China has become one of the fastest-growing markets for embodied artificial intelligence in the world, and the number and financing scale of enterprises in the field in the Yangtze River Delta region account for more than 50 percent of the national total, a latest report said.

The report, issued during the Shanghai International Embodied Intelligence Expo 2026 held at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai), which closed on July 4, said the world is in a rapidly growing stage for embodied AI.

The US market research company IDC forecasts that the global embodied AI market will reach $1.5 trillion by 2030. The global shipment of humanoid robots in 2025 was about 18,000 units, a year-on-year increase of about 508 percent compared to about 3,000 units in 2024. Among them, Chinese companies accounted for about 74 percent of the global shipment share.

According to the report issued during the CIEI 2026, in China's embodied AI market, industrial robots still occupy the largest share (about 45 percent), followed by service robots (around 25 percent). Special robots account for a certain proportion of about 15 percent, and humanoid robots, although currently accounting for the smallest proportion of about 5 percent, have the fastest growth rate and are widely regarded as the largest growth engine in the future