The clip from Beijing shows a red robot running 100 metres in 8.9 seconds. Usain Bolt's record stands at 9.58. I sat in the Olympic speed skating oval for the opening ceremony and came back on day two, and what the viral cuts leave out is who built the thing.
It was Honor, the phone brand that sits on the shelf in your local shop and ranks number six in Europe.
The robot is called Shan Dian, Lightning, and it stands 169 centimetres. In the same week it ran the 400 metres in 39.45 seconds and the half marathon in 50:26, against human records of 43.03 and 56:42. Five human world records went in seven days, all of them to one machine.
A phone company had already solved the robot's worst problem
Every humanoid team I visit in China names the same two limits. The machine is too heavy, and it gets too hot. Heat is the one that decides how long a robot can work: the motors warm up, the power drops, and the machine slows down.
Honor pulled its answer out of the phone division. Multi-layer graphite plus the micro pump liquid loop from its Magic line, shrunk down and routed into the motors like capillaries, moving more than four litres. After 50 minutes of hard running the motors stayed under 65 degrees and performance fell by less than five percent.
The steel hinge from the folding phones is in there too, along with the arm material. For the sprint they made the legs ten centimetres longer and the whole machine lighter. The joint modules are Honor's own, with 400 newton metres of peak torque.
The robotics team is about a year old and already past 200 engineers across Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Six months from starting the build to winning the Beijing half marathon in April, where Honor took the top six places. They call it the Alpha strategy: ten billion dollars over five years to turn a phone maker into an AI hardware company.
Honor left Huawei in November 2020, sold off so it could buy chips again once the sanctions hit. The buyer was a Shenzhen company called Zhixin New Information Technology, of which 89.6 percent sits with a group controlled by the Shenzhen city government. The rest came from more than 30 of Honor's own dealers.
That history is why the sales question looks different here. A robotics startup sells you a prototype. Honor sells through distributors in eight European countries, on service channels that were built for handsets and already exist in your market.
The biggest humanoid maker in the world is three years old
AgiBot, Zhiyuan in Chinese, was founded in Shanghai in February 2023. Six prototypes that first year. Mass production from August 2024, a thousand units by January, ten thousand by March 2026, fifteen thousand by the end of June. Number 15,000 went to Longcheer, a contract manufacturer that builds phones, and it is working on the line right now.
Revenue moved from 300,000 RMB to a billion in three years, and stated capacity is over 100,000 machines a year. One founder is Deng Taihua, who ran Huawei's wireless business and later its computing product line. The other is Peng Zhihui, known to millions on Bilibili as Zhihui Jun, hired by Huawei at the top graduate salary tier and out the door again at the end of 2022 to start this.
In July 2025 they bought 63 percent of a listed composite materials company on the Shanghai STAR market for 2.1 billion RMB. Everyone read backdoor listing, AgiBot said no, and this year they filed properly in Hong Kong at an expected valuation above five billion dollars.
I have walked their showroom a few times. A supermarket, a home, a factory floor, each one built as a station you can walk through. The robots are slow and some of them have an operator behind them, and I like that they show you exactly what they want the machine to end up doing.
Europe is the next stop, and it arrives through distributors
In the first five months of 2025 China exported around 28 billion dollars of robots to more than 150 countries, with the EU and Southeast Asia at the top of the list. Humanoid exports grew 210 percent year on year in the first quarter. The parts travel as well: joint modules, actuators, hands.
If you do not come to China, China comes to you. It happened with the electric cars, and it is happening now with the robots.
AgiBot opened its European business in October 2025 and sits in eight countries with teams of ten to twenty people. Everything else runs through local distributors, who carry the import, the after sales and the risk. Europe is expected to be 8 percent of revenue this year, sold mostly as a subscription because buying one outright is still expensive.
The paperwork is the reason for that structure. CE marking, the Machinery Regulation, the AI Act, the GDPR. The 2026 AI Act revision moved mechanical safety out of the high risk category and into the Machinery Regulation, with the supporting legislation due by August 2028, and a robot with an AI safety function still needs a third party conformity assessment from a notified body. The importer carries that risk, which is why the Chinese side is happy to hand it over. If you are early and you build a real platform for selling these machines in Europe, that risk is also where the margin sits.
Who is buying so far: universities and research groups first, then large corporates, and those sit mainly in car manufacturing and warehouse logistics. Logistics is worth a second look, because the mature automation there does the job without looking like a robot at all.
