Japan led the world in robotics for decades.

几十年来，日本在机器人领域一直引领世界。

More than 50 years ago, Japanese researchers captured imaginations with the first robot capable of grasping objects and walking on two legs. In 1984, a team in Japan built one that could read sheet music and play the piano. When Honda unveiled its first humanoid in 2000, it seemed to cement the country’s lead.

五十多年前，日本研究人员推出了全球首台能够抓取物体并用双腿行走的机器人，令人啧啧称奇。1984年，日本的一个团队制造出一台能够识读乐谱并弹奏钢琴的机器人。2000年，本田推出其首款人形机器人，似乎巩固了日本的领先地位。

But now, just as tech investors, start-up founders and government officials around the world are betting that artificial intelligence will spur growth for robots, that lead no longer belongs to Japan.

但如今，就在世界各地的科技投资者、初创公司创始人和政府官员都押注人工智能将推动机器人增长之际，这一领先地位已不再属于日本。

It belongs to China.

它属于中国。

Last month at the Humanoids Summit, a robotics conference in Tokyo, what could have been a victory lap for an industry built on decades of development and investment instead centered on a different topic: how Japanese companies can break through in a market increasingly dominated by Chinese rivals.

上个月在东京举行的人形机器人峰会本应成为这个建立在数十年发展和投资基础上的产业的胜利庆典，但峰会聚焦的却是另一个主题：日本企业如何在日益被中国竞争对手主导的市场中突围。

Investors urged Japanese companies to find niches where they could compete even if they couldn’t match Chinese firms on price. A dancing robot from China’s Unitree Robotics drew the largest crowds. Two Japanese firms also used Unitree robots to demonstrate their software.

投资者敦促日本企业寻找能够与中国竞争的利基市场，尽管它们无法在价格上与中国企业匹敌。一款来自中国企业宇树科技的舞蹈机器人吸引了最多的观众。两家日本公司还使用宇树的机器人来展示自己的软件。

中国企业如今主导着人形机器人的供应链。在深圳，技术人员正在组装让机器人能“看见”的传感器。

Chinese manufacturers dominate the humanoid robot supply chain. Start-ups like Unitree are producing thousands of humanoids that sell for less than $5,000 each, a pace and price that competitors in Japan and elsewhere struggle to match. Chinese robots once depended on Japanese and other foreign suppliers for components such as sensors and joints. But these days, those parts are made in China, too.

中国制造商主导了人形机器人供应链。宇树等初创公司正在生产数千台人形机器人，每台售价不到5000美元，这种速度和价格让日本及其他地区的竞争对手难以匹敌。中国机器人曾经依赖日本和其他外国供应商提供传感器和关节等零部件。但如今，这些零部件也已在中国制造。

It has become nearly impossible to build a humanoid robot without parts from Chinese companies, said Ming Hsun Lee, the head of greater China autos and industrials at BofA Global Research, a unit of Bank of America.

美国银行旗下的美银全球研究大中华区汽车与工业研究主管李明勋表示，如今几乎不可能在不使用中国产零部件的情况下制造出一台人形机器人。

“The component cost in China has gone down way too fast — other countries can’t compete,” Mr. Lee said.

“中国的零部件成本下降得实在太快了——其他国家无法竞争，”李明勋说。

But making humanoid robots has proved easier to achieve than finding a purpose for them. Even robotics executives acknowledge that today’s models are far from performing the types of jobs that have fueled the industry’s excitement.

但事实证明，制造人形机器人比为它们找到用途更容易。即使是机器人行业高管也承认，目前的模型还远不能完成那些可以激发产业兴趣的工作。

And though the promise of humanoids remains unfulfilled, China has established a commanding lead in a segment of the robotics industry that is economically useful: factory automation.

虽然人形机器人的承诺尚未兑现，但中国已在机器人行业中一个具有经济价值的细分领域——工厂自动化——确立了压倒性领先地位。

China has been making and installing factory robots at a pace unmatched by any other country. In 2024, more than two million robots were operating in Chinese factories, and another 300,000 were installed — more than in the rest of the world combined. Industrial robot installations declined in each of the next largest markets: Japan, the United States, South Korea and Germany.

