(Image Source: Provided by Interviewee)
TMTPOST -- Midea Group, China's leading home appliance conglomerate, has unveiled its humanoid robot prototype on Tuesday.
The humanoid robot can perform a variety of actions, including shaking hands, handing over water, making heart gestures, dancing, opening bottle caps, and driving screws.
Following the launch, Midea's A-shares rose by more than 4% on Tuesday, while its Hong Kong-listed shares surged by 10%. As of Wednesday morning, Midea's A-shares had gained an additional 2.61%.
Midea Group Vice President Wei Chang announced that the company has established a humanoid robot innovation center to bolster its research and development efforts in this field.
Regarding the timeline for humanoid robot products, Wei noted that while producing a complete humanoid robot is feasible for Midea, creating a product that genuinely addresses user needs requires deeper exploration of application scenarios.
"The initial applications for humanoid or humanoid-like robots are likely to be in industrial or commercial settings. For home applications, such as the robotization of home appliances, products will be launched in the near future," he added.
Under its "Technology Leadership" strategy, Midea continues to increase its investment in cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence (AI) and humanoid robotics. Over the past five years, Midea's cumulative R&D investment has exceeded 60 billion yuan (US$ 8.4 billion), with over 14.5 billion yuan invested in 2023 alone.
The company's research institute employs more than 400 technical researchers worldwide, including over 200 experts and Ph.D. holders.
In the first nine months of 2024, Midea's R&D expenses reached 11.401 billion yuan, a 13.86% increase year-over-year. For the full year, R&D investment is expected to surpass a record-breaking 16 billion yuan.
Midea's robotics strategy focuses on three core areas: components, humanoid robot bodies, and the robotization of home appliances.
Brett Adcock, founder of U.S.-based robotics company Figure AI, said that humanoid robots are the ideal embodiment of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI).
He predicts that the price of humanoid robots will drop significantly while their performance improves dramatically, leading to widespread adoption. The target market size for robots capable of handling various tasks is estimated to be between $50 trillion and $60 trillion.
Midea's foray into robotics dates back to 2015. In 2017, the company invested approximately 29.2 billion yuan to acquire a 94.55% stake in Germany-based KUKA, a global leader in industrial robotics. By 2022, Midea completed the acquisition of 100% of KUKA's shares, with a total investment of 31.5 billion yuan.
Through acquisitions like KUKA, Midea has joined the club of the top four players in the global industrial robotics industry. Last year, Midea announced its entry into the humanoid robot sector, positioning itself as a key player in the international humanoid robotics space.
Midea has prioritized the development of localized business operations based on the Chinese market, aiming to provide cost-effective robotic products. The company leverages its supply chain expertise to reduce product costs and has ventured into collaborative robots, industrial AMRs (Autonomous Mobile Robots), and key components for humanoid robots.
Wei emphasized that Midea is not new to the robotics field, saying "We have always been considering which applications can be implemented in the short term and which require long-term planning. So, we are not just entering this field now."
Beyond humanoid robots, AI is a critical focus for Midea. In early 2025, DeepSeek AI made a groundbreaking debut, creating new growth opportunities for the consumer electronics and technology industries.
On March 1, Midea launched its first DeepSeek-powered air conditioner, the Midea Fresh Sense Air Machine T6. Priced at 13,999 yuan, the product utilizes the DeepSeek R1 model to achieve advanced AI-driven indoor air management, offering one-click activation with multi-dimensional self-perception, self-learning, and self-adjustment.
Midea has also integrated its self-developed "Midea Speech" large model with DeepSeek and other leading models like iFlytek Spark, redefining human-machine interaction paradigms.
The company's R&D head explained that the Midea Speech model focuses on backend voice control and scenario planning for home appliances. Leveraging Midea's extensive installed base and user data, the model has accumulated vast amounts of information on user environments and behaviors, providing a competitive edge.
Midea Group's revenue for the first three quarters of 2024 reached 319 billion yuan, marking a year-on-year increase of 9.57%. Its net profit stood at 31.6 billion yuan, reflecting a 14.37% surge year-over-year.
On February 5, Fang Hongbo, Chairman and President of Midea Group, said that the revenue from Midea's robotics and automation business segment had already surpassed 30 billion yuan.
The Midea KUKA Intelligent Manufacturing Science and Technology Park, located in Shunde, Foshan of southern China’s Guangdong province, has become the largest industrial robot production base in China, with a cumulative production and delivery of more than 80,000 industrial robots. Guangdong's first fully automatic production line for "robots producing robots" has taken shape, according to Fang.
The entire production line is composed of Midea robots, which can work continuously for 24 hours a day. On average, a robot can roll off the production line every 30 minutes, Fang added.
During the 2025 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, 16 humanoid robots dressed in floral jackets performed a lively "Yangko Dance," showcasing China’s technological advancements behind these robots.
China's humanoid robot market is expected to reach 2.76 billion yuan by 2024, 75 billion yuan by 2029 and 300 billion yuan by 2035, with a compound annual growth rate of 53.15% from 2025 to 2035, according to the Humanoid Robot Industry Research Report.
Last November, Chinese automaker Changan revealed plans to invest over 50 billion yuan in key areas, including humanoid robotics, with the goal of launching its first humanoid robot product by 2027, as reported by domestic news outlet The Paper.
According to GGII, a Chinese think tank focused on emerging industries, the global humanoid robot market is projected to grow significantly to $15 billion by 2030.
Several Chinese manufacturers are gearing up to achieve mass production of humanoid robots in the coming years, signaling the advent of the mass production era for this technology, as reported by China National Radio on Tuesday.
(Note: 1 USD equals 7.25 yuan)
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