What the stadium did not prove
Honor has no robot working in a factory today. I went looking and found nothing. Everything so far is a demo and a racetrack, which gives them test data and marketing at the same time. A machine that runs hard for 50 minutes is close to being useful on a line, and it is still not on one.
Japan is the other story from this month, and the reason to read carefully. Mitsubishi Motors signed an MoU in July with Highlanders, a University of Tokyo startup founded in 2023, to put humanoids into its own plants first and build them in the Kyoto buildings that engine production left empty. Western headlines all said a thousand humanoids a month. The official release gives no number at all and talks about examining the feasibility of starting production in early 2027. The Japanese trade press is split between a thousand a month and a thousand across the whole of 2027.
Japan invented this business and still owns the industrial arm. When I asked Professor Alois Knoll from TU Munich about the humanoid gap in Beijing last week, he put it down to demography. There are not enough engineers in Japan to build them. A lot of China's strength here is simply that a lot of people also means a lot of engineers.
So my read after the games: watch the phone makers. Xiaomi is testing a humanoid in its own factory, Vivo opened a robot lab, Huawei is rolling out a service robot with banks. They know volume manufacturing, they have channels in your country, and they have been through one export fight already with electric cars. If you want to be in this conversation before 2028, this is the year to go and meet them.
[00:00] WE HAVE ALL SEEN THE FOOTAGE FROM THE WORLD HUMANOID ROBOT GAMES IN BEIJING ROBOTS SPRINTING ROBOTS FALLING OVER ROBOTS ON A PODIUM ALL OVER YOUR FEED AND I WAS THERE IN THE STADIUM IN BEIJING FOR THE OPENING CEREMONY AND THE SECOND DAY SO TODAY I SKIPPED THE HIGHLIGHT REELS AND GIVE YOU WHAT THE VIRAL CLIPS LEAVE OUT THE ROBOT THAT BEAT USAIN BOLT IS CALLED LIGHTNING SHAN DIAN IN CHINESE AND IT IS BUILT BY A MOBILE PHONE COMPANY HERE FROM CHINA THEN I TAKE YOU TO A COMPANY I HAVE VISITED THREE TIMES MAYBE FOUR I LOST COUNT THE NAME WILL MEAN NOTHING TO YOU YET PROBABLY THEY ARE A SERIOUS COMPETITOR TO UNITREE THE COMPANY WHOSE ROBOT DOGS YOU HAVE SEEN DOING KUNG FU ON THE INTERNET AFTER THAT WE GO TO EUROPE CHINESE ROBOTS ARE MOVING
[00:47] INTO EUROPEAN MARKETS RIGHT NOW THE ELECTRIC CAR PLAYBOOK IS FINISHED DONE THE ROBOTS ARE RUNNING THE SAME ONE RIGHT NOW IN 2026 THEN WE GO TO JAPAN MITSUBISHI IS PUTTING HUMANOIDS INTO ITS PRODUCTION PLANS AND THEY WANT TO BUILD THOSE ROBOTS IN AN ENGINE HALL THAT ELECTRIC CARS LEFT EMPTY AND AT THE END I HAVE A CLIP FOR YOU THAT YOU CAN ONLY SEE IN CHINA TODAY TRUCKS ON THE MOTORWAY WITH NOBODY BEHIND THE WHEEL GIVE IT A LITTLE TIME AND THAT ONE IS COMING TO AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN HIGHWAYS TOO AND YOU SEE IT FIRST HERE AT ASIABITS ROBOTICS NEWS LET'S DIVE RIGHT IN MY NAME IS THOMAS I'VE BEEN LIVING IN CHINA FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS I HAVE VISITED HUNDREDS OF ROBOTICS COMPANIES HERE
