A record 932 Chinese exhibitors bring humanoid robots to IFA 2026 in Berlin

Unitree and AgiBot are among more than 900 Chinese companies coming to Berlin for IFA 2026, which opens Friday with the first walk on a catwalk by humanoid robots in the show’s history.

China built 84.7% of the world’s humanoids last year

The show takes place from September 4 to 8 at Messe Berlin under the banner “The Future Is Now.” There will be over 1,900 brands from 49 countries, and over 220,000 people are expected to visit across 27 halls.

“Robots on the Runway” is scheduled for September 5 at 12:45 p.m. on the Creator Stage. Bipedal machines will strike poses, dance, and show off sensor-based navigation and motor control.

IFA Berlin said its innovation zone, IFA Next, has grown to about 300 exhibitors this year.

Unitree, AgiBot, EngineAI, and DEEP Robotics will appear alongside Astrall Dynamics and AiMOGA.

A separate RoboCup showcase will pit robot soccer teams against each other, hosted by Humboldt University’s Team Berlin United.

Chinese participation has swept IFA for years, but 2026 is a record. Of the companies exhibiting, 932 are Chinese, almost half the total and about 200 more than a year ago, by one published count.

That includes appliance behemoths such as TCL, Hisense, and Xiaomi.

“When design, engineering, production and testing are all happening within the same ecosystem, ideas naturally move from prototype to product much faster,” Leif Lindner, CEO of IFA Management, said. He pointed out the manufacturing scale, heavy investment, and fully integrated supply chain.

According to Cryptopolitan, China built 84.7% of the ~17,000 humanoid robots shipped worldwide in 2025. Domestic sales are on track to double to 28,000 units this year.

TÜV Rheinland signed off on Chery’s Mornine for EU sale

Lindner mentioned NEURA Robotics, a German company that closed a funding round of up to $1.4 billion.

Right after the runway show finishes, it will give a main talk called “From Europe, for the World: Building the Ecosystem for Physical AI.”

AiMOGA’s Mornine, produced by a unit of Chinese carmaker Chery, has full EU CE certification for machinery safety, radio equipment, and cybersecurity, signed off by German testing house TÜV Rheinland. That makes it the first humanoid to obtain the go-ahead for both hardware and software under EU rules, and it is already working in car dealerships in more than 30 countries.

Lindner called the certification “the transition from a technology demonstration to a product that’s ready for commercial deployment in Europe.”

According to Cryptopolitan, Unitree has set an August 10 subscription date for its Shanghai IPO, at a valuation of almost 42 billion yuan, or about $5.7 billion. That would make the Hangzhou firm the first major humanoid producer to list on the Chinese mainland.

Unitree’s revenue was $250 million in 2025 and adjusted profit $87 million, with net profit up 674% year over year.

Its G1 robot has been chosen by Nvidia as the cornerstone for the Isaac GR00T research platform.

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