The delta in which China has built its latest technological coup: "They're winning this race"

China has not only closed borders, but has led disruptive technology.Humanoid robotics are called upon to redefine complex tasks, supply chains and reshape the labor market.

China's latest technological coup: "They are winning this race"

China has not only closed the gap, but has taken the lead in technology with disruptive potential.Humanoid robotics are being called upon to redefine complex tasks, supply chains and reconfigure the labor market

Just twelve months ago, a New Year's Eve gala on Chinese state television gave us an image that was consumed with laughter and humiliation by the few Westerners who noticed.There were a couple of Unitree robots bouncing around in red scarves, moving with the stiffness of a wind-up toy and the grace of a refrigerator on wheels.

In the Silicon Valley gossip mills, the decision was unanimous.The Chinese robots were years away from the refined models of companies like Boston Dynamics or Agility Robotics, which already had humanoids working for wages in a warehouse in the US.What was missing was the allegation that Beijing hid cables under platform boards.

A year later, history changed radically and the eyes of half the world were opened wide.Perhaps they have recently seen a viral video in which you can no longer see a complicated ballet troupe, but an elite squad of humanoid robots from companies such as Unitree, Galbot, Noetix and MagicLab.Handkerchiefs turned into swords, jumps turned into kung fu moves, nunchucks and even backflips.And meanwhile, the few people who attend the party see everything through a barrier.As the organizers of the exhibition explain, everything The thing is being done to show the "multi-dimensional" power of the country's robotics industry.

The event served to illuminate an idea that has been circulating in niche forums and R&D departments around the world for some time: China has not only closed the gap, but has clearly taken the lead in technologies with the potential to disrupt.Humanoid robots have been called upon to redefine complex tasks, reorganize supply chains and labor markets around the world.Small pilots, manufacturers in that country were putting thousands of machines on the ground.

If you want to see how fast China is building the future, you only have to see how much progress has been made in just 12 months in the field of humanoid robots.

— Cyrus Janssen (@thecyrusjanssen) February 17, 2026

Here's a video of the 2025 Spring Gala performance compared to the 2026 performance and it's pretty impressive.

To become ... pic.twitter.com/48vXA1yBeK

Of the approximately 15,000 humanoid robots installed worldwide last year, nearly nine in 10, or 85%, left the country, according to a Barclays report.

These differences will only grow over the next twelve months.Only Unitree, one of those that participated in the gala of the arrival of the Year of the Fire Horse, has the opportunity to reach 20,000 deliveries this year.But this is only the tip of the iceberg.The global market for humanoid robots is estimated to reach $38 billion by 2035 and $5 trillion by 2050.

To understand how this surprise happened, it is necessary to visit the Yangtze Bay in Shanghai and explore the delta, which takes its name from the river that flows through it.This technological revolution was born here, the last in China, which is not far from the victory achieved with electric cars: a complete chain of production and production is centralized locally.From rare earth metals or magnets to components that mimic the human anatomy or batteries.

"We have been seeing for some time that Chinese companies can replicate hardware much faster than the traditional giants in the sector," recalls Geoffrey Towson, professor of strategy at Peking University, analyst and former head of Asia-Pacific investments for Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, in an interview with El Confidential.This expert highlights that China's manufacturing ecosystem is "very difficult to beat."“It has allowed us and will allow us to offer prices, but also surpass our competitors in terms of R&D costs,” he added.

"When the Stars Align"

As we've seen with consumer electronics, price will be a "starting lever" for the penetration of humanoid robots into developed countries like Europe and Australia, while emerging countries like Mexico and Brazil will also be "potential buyers." "For example, this is the manual that helped Huawei overtake Nokia and Ericsson in the telecommunications space," he points out.

The cost of a Unitree robot starts at less than $6,000 for the R1 model, climbs to $16,000 with the mid-range model, and reaches $90,000 with the H1.As for Agibot, prices start at 20,000.The crown jewel of playing in the major league: $190,000.Spot, Boston Dynamics' robotic dog, in its basic configuration worth $75,000.

It is no accident or coincidence that this miracle is baked in that corner of the map.Within a 200 km radius of Qatar, the financial and academic muscle of Shanghai (home of Agibot) is concentrated and has implemented significant subsidies to attract and create technology companies.For the automotive industry that makes electronic components, sensors, cameras, driver assistance systems and batteries.Mechanical precision and assembly ability in cities like Suzhou, a very important center.