[01:34] I WORK WITH CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD WHO ARE LOOKING FOR ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION SOLUTIONS IN AND FROM CHINA I HAVE TAKEN BOARD MEMBERS CTOS CEOS FOUNDERS AND INVESTORS INTO CHINESE ROBOTICS AND AI COMPANIES JUST YESTERDAY I WAS AT FOURIER ROBOTICS AND AT ANT GROUP HERE IN SHANGHAI WITH THE CFO OF A LARGE GERMAN CORPORATE THEY ARE FASCINATED SOMETIMES THEY ARE ALSO SHOCKED I TAKE THEM THERE I SPEAK CHINESE I READ THE CHINESE SOURCES THE ONES THAT NEVER GET TRANSLATED AND I BRING THEM TO YOU HERE SO LEAVE ME A COMMENT AND TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE HERE FROM CHINA I'M GOING TO BEIJING LIVING IN SHANGHAI GOING TO SHENZHEN EVERY WEEK SO I CAN GO AND FILM IT FOR YOU AND IF YOU ARE COMING TO CHINA AND WANT TO SEE THIS YOURSELF WRITE ME A MESSAGE
[02:21] THE LINK IS DOWN BELOW IN THE DESCRIPTION LET'S START WITH THE PHONE COMPANY THAT BEAT USAIN BOLT I WENT TO THE SECOND WORLD HUMANOID ROBOT GAMES IN BEIJING LAST WEEKEND AND I WAS AT THE OPENING CEREMONY AND I WENT BACK ON THE SECOND DAY THE ATMOSPHERE WAS SOMETHING ELSE IT RAN IN THE OLYMPIC SPEED SKATING OVAL THERE WERE 660 TEAMS FROM 16 COUNTRIES AND SIX CONTINENTS FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN JOURNALISTS TV CREWS OLD PEOPLE YOUNG PEOPLE EVERYBODY WANTS TO SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE IN CHINA ONE ROBOT HAD THE WHOLE HALL WAS WATCHING ITS NAME IS SHAN DIAN IN CHINESE THAT MEANS LIGHTNING AND IT IS INDEED LIGHTNING FAST IT IS 169 CM TALL
[03:09] AND IT RAN 100 METERS IN 8 9 SECONDS THAT WAS IN THE SECOND ROUND AND WE KNOW USAIN BOLT'S HUMAN WORLD RECORD IS 9.58 IN THE 400 METERS FINAL IT RAN 39.45 SECONDS AND THE HUMAN RECORD IS 43.03 AND THEN THE HALF MARATHON IT RAN 50:26 AND THE HUMAN RECORD IS 56:42 SO WE HAVE FIVE HUMAN WORLD RECORDS IN ONE WEEK BROKEN BY ONE MACHINE SO WHO IS HONOR THE COMPANY BEHIND LIGHTNING THE RED ROBOT HONOR USED TO BE HUAWEI'S OWN BUDGET PHONE BRAND HUAWEI SOLD IT IN NOVEMBER 2020 AND KEPT 0 SHARES ALMOST SIX YEARS AGO NOW THE BUYER IS A SHENZHEN COMPANY CALLED ZHIXIN NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
[03:58] AND 89.6% OF IT SITS WITH A GROUP CONTROLLED BY THE SHENZHEN CITY GOVERNMENT YOU SEE THIS A LOT HERE IN CHINA LOCAL GOVERNMENT MONEY IS GOING INTO PRIVATE COMPANIES AND THE REST OF THE MONEY CAME FROM OVER 30 OF HONOR'S OWN DEALERS AND DISTRIBUTORS THE REASON FOR THE SALE WAS CHIPS WE KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING TO CHIPS THE US SANCTIONS HAD CUT HUAWEI OFF FROM THESE CHIPS AND OUTSIDE HUAWEI HONOR COULD BUY THESE CHIPS AGAIN WHICH IS A VERY SMART MOVE I SAY SO WHERE IS HONOR TODAY AROUND 70 MILLION PHONES FROM HONOR WERE SOLD IN 2025 MORE THAN HALF OF THEM OUTSIDE OF CHINA THEY ARE NUMBER SIX IN EUROPE AND THE FASTEST GROWING BRAND THERE AND NEXT TIME YOU WALK PAST THE PHONE SHOP
