A humanoid robot named Walker S1, the first machine of its kind integrated into Audi’s global production system, the new energy vehicle plant in China, embodies perhaps the most physical manifestation yet in a two-nation race for dominance in the fledgling physical AI market.
The U.S. and China are locked in an intensifying struggle as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and advanced automation merge to help redefine the automotive, manufacturing, health care and fulfillment center markets, to name just a few. The industry entailing AI and robotics, is expected to surge to $178.6 billion by 2030 from $100.6 billion this year, according to Mordor Intelligence.
Chinese company UBTech Robotics’ Walker S1, which stands 5-foot-8 and weighs about 170 pounds, marks a significant milestone in the two-nation race. From the floor of the Audi plant in China, it essential performs quality inspection tasks, including detecting air-conditioning system leaks that pose respiratory risks to humans.
And it is just a start: In January, UBTech said it plans to produce and deliver 500 to 1,000 of the Walker S Series industrial units by the end of the year. Among its customers are Asian manufacturers giants Foxconn, BYD, Zeekr and Geely.
UBTech claims adaptive motion control technology allows the robot to efficiently function in busy environments and traverse tricky terrain. And, through DeepSeek-R1 deep reasoning technology, the robot’s AI-powered is able to analyze vast amounts of data on the scale of a human. What is more, the machine can rapidly adjust to specific jobs using Retrieval-Augmented Generation technology, improving decision-making scalability, generalization and accuracy.
“You tend to replace hardware with software,” Romain Moulin, CEO of robotics company Exotec, said in an interview. “With AI, it will first gain traction in the servicing industry such as rich families, restaurants, maybe hospitals. You will see incredible things happen.”
The capabilities and early exploits of Walker S1 — through the help of the controversial DeepSeek models — is bound to raise the already-rising competitive temperature between China and the U.S.
In January, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with some of the country’s leading tech leaders, including Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma and Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, to drill down on robotics and its role in easing shifting demographics. A rapidly aging population, coupled with a growing reluctance among young people to take factory jobs, has led to a shortage of millions of manufacturing workers in China. Robotics, the country’s president and business leaders agreed, could help fill the workforce void.
As China forges ahead with a national emphasis on intelligent robots, representatives of U.S. robotics companies convened in Washington, D.C., last week to lobby for a national strategy and the establishment of a federal office devoted to promoting the industry.
The robotics race will be “anybody’s to win,” Jeff Cardenas, co-founder and CEO of humanoid startup Apptronik, told the AP following the closed-door meeting. “I think the U.S. has a great chance of winning. We’re leading in AI, and I think we’re building some of the best robots in the world. But we need a national strategy if we’re going to continue to build and stay ahead.”
American robotics startups like Mytra and Bright Machines, as well as Big Tech players like NVIDIA Corp., believe they have an edge over their Chinese rivals. They just need more help from the U.S. government, they said.
“We are in the early innings of a massive computing paradigm shift around robotics,” Seth Winterroth, a partner at Eclipse, an investment firm with stakes in several startups including Mytra, said in an interview. “But to progress and grow, we need an advanced automation national strategy. It is absolutely needed.”