中国制造和安装工厂机器人的速度是其他任何国家都无法比拟的。2024年，中国工厂有超过200万台机器人在运行，另外还新装了30万台——比世界其他地区安装量总和还要多。在接下来的几个最大市场——日本、美国、韩国和德国，工业机器人安装量均出现下降。

包括宇树科技在内的中国机器人公司仍严重依赖英伟达的仿真软件来训练机器人在现实世界中感知、推理和行动。深圳的电子市场越来越多地展示着该市不断发展的机器人产业所需的零部件。

Earlier this month, Chinese regulators announced a campaign to encourage local governments and state-owned firms to identify industrial use cases for humanoid robots.

本月早些时候，中国监管机构宣布了一项行动，鼓励地方政府和国有企业为人形机器人寻找工业应用场景。

China’s lead in the race to build robots that move and act like humans is closely tied to the rise of its electric vehicle industry. China has become the largest E.V. exporter through decades of government investment and a strategy focused on producing nearly every component domestically, from screws to lithium-ion batteries.

中国在制造举手投足如同人类的机器人方面领先与其电动汽车产业的崛起密切相关。通过数十年的政府投资，以及专注于从螺丝到锂离子电池几乎所有零部件都实现本土生产的战略，中国已成为最大的电动汽车出口国。

Now, many companies that manufacture parts for electric vehicles are supplying robot makers, too.

如今，许多生产电动汽车零部件的公司也在为机器人制造商供货。

“If a company can make auto components, then probably it can also do humanoids,” Mr. Lee said.

“如果一家公司能制造汽车零部件，那么它很可能也能做人形机器人，”李明勋说。

Tesla, the American electric car company, kicked off China’s E.V. boom with its giant factory in Shanghai. The supplier network that grew around Tesla also serves the company’s robotics business.

美国电动汽车公司特斯拉在上海的大型工厂开启了中国电动汽车的繁荣。围绕特斯拉发展起来的供应商网络也服务于该公司的机器人业务。

Although Tesla had pushed to build a separate supply chain for customers outside China, it still relies on Chinese manufacturers for at least 70 percent of its components, Mr. Lee said.

虽然特斯拉曾推动为中国以外的客户建立独立的供应链，但李明勋表示，它仍依赖中国制造商提供至少70%的零部件。

The factory floors of China’s electric vehicle makers, including BYD and Xiaomi, have also become among the first places to deploy humanoid robots for simple tasks like carrying items.

中国电动汽车制造商——包括比亚迪和小米——的工厂车间也成为最早的一些部署人形机器人执行搬运物品等简单任务的地方。

Some of those robots were built by UBTech. In Shenzhen, the center of China’s tech industry, the company is surrounded by suppliers, many of which once made parts for electric vehicles before moving into robotics. UBTech can source almost any part within hours, said Michael Tam, the company’s chief brand officer.

其中一些机器人由优必选制造。在中国科技产业中心深圳，该公司周围环绕着众多供应商，其中许多此前生产电动汽车零部件，后来转向机器人领域。优必选首席品牌官谭旻表示，公司可以在几小时内采购到几乎所有零部件。

在深圳优必选展区展示的机器人组件。深圳的优必选身处密集的供应商网络之中，像摄像头、电池和屏幕这样的组件只需数小时就能采购到位。

Many parts are 3-D printed. “I can send a design map by 9 a.m. and get the printed components by noon,” Mr. Tam said. “If one supplier tells me they’re fully booked, I just call another.”

许多零部件采用3D打印。“我上午9点发设计图，中午就能拿到打印好的零部件，”谭旻说。“如果一家供应商告诉我他们已经排满，我就打给另一家。”

More than 90 percent of the components in UBTech’s robots come from Chinese companies, Mr. Tam said. The main items it still imports are computer chips to control the robots’ movements.

谭旻表示，优必选机器人90%以上的零部件来自中国企业。它仍需进口的主要是用于控制机器人运动的计算机芯片。

Nearby in Shenzhen, RoboSense, a maker of light detection and ranging, or lidar, sensors for assisted-driving systems, started a robotics business in 2024.

在深圳附近，激光雷达传感器制造商速腾聚创于2024年启动了机器人业务，该公司此前为辅助驾驶系统提供传感器。

Yang Xiansheng, the company’s vice president of robotics, said RoboSense would have looked to Japanese firms in the past for parts for its automated production lines.

速腾聚创机器人业务副总裁杨先声表示，过去他们会找日本企业拿自动化生产线所需的零部件。

“That’s no longer the case,” Mr. Yang said. “Chinese suppliers now offer far more choices.”

“现在情况不同了，”杨先声说。“中国供应商现在提供了多得多的选择。”

Chinese investors poured over $5 billion into humanoid robot start-ups in 2025, equaling the total amount over the previous five years. In the first five months of this year, investment in the industry exceeded last year’s total by nearly $1 billion.