[04:44] YOU CAN HAVE A LOOK THEY ARE ON THE SHELF THE COMPANY IS WORTH ROUGHLY US$25 BILLION AND IT IS STILL PRIVATE THE SHENZHEN LISTING HAS BEEN IN PREPARATION FOR TWO YEARS AND IT KEEPS SLIPPING AND WE DON'T KNOW WHY NOW LET'S GO TO THE ROBOT PART IN FEBRUARY 2026 AT THE MWC IN BARCELONA HONOR ANNOUNCED IT IS GOING FULL INTO HUMANOID ROBOTS THE ROBOTICS TEAM IS ABOUT ONE YEAR OLD AND IT IS ALREADY OVER 200 PEOPLE AND ENGINEERS THEY BUILT THE MACHINE THE HARDWARE AND THE ALGORITHMS THEMSELVES AND IN APRIL 2026 SIX MONTHS AGO AT THE HALF MARATHON IN BEIJING LIGHTNING WON AND HONOR TOOK ALL TOP SIX PLACES NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT THE ROBOT ITSELF AND WE START WITH THE JOINTS HONOR BUILDS ITS OWN INTEGRATED
[05:30] JOINT MODULES THE PEAK TORQUE IS 400 N·M AND THE COOLING IS THE PART I FIND FASCINATING I HAVE TALKED TO A LOT OF HUMANOID COMPANIES HERE IN CHINA AND THEY ALL NAME THE SAME TWO PROBLEMS ONE IS THE WEIGHT OF THE ROBOT JUST TOO HEAVY TWO IS THE HEAT AND HEAT IS THE REAL LIMIT THE MOTORS GET HOT THEN THE POWER DROPS AND THE ROBOT SLOWS DOWN SO HONOR TOOK THE COOLING SYSTEM OUT OF ITS PHONES MULTI-LAYER GRAPHITE PLUS A MICRO PUMP LIQUID LOOP FROM THEIR MAGIC PHONE LINE THEY SHRUNK IT DOWN AND PUT IT INTO THE ROBOT AND THEY HAVE COOLER CHALLENGES THAT RUN INTO THE MOTOR LIKE CAPILLARIES AND THE PUMP MOVES MORE THAN 4 LITERS AND WE SAW THE RESULT 50 MINUTES OF HARD RUNNING THE MOTOR STAYS UNDER 65 DEGREES AND PERFORMANCE DROPS BY LESS THAN 5%
[06:21] AND THERE ARE MORE PHONE PARTS INSIDE THAT ROBOT THE STEEL HINGE THEY DEVELOPED FOR THEIR FOLDING PHONES IS IN THIS ROBOT TOO SO IS THE ARM MATERIAL FROM THOSE PHONES THE LEGS WERE MADE 10CM LONGER AND THE WHOLE MACHINE LIGHTER FOR THE SPRINT THEY DO ALL OF IT IN-HOUSE THE HARDWARE THE SOFTWARE THE ALGORITHM AROUND 200 PEOPLE ACROSS BEIJING SHANGHAI AND SHENZHEN AND IT TOOK THEM ROUGHLY SIX MONTHS FROM STARTING TO BUILD THIS ROBOT TO WINNING THAT HALF MARATHON IN BEIJING AND HONOR IS NOT AN EXCEPTION EVERY BIG CHINESE PHONE MAKER IS IN ROBOTS NOW XIAOMI HAS A ROBOT DOG AND A HUMANOID AND IT IS TESTING THAT HUMANOID IN ITS OWN FACTORY VIVO ANOTHER BRAND OPENED A ROBOT LAB IN MARCH 2025 HUAWEI IS ROLLING OUT
[07:09] A SERVICE ROBOT WITH BANKS HONOR CALLS IT THE ALPHA STRATEGY US$10 BILLION OVER FIVE YEARS TO TURN A PHONE COMPANY INTO AN AI HARDWARE COMPANY SO WHY DOES THIS MATTER FOR YOUR BUSINESS YOU MIGHT ASK A ROBOTICS STARTUP SELLS YOU A PROTOTYPE A PHONE GROUP SELLS YOU A PRODUCT AT VOLUME WITH A SERVICE CHANNEL THAT ALREADY EXISTS IN YOUR COUNTRY HONOR SELLS THROUGH DISTRIBUTORS IN 8 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES TODAY THAT MACHINERY IS ALREADY BUILT AND IT IS THE SAME PATTERN AS ELECTRIC CARS CHINA WON THAT ONE ON BATTERIES ELECTRONICS AND THE MANUFACTURING SCALE NOT ON THE ENGINE TO BE FAIR HONOR HAS NO ROBOT WORKING IN A FACTORY TODAY AT LEAST I DIDN'T FIND ANYTHING
