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Robotics

Shanghai Robot Carnival Highlights China’s Humanoid Push as AI Firms and BlackBerry Move In

Humanoid robots wowed crowds in Shanghai, while startups and BlackBerry move to give them practical skills. China dominates global humanoid production but faces commercialization hurdles.

AI News Feed · 2026-08-25 19:40

The event, held at an intelligent manufacturing R&D hub on the outskirts of Shanghai, showcased more than 100 companies, according to MIT Technology Review. Visitors cheered a small robotic dog attempting stunts and watched a pair of robotic arms fold T-shirts. China produced nearly 90% of the more than 13,000 two-armed, two-legged robots delivered globally last year, the magazine reported.

Chinese startups are focusing on teaching robots human skills. CNBC reported that QJ Robots, a three-year-old startup co-founded by Tsinghua University PhDs Haichuan Gao and Tianren Zhang, has built an AI model that helps robots predict the world and perform tasks. Backed by Temasek, QJ Robots says it has deployed the model to more than 100,000 robots, generating over 100 million yuan ($15 million), mostly from mainland Chinese companies.

Another Tsinghua alumnus, Chao Yu, launched industrial robotics company Lumos two years ago. Last week, Lumos introduced NexCore, a platform designed to translate data and AI instructions into task completion for robots from multiple manufacturers. Ace Robotics, founded a year ago with SenseTime co-founder Wang Xiaogang as chairman, is developing wearable sensors to capture human activity data. Wang predicted the industry would have enough data for an AI breakthrough by the end of next year.

BlackBerry CEO John Giamatteo told CNBC that robotics is one of the fastest-growing businesses within its QNX software portfolio. QNX, which runs in 275 million vehicles, is now being used in industrial robots, warehouse forklifts and medical devices. The company had $950 million in QNX order backlog, with “a portion” tied to robotics, Giamatteo said, without giving specifics.

Commercialization challenges remain. Unitree’s shares fell after founder Wang Xingxing sought to lower expectations for humanoid commercialization. At last week’s World Robot Conference, CNBC reported, visitors saw robots moving slowly at exhibition booths; one person waiting for a water bottle joked that a human taking that long “would definitely be scolded.”