Countries grapple with China’s robotics lead

Countries grapple with China’s robotics lead

News Blend 360

Tue, June 23, 2026 at 9:09 PM EDT

Major economies have starkly different instincts in response to China's lead in the embodied AI race.

China installed a record 295,000 industrial robots in 2024 — 54% of the global total — as it looks to do with robotics what it already has with EVs and solar panels. In the US, robotics firms are urgently pushing for a national strategy to counter Beijing.

German companies, however, are confident that industrial customers will prioritize the reliability and data security of domestic bots over Chinese alternatives, Semafor reported.

For India, which installed merely 9,100 industrial robots in 2024, the stakes cannot be higher, a prominent academic warned, as it needs to confront a future where robotics threaten the country's decadeslong cheap-labor advantage.