[07:55] EVERYTHING SO FAR IS A DEMO AND A RACETRACK BUT MY READ IS THIS THEY ARE TESTING THAT HARDWARE IN A LOT OF DIFFERENT SITUATIONS AND SCENARIOS RIGHT NOW AND THAT GIVES THEM VERY VALUABLE DATA AND MARKETING ALSO AND WHEN A MACHINE CAN RUN FOR 50 MINUTES STRAIGHT YOU ARE NOT FAR AWAY FROM PUTTING IT INTO A FACTORY NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT THE BIGGEST HUMANOID MAKER YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD OF IN ENGLISH THEY CALL THEMSELVES AGIBOT THE CHINESE NAME IS ZHIYUAN I PASSED THEIR SHANGHAI OFFICE YESTERDAY ON OUR VISIT TO THE OTHER ROBOT MAKERS AND THEY WERE FOUNDED IN FEBRUARY 2023 HERE IN SHANGHAI LIKE MOST HUMANOID COMPANIES THEY ARE VERY VERY YOUNG ALL OF THEM ARE STARTUPS BUT THEY ARE ALREADY REALLY BIG THEY HAVE TWO FOUNDERS DENG TAIHUA IS THE CEO
[08:42] AND HE WAS A VICE PRESIDENT AT HUAWEI RAN THE WIRELESS BUSINESS THE 5G BASE STATIONS AND LATER THE COMPUTING PRODUCT LINE THE OTHER ONE IS THE INTERESTING ONE HIS NAME IS PENG ZHIHUI EVERYBODY IN CHINA KNOWS HIM AS ZHIHUI JUN HE IS ONE OF THE BEST TECH CREATORS ON BILIBILI WITH MILLIONS OF FOLLOWERS AND HIS FANS CALL HIM THE WILD IRONMAN BECAUSE HE BUILDS ROBOTS IN HIS LIVING ROOM HUAWEI HIRED HIM THROUGH A PROGRAM FOR EXCEPTIONAL GRADUATES AT THE TOP SALARY TIER WHICH IS AROUND $208,000 PER YEAR HE WORKED ON HUAWEI'S AI CHIPS AND QUIT THIS JOB AT THE END OF 2022 TO START THIS NEW COMPANY A FEW WEEKS LATER SO HERE ARE SOME NUMBERS THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE I TALK TO IN THE WEST
[09:27] DO NOT EVEN KNOW IN 2023 AGIBOT HAD SIX PROTOTYPES IN AUGUST 2024 THEY STARTED THEIR MASS PRODUCTION ON JANUARY 25TH THEY HIT 1,000 UNITS IN MARCH 2026 THEY HAD 10, 000 UNITS AND END OF JUNE 2026 THEY HAD 15,000 UNITS AND UNIT NUMBER 15,000 WAS NOT A DEMO IT WENT TO LONGCHEER A CONTRACT MANUFACTURER THAT BUILDS PHONES AND IT IS WORKING ON THE PRODUCTION LINE RIGHT NOW THE REVENUE WENT FROM 300,000 RMB TO 1 BILLION RMB IN JUST THREE YEARS AND THEIR STATED CAPACITY IS OVER 100,000 MACHINES A YEAR NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT THE INTERESTING PART THE MONEY PART IN JULY 2025 THEY BOUGHT JUST OVER 63%
[10:15] OF A LISTED COMPANY ON THE SHANGHAI STAR MARKET FOR 2.1 BILLION RMB WHICH IS ROUGHLY $290 MILLION THE COMPANY IS CALLED SWANCOR IT MAKES COMPOSITE MATERIALS AND HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ROBOTS SO THE MARKET ASSUMED A BACKDOOR LISTING BUT AGIBOT DENIED IT PENG ZHIHUI BECAME THE CHAIRMAN OF THAT LISTED COMPANY IN 2025 AND THIS YEAR THEY STARTED A PROPER HONG KONG LISTING PROCESS LIKE A LOT OF OTHER CHINESE ROBOTICS COMPANIES SO THEY'RE EXPECTED TO HAVE A NET WORTH OF FIVE TO SIX BILLION US DOLLARS I HAVE BEEN TO THEIR SHOWROOMS A COUPLE OF TIMES AND WHAT I SEE THERE IS A COMPANY THAT IS TAKING THE USE CASES SERIOUSLY THEY HAVE BUILT STATIONS ALL OVER THE SHOWROOM THEY HAVE A SUPERMARKET A HOME A FACTORY FLOOR