“Its supply chain for electric cars is huge and shares many components with robotics, like batteries or advanced components,” says this analyst, who concludes that Beijing has achieved resilience in the face of pressure from Washington and its allies.This analyst is convinced that the "stars have aligned" for China.

But Claudio F. Gonzalez, one of Spain's leading experts on the Chinese technology industry, has put his magnifying glass on Hangzhou.But it doesn't do this because it's the hometown of Unitary, but of another company that made a lot of headlines last year for very different reasons.This economist and engineer and author of "China's Big Dream," a treatise on technological socialism promoted by Beijing, explains.

González explains that both Unitree and DeepSeek are two of the so-called "six little dragons of Hangzhou", a group of small startups founded and promoted in many cases by former employees of Alibaba, which also had its headquarters in that city.This is what some call the Alibaba Mafia, the rewriting of the PayPal Mafia of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, which stimulated Silicon Valley at the beginning of the century.

"The big key to all this is that the region was once a major producer of software that has now turned to artificial intelligence," adds this UPM professor."It has its origins in the fintech industry consolidated in Shanghai and the ecosystem created by Alibaba. And there were other video companies like Dahua. Let's not forget that artificial vision is also very important to robotics."This is key to making the region visible as an alternative to Shenzhen.The chain effect that occurred with electric cars is repeated.To paraphrase the Spanish proverb that the dumbest people make watches, nobody makes humanoid robots in the Yangtze Delta.The latest example is Dream, a home appliance manufacturer that has already produced several working prototypes.

China's first leadership has been years in the making.The humanoid robotics industry is included in its 14th five-year plan from 2021 as one of the key areas to attack.This translates into significant amounts of funding, which will go to individual companies as well as to the ecosystem of universities and other national projects to advance this matter.One of the projects is to build training centers around the country, where flesh-and-blood people repeat human movements like sewing or ironing over and over again, so that the systems that later make humanoids are better. "It's something that can only be realized there. It's hard to imagine in the United States, and impossible in Europe."

"Robotics is a government bet. We already know that. If they are not the leaders today, already in many fields, they can be. They have won this race," explained González, explaining that this initiative is a strong response to many factors such as the humanitarian challenge facing the country."But robotics are two technologies, civil and military. It's one for two."Another prediction is the international expansion of this company in the West.Dissension and tension will arise."It is already happening in other areas, such as artificial intelligence or communications. We have to see if they meet European standards on cyber security or data protection and privacy."

They arrived in Spain via Alicante

The arrival of Chinese robotics in Spain began to take shape thanks to SynergyTech, a company from Alicante that decided to reinvent itself in the middle of the crisis. "We were a group of professionals in law and foreign trade, dedicated to investments and obtaining mortgages. The pandemic and the war made us rethink everything," recalls Darío Samaniego, CEO of the company.It was then that he returned to his roots and saw robotics as a way to diversify, convinced that this market, until then fragmented and expensive, was about to take off.

The first step was slow but careful: distributing robots, setting up technical services and developing custom software.Samaniego explains: "I did not want to become a general distributor selling all types of robots. We wanted to have a close relationship with Unitree, we contacted them, made a proposal and achieved a very important cooperation." He guarantees that by 2025 his company will close with a turnover of one and a half million.One of the keys to the skyrocketing turnover is Argos and Argos Plus, systems they have developed that allow quadrupeds and humanoids to be programmed and controlled without relying on expensive external development, making robots no longer a luxury reserved for the few."Think before a company gets robots, they have to build a platform from scratch to make the robots work. That's expensive."

At the end of 2024, the first humanoids arrived."First we had a demo humanoid, more basic, and then we started working directly with the factory. The revolution came a bit with the programmable G1," he points out."In any case, they occupy areas where there is a shortage of labor and there is no way to cover it."

Today, this company combines distribution, development and university collaboration with the Polytechnic University of Valencia and trains students in robotics and robotics management.However, Samaniego emphasizes that this is just the beginning: "The most interesting story starts right now. We don't just want to sell robots, we want robots to be useful, close and accessible to everyone. That's our challenge."

Just twelve months ago, a New Year's Eve gala on Chinese state television gave us an image that the few Westerners who noticed were both smiling and solemn.They were some Unitree robots wearing red scarves, moving with the tenacity of an inflatable doll and the grace of a refrigerator on wheels.

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