Humanoid robot sales tally hit 7,000 globally last year

Business Recorder, citing Reuters, reported that roughly 7,000 humanoid robots found buyers worldwide in 2025 for industrial and professional service purposes. The figures were assembled by the International Federation of Robotics, whose data Reuters reviewed before publication. The count looks small beside forecasts of a steep rise in coming years, particularly in China, the largest market for industrial robots.

Under the federation's criteria, a machine counts as humanoid only if it has a human-like form and works autonomously in spaces designed for people, although legs are not required. Susanne Bieller, the IFR's secretary general, told Reuters that many humanoids sold in 2025 were not yet doing productive work, having been bought by research bodies or by firms generating data to refine AI models. Carmakers, among the earliest adopters, are running trials that involve only a few units inside their factories.

The data give an early, sector-wide view of a field that draws billions of dollars in investment. Humanoids still make up only a fraction of the global robot population, which in 2024 included around 542,000 industrial robots and another 199,000 service robots sold. The IFR will publish its 2025 industrial and service robot data on September 24, while Bank of America Global Research estimates 90,000 humanoid shipments this year and 1.2 million by 2030.