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China has 6 of world’s 10 most innovative humanoid robot start-ups: report

China is widening its lead over the United States in the race to develop humanoid robots, with Chinese firms accounting for six of the world’s…

By Samantha Johnson / July 29, 2026
China is widening its lead over the United States in the race to develop humanoid robots, with Chinese firms accounting for six of the world’s 10 most innovative start-ups in the sector, according to a new report tracking global patent data, as Washington moves to restrict imports of robots, including those made in China.

Firms from China dominated the ranking released by legal research platform LexisNexis on Tuesday, claiming a clean sweep of the top five.

The top five places went to Shanghai-based Fourier and AgiBot, Shenzhen-based LimX Dynamics and Pudu Robotics, and Hangzhou-based Unitree Robotics. Shenzhen’s Leju Robot also made the top 10, ranking ninth.

By contrast, only three US start-ups made the cut: Figure AI, Apptronik and Agility Robotics, which took sixth, eighth and 10th positions, respectively. Germany’s Agile Robots was the sole European entrant, ranking seventh.

LexisNexis said it evaluated the “strength” of patent assets held by private start-ups that had demonstrated at least one bipedal walking robot. Its proprietary metric, the Patent Asset Index, measured patent portfolio size, technological value and geographic scope.

The study highlighted a “clear shift towards China” in terms of innovation across three key humanoid technologies. Over the past decade, patent filings from China-based inventors doubled in interaction systems, expanded by 2.5 times in morphology, and jumped fivefold in control and planning architectures, it said.

The results not only reflected the high number of patents filed in China, but also the value of those inventions based on market coverage and the degree to which subsequent innovations build upon them, according to LexisNexis.

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