IDC audit: 25,000 humanoids shipped in six months — 69% for research and demos
From the Robots digest for 2026-10-04
What happened: IDC's humanoid shipment survey (released Oct 1, recirculating in the window via Yahoo Finance, Robotics & Automation News, and a Japanese note.com recap): global humanoform shipments reached ~25,000 units in H1 2026, +432% YoY; shipment value >$740M (up 322.7%); average unit price ~$29,600, down ~20% from ~$37,000 a year earlier. The breakdown: 69% went to research, education, exhibitions and demos (down from 83.8% across 2025) — only ~31% (roughly 7,800 units) were bought for factory/retail/logistics work. Leaderboard: AgiBot >8,600 units (~35% share), Unitree ~5,000, Booster Robotics ~1,000, UBTECH ~900 — with Chinese vendors >95% of global shipments and Chinese buyers ~78%. IDC forecasts annual shipments exceeding 750,000 by 2030.
What's genuinely new: the beat's first quantified market audit, and it independently validates the reality-check war's whole frame — shipment growth is real, "working" deployment remains a minority use, and the market's center of gravity is China. One notable record-gap: AgiBot — leader of the shipment table — had never appeared at the top of any ranking in our record (Unitree/XPeng/Samsung coverage dominated). The 2030 forecast (750k/yr) is an analyst forecast, not an actor promise — ledgered as a benchmark to track, review noted.
Watch: H2 2026 usage mix crossing below 50% R&D; any non-Chinese vendor entering IDC's top table; whether AgiBot's 8,600 units survive scrutiny (its own "field deployment" claims are on the ai-adjacent record).
Links: note.com recap (IDC detail) · Yahoo Finance · Robotics & Automation News