, which took roughly 30 years from its 1992 designation as a national priority to achieving a 35% market penetration rate in 2023. Robots, they suggest, face a similarly long road — and are unlikely to leap from their first steps directly into a sprint.
Source: Central News Agency (Taiwan), February 19, 2026
https://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/202602190157.aspx