[11:01] AND YOU CAN WALK THROUGH AND SEE WHAT THEY ACTUALLY WANT THESE MACHINES TO DO WE ARE NOT THERE YET IN 2026 THE ROBOTS ARE QUITE SLOW AND SOME OF THEM ARE REMOTE CONTROLLED BUT THAT IS THE GOAL AND THEY SHOW IT VERY CLEARLY UNITREE IS A NAME EVERYONE KNOWS RIGHT BUT A LOT OF MY CUSTOMERS AND PARTNERS WANT TO SEE AND GO TO UNITREE BECAUSE THEY SEE IT ON YOUTUBE OR ON INSTAGRAM WHAT I TELL THEM IS THAT YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE OTHER COMPANIES TOO FOR A LOT OF USE CASES EVEN AGIBOT IS NOT THE RIGHT PARTNER I HAVE 160 HUMANOID COMPANIES IN MY DATABASE AND YOU CAN LOOK AT IT ON ASIABITS.COM AND I KNOW ALL OF THEM AND I USUALLY RECOMMEND VISITING THE SMALLER ONES THEY ARE HAPPY TO WORK WITH YOU ON A JOINT PROJECT OR A PROOF OF CONCEPT AGIBOT IS DEFINITELY A
[11:48] PLAYER TO WATCH THOUGH NOW LET'S GO TO EUROPE IF YOU DO NOT COME TO CHINA CHINA COMES TO YOU THIS IS A SENTENCE THAT I TELL ALL MY PARTNERS AND CUSTOMERS IF YOU DO NOT COME HERE CHINA WILL COME TO YOU I HAVE TO SAY IT AGAIN SOONER OR LATER THIS WILL HAPPEN IT HAPPENED WITH THE EVS THE SAME IS HAPPENING WITH THE ROBOTS THAT'S WHY I BRING PEOPLE HERE AND SHOW THEM SO THEY GET THE FEELING FOR WHAT IS HAPPENING AND HOW FAST IT MOVES LET'S TALK ABOUT SOME NUMBERS IN THE FIRST FIVE MONTHS OF 2025 CHINA EXPORTED ROBOTS WORTH AROUND US$28 BILLION TO MORE THAN 150 COUNTRIES THE EU AND SOUTHEAST ASIA ARE THE TWO MAIN DESTINATIONS HUMANOID EXPORTS GREW 210% YEAR ON YEAR IN THE FIRST QUARTER GLOBAL HUMANOID SHIPMENTS IN 2025
[12:36] WERE ABOUT 10 TO 13,000 MACHINES FOUR TIMES THE YEAR BEFORE AND THE VAST MAJORITY WE ALL KNOW IS BUILT HERE IN CHINA MORE THAN 10 CHINESE COMPANIES ARE TESTING OR SELLING HUMANOIDS IN EUROPE THE MIDDLE EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA AND THE PART YOU HAVE TO NOTICE THEY ALSO EXPORT THE PARTS THE JOINT MODULES ACTUATORS AND THE ROBOT HANDS SO HOW DO THEY DO IT THE COMPANY FROM THE LAST STORY AGIBOT IS THE CLEAREST EXAMPLE AGIBOT OPENED ITS EUROPEAN BUSINESS IN OCTOBER 2025 THEY ARE IN ABOUT EIGHT COUNTRIES NOW UK FRANCE GERMANY ITALY SPAIN AND THE NORDICS THEY HAVE ALMOST NO STAFF ON THE GROUND TEAMS OF 10 TO 20 PEOPLE EVERYTHING ELSE RUNS THROUGH LOCAL DISTRIBUTORS I TALK TO A LOT OF DISTRIBUTORS IN GERMANY THEY DO ALL OF IT
[13:22] THEY DO THE IMPORT THE AFTER-SALES AND THE SERVICE THEIR BUSINESS MODEL IS INTERESTING TOO THEY PUSH A SUBSCRIPTION ROBOT AS A SERVICE BECAUSE BUYING THE MACHINE RIGHT NOW IN 2026 IS STILL EXPENSIVE BUT THAT WILL CHANGE IN A FEW YEARS AND KEEP IN MIND THE CHINESE MACHINES ARE ALREADY THE CHEAPER ONES EUROPE IS EXPECTED TO BE 8% OF THEIR REVENUE THIS YEAR SO NOW THE BIG QUESTION WHO IS BUYING THESE ROBOTS MOSTLY IT'S UNIVERSITIES AND RESEARCH GROUPS A LOT OF PROFESSORS ARE PUTTING A HUMANOID INTO A RESEARCH PROJECT NUMBER TWO ARE THE LARGE CORPORATES SOME OF THE ONES I WORK WITH ARE USING CHINESE ROBOTS AND ROBOT DOGS ALREADY THEY SIT IN TWO INDUSTRIES MAINLY CAR MANUFACTURING
