The five-day 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games at Beijing's National Speed Skating Oval are well underway, and on Saturday, an AI-powered humanoid robot reached 14.5 meters per second, or 32.5 mph.
china’s AI robot just hit 14.5 m/s pic.twitter.com/0K4wQ4g9pB
— el.cine (@EHuanglu) August 22, 2026
More than 2,000 humanoid robots are participating in the World Humanoid Robot Games across 51 disciplines and more than 1,000 competitions spanning running, table tennis, and soccer.
Holy smokes...
— Min Choi (@minchoi) August 21, 2026
Humanoid robots are coming for tennis.
100% autonomous...pic.twitter.com/0Q3i4GuTfa
The games opened during the same week as the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing, where companies displayed 3,000 products, and the blockbuster IPO of China-based Unitree. Together, the events and IPO suggest that China is pulling far ahead of the US in humanoid robotics. The main reason is that China controls much of the global supply chain for actuators, motors, optics, and other critical components required to manufacture humanoid robots.
Welcome to China, and welcome to the future!
Maybe we will soon
