Airbus and China’s UBTech signed a service and cooperation agreement over the weekend covering humanoid robots.
🤝 Airbus orders UBTech’s industrial humanoid Walker S2 for use in its aircraft manufacturing plants. Both sides will also jointly test and roll out additional humanoid applications in aviation manufacturing.
Robot momentum: UBTech reports more than USD 200 million in humanoid robot orders for 2025, positioning it as a global leader in the industrial humanoid segment. The company is targeting production capacity of 10,000 units by 2026.
Next level industrialization: Following last year’s partnership with Texas Instruments, UBTech is scaling the Walker S2 with customers such as BYD, Foxconn and SF Express as a true factory tool, expanding deployments across five core industries:
- Aviation, automotive, 3C electronics, smart logistics, and semiconductor manufacturing.
Markets cheer: UBTech’s shares jumped about +8.6% after the Airbus deal, closing at HKD 144.7, the highest level since late October.
🦾 Sector context
More and more industrial giants are moving Chinese humanoid robots out of the showroom and onto the factory floor. The international research firm Omdia estimates that ~13,000 humanoids have been delivered globally so far, with the majority being deployed in China.
Investors are betting on this trend: the Solactive China Humanoid Robotics Index has doubled over the past two years. The index tracks the share price performance of Chinese companies active in humanoid robotics.
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