2025年，中国投资者向人形机器人初创公司投入超过50亿美元，相当于此前五年的总和。今年前五个月，该行业的投资已比去年全年高出近10亿美元。

The surge underscores a growing belief that humanoid robots could become one of the most significant ways artificial intelligence takes physical form in the world. Dozens of Chinese start-ups are working to capitalize on that vision.

这一激增凸显出一种日益增长的信念：人形机器人可能成为人工智能在现实世界中最重要的实体存在形式之一。数十家中国初创公司正致力于抓住这一愿景。

深圳的一个电子市场，这里可以租到人形机器人。在深圳的速腾聚创，一台机器人正在学习如何拆箱和折叠纸箱。

In March, Unitree filed to go public in Shanghai. The company said last week that it had passed a regulatory review that could put it on track to start selling shares within weeks. The offering is expected to be one of China’s largest this year, and nearly 50 other robotics-related companies are waiting to list shares in Hong Kong.

今年3月，宇树向上海证券交易所提交了上市申请。该公司上周表示已通过监管审查，可能在数周内开始出售股份。此次发行预计将成为今年中国规模最大的IPO之一，另有近50家机器人相关公司正在等待在香港上市。

Last year, UBTech produced 1,000 humanoids. This year, it intends to make 10 times as many.

去年，优必选生产了1000台人形机器人。今年，它计划生产10倍于此的数量。

Founders and investors envision humanoids handling dangerous tasks like monitoring factories for chemical leaks and carrying heavy loads.

创始人和投资者设想人形机器人能承担危险任务，例如监测工厂化学品泄漏和搬运重物。

But the robots currently struggle to adapt to the changing world around them. The humanoids that have drawn international attention for dancing in sync at events like China’s televised Lunar New Year special were following preprogrammed scripts.

但这些机器人目前仍难以适应周围不断变化的世界。那些在中国春节晚会等活动中同步舞蹈、吸引国际关注的人形机器人，实际上是在按照预编程的脚本做动作。

Chinese companies have also struggled to build software capable of simulating the real world well enough to train robots how to think and act. For that, many rely on simulation software from Nvidia, the American chip maker. Last month, Jensen Huang, its chief executive, announced a partnership with Unitree on a line of robots that will use Nvidia chips and software for reasoning and decision making. The robots are expected to be available in October.

中国公司在构建足以模拟真实世界、从而训练机器人思考和行动的软件方面也面临困难。为此，许多公司依赖美国芯片制造商英伟达的仿真软件。上个月，英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋宣布与宇树合作，推出一系列将使用英伟达芯片和软件进行推理与决策的机器人。这些机器人预计将于10月上市。

Most of the humanoids that Unitree has sold in the past two years have gone to universities, laboratories and other research settings, where developers are exploring how software interacts with robot hardware. Few are performing actual labor.

过去两年宇树销售的大多数人形机器人主要流向大学、实验室和其他研究机构，开发者在那里探索软件如何与机器人硬件交互。很少有机器人真正从事实际劳动。

2025年，中国投资者向人形机器人初创公司投入了超过50亿美元，这相当于过去五年的总投资额。陈小立是宇树科技的一名总监，该公司生产的人形机器人售价最低不到5000美元。

Some UBTech robots carry boxes and perform basic manual labor in electric vehicle factories. But they remain far less productive than humans. The robots, said Mr. Tam, the UBTech executive, are currently only about 30 percent as efficient as human workers, though the company hopes to raise that figure to 50 percent this year.

部分优必选机器人在电动汽车工厂搬运箱子并从事基本体力劳动。但它们的生产效率仍远低于人类。优必选高管谭旻表示，目前这些机器人的效率仅相当于人类工人的30%左右，不过公司希望今年提高到50%。

At the Humanoids Summit in Tokyo, Xiaoli Chen, a director at Unitree, said creating robots capable of complex decision making in rapidly changing settings remained a challenge.

在东京的人形机器人峰会上，宇树公司总监陈小立（音）表示，制造能够在快速变化的环境中进行复杂决策的机器人仍然是一大挑战。

“Unitree has gotten a lot of attention and had a lot of events, but this is not productivity,” he said. “The long horizon of doing jobs in complicated environments is still not solved yet.”

“宇树获得了很多关注，也举办了很多活动，但这不是生产力，”他说。“在复杂环境中从事长期工作的难题仍未解决。”