[14:08] AND THE BIG WAREHOUSE LOGISTICS AND DO NOT ASSUME THIS IS ONLY ABOUT HUMANOIDS LOGISTICS IS ONE OF THE MOST ADVANCED INDUSTRIES HERE ALREADY IT HAS MATURE AUTOMATION AND I HAVE VISITED A LOT OF COMPANIES DOING AGVS AND DRIVERLESS FORKLIFTS MACHINES THAT DO THE JOB WITHOUT LOOKING LIKE A ROBOT AT ALL IF THAT'S YOUR WORD WRITE ME A MESSAGE THE LINK IS IN THE DESCRIPTION I CAN SHOW YOU A LOT OF SOLUTIONS HERE IN CHINA NOW SO NOW BACK TO THE QUESTION WHY DO THEY WORK THROUGH DISTRIBUTORS BECAUSE EUROPE LET ME TELL THIS AS A EUROPEAN IS THE HARDEST MARKET ON PAPER THERE ARE 4 THRESHOLDS CE MARKING THE MACHINERY REGULATION THE EU AI ACT AND THE GDPR EVEN AS A EUROPEAN I GET GOOSEBUMPS READING THESE NAMES THE 2026 AI ACT REVISION
[14:56] TOOK MECHANICAL SAFETY PARTS OUT OF THE HIGH-RISK CATEGORY AND MOVED THEM INTO THE MACHINERY REGULATION THE SUPPORTING LEGISLATION IS DUE BY AUGUST 2028 SO IT STILL TAKES TWO YEARS BUT THE BAR DID NOT DROP A ROBOT WITH AN AI SAFETY FUNCTION STILL NEEDS A THIRD-PARTY CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT BY A NOTIFIED BODY VERY GERMAN THING AND THE IMPORTER CARRIES THE RISK THAT IS WHY A LOT OF CHINESE COMPANIES DO NOT WANT TO DO THIS ON THEIR OWN THE PAPERWORK IS JUST TOO MUCH SO THE RISK SITS WITH THE EUROPEAN DISTRIBUTOR IF YOU WANT TO BE A DISTRIBUTOR FOR A CHINESE ROBOTICS COMPANY YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND THIS AND AT THE SAME TIME IF YOU ARE ONE OF THE FIRST MOVERS AND YOU BUILD A REAL PLATFORM FOR SELLING THESE MACHINES IN EUROPE THERE'S A LOT
[15:42] OF MONEY IN IT SO RISK COMES WITH MONEY MONEY COMES WITH RISK JUST GO IN WITH YOUR EYES OPEN SO FOR OUR LAST STORY LET'S GO TO JAPAN I DO NOT SPEAK JAPANESE BUT JUST TWO OR THREE WORDS BUT WITH THIS STORY I WANTED TO DO SOME FACT CHECKING BECAUSE I READ A LOT ABOUT IT IN WESTERN MEDIA AND THEN I WENT TO THE SOURCES AND FOUND QUITE A DIFFERENCE WITH THE HELP OF AI TRANSLATING IN JULY 2026 MITSUBISHI MOTORS AND A STARTUP CALLED HIGHLANDERS SIGNED AN MOU HIGHLANDERS CAME OUT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO AND WAS FOUNDED IN MAY 2023 THEY BUILT HUMANOIDS AND FOUR-LEGGED ROBOTS THE ROBO DOGS MITSUBISHI HAS ALREADY INVESTED IN THEM AND SAYS IT WILL INVEST EVEN MORE THEIR HUMANOID
[16:30] IS CALLED M THE LETTER M THIS IS HUMAN SHAPE SO IT CAN TAKE OVER WORK AS A PERSON DOES IN A PLANT AND THEY START WITH LIKE ALL THE ROBOTS WITH VERY SIMPLE TASKS SO STEP ONE WILL BE MITSUBISHI PUTS THE ROBOTS INTO ITS OWN FACTORIES AND COLLECTS OPERATING DATA STEP TWO WILL BE THEY WOULD SELL THEM TO OTHER MANUFACTURERS THAT CAN'T FIND WORKERS AND THEY WANT TO BUILD THEM AT THE MITSUBISHI KYOTO PLANT IN BUILDINGS THAT ARE STANDING EMPTY RIGHT NOW THAT PLANT USED TO BUILD ENGINES AND AS ENGINES ARE NOT PART OF ELECTRIC CARS THEY ARE EMPTY RIGHT NOW AND THIS IS THE PLACE WHERE THE ROBOTS GET BUILT NOW LET'S HAVE A LOOK AT THE HEADLINES I READ EVERYONE I SAW SAID MITSUBISHI WANTS TO BUILD A THOUSAND HUMANOIDS PER MONTH
