On February 19, robotic concept stocks in the Hong Kong stock market saw a collective surge. UBTECH rose by 13%, RoboSense soared by 9%, and Medbot climbed by more than 6%.

China holds dominant position in humanoid robot ecosystem: analysts

China is ahead of the West in terms of the scale of its humanoid robot industry, controlling more than half of the top listed companies despite lagging in technology for a key part, according to a report by US investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Of the 100 publicly-traded companies worldwide Morgan Stanley identified that were “confirmed to be involved” in developing humanoids, 56 per cent were based in China, Morgan Stanley analysts led by Adam Jonas said in the research paper.

China is also home to 45 per cent of the world’s integrators, which are firms that customise robots to match end-user needs.

“A common refrain we hear from investors is the lack of Western firms to add to their humanoid portfolio outside of Tesla and Nvidia,” the bank said.

China “continues to show the most impressive progress” in humanoid robotics due to strong government support, domestic start-ups’ access to established domestic supply chains, and the plethora of businesses willing to put the machines to use, the report found.

“In our view, this is important information in and of itself as it represents the reality of the current humanoid ecosystem, which we expect may need to change materially over time,” Morgan Stanley said in the paper.