[17:15] THE OFFICIAL RELEASE FROM MITSUBISHI GIVES NO NUMBER AT ALL IT SAYS THEY WILL EXAMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF STARTING PRODUCTION IN EARLY 2027 SO THE JAPANESE TRADE PRESS IS SPLIT ONE OUTLET REPORTS A THOUSAND A MONTH OTHERS REPORT A THOUSAND UNITS OVER THE COURSE OF 2027 AND THIS IS A BIG DIFFERENCE SO WE WILL SEE SO BE CAREFUL WITH WHAT YOU READ ONLINE OR HEAR ONLINE INCLUDING FROM THE PRESS AND INCLUDING FROM ME I FACT CHECK EVERYTHING I SAY HERE BUT SOMETIMES THE SOURCES STILL CONTRADICT EACH OTHER AND THIS INDUSTRY MOVES SO FAST THAT TODAY'S NUMBER CAN BE OUT OF DATE TOMORROW THE INTERESTING PART IS JAPAN ITSELF JAPAN INVENTED THE MODERN INDUSTRIAL ROBOT BUSINESS IN 2000
[18:02] OR SOMETHING WE HAVE FANUC WE HAVE YASKAWA WE HAVE KAWASAKI AND THEY STILL SELL THEIR ARMS INTO EVERY CAR PLANT IN THE WORLD ON HUMANOIDS JAPAN SAT OUT THE LAST THREE YEARS WHILE CHINA SHIPPED 10 TO 13,000 MACHINES A YEAR WHEN I WAS IN BEIJING LAST WEEK I TALKED TO PROFESSOR ALOIS KNOLL FROM THE TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH ABOUT THIS AND HE SAYS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS JAPANESE DEMOGRAPHY THERE'S NOT ENOUGH ENGINEERING TALENT TO BUILD HUMANOIDS IN JAPAN THAT IS A LARGE PART OF WHY CHINA IS SO STRONG HERE A LOT OF PEOPLE ALSO MEANS A LOT OF ENGINEERS SO TODAY WE TALKED ABOUT A CHINESE MOBILE PHONE COMPANY WHICH IS BUILDING ROBOTS AND THE BIGGEST HUMANOID MANUFACTURER IN THE WORLD IS ONLY THREE YEARS OLD AND THESE MACHINES ARE
[18:49] ALREADY SOLD TO EUROPE AND ALSO JAPAN IS STARTING TO BUY AND BUILD AND IMPLEMENT HUMANOIDS TOO THIS IS WHY I DO ALL OF THIS I WANT TO GIVE YOU A REAL FEEL FOR WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE HOW FAST THAT IT IS HAPPENING AND WHAT THE TECHNOLOGY ACTUALLY DOES SO IF YOU START TO UNDERSTAND IT NOW AND GET INTO THE GAME YOU ARE TWO YEARS AHEAD OF EVERYBODY ELSE BECAUSE IN 2028 EVERYONE WILL KNOW HOW IMPORTANT ROBOTICS IS AND YOUR COMPETITORS ARE ALREADY HERE DOING IT SO SUBSCRIBE GIVE ME A LIKE AND WRITE ME A COMMENT WITH WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE AND IF YOU WANT TO COME HERE AND SEE FOR YOURSELF WRITE ME A MESSAGE I DESIGN THE ROUTE AND I INTRODUCE YOU TO THE ROBOTICS AND AI COMPANIES YOU WANT TO SEE ALL OF IT IS TAILOR MADE
[19:37] AND THE LINK TO CONTACT ME IS DOWN IN THE DESCRIPTION NOW LET ME SHOW YOU AS PROMISED THE DRIVERLESS TRUCKS WE HAVE HERE IN CHINA YOU WILL SEE THESE ON YOUR ROADS VERY VERY SOON SEE YOU NEXT WEEK
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