Factory floors used to be loud with human voices. Not anymore. Instead, more and more factories have a monotonous, almost hypnotic hum. It’s the sound of a million arms that never tire. We’re talking, of course, about robots. They never sleep, never complain, and don’t make mistakes. This is the new reality in factories across the world. But in China, it’s moving faster and on a grander scale than anything the world has ever seen.
According to a new report, China has built a robotic workforce that outnumbers the rest of the planet combined.
Image via Wikipedia.
The report comes from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), a global trade group that tracks the industry. According to the report, Chinese factories installed nearly 300,000 new industrial robots last year alone. To put that in perspective, the United States, the world’s largest economy, installed a mere 34,000. For every single new robot that powered up on an American assembly line, China switched on almost nine.
In total, the number of industrial robots operating in China has surged past the two million mark. That’s more than five times the US number, and according to our best estimates, more than the rest of the world combined. Behind China’s sprawling skyscrapers and high-speed rail, the country has also raised an army of workers that is completely changing how things are built.
Of course, industrial robots aren’t a novelty. The first industrial robot, Unimate, hit the factory floor in 1961. Since then, robots have steadily taken over more and more of our factory production, improving efficiency but also affecting worker morale.
The data suggests that the number of new robot installations is starting to plateau. Takayuki Ito, president of the International Federation of Robotics, comments
“The new World Robotics statistics show 2024 the second highest annual installation count of industrial robots in history – only 2 percent lower than the all-time-high two years ago. The transition of many industries into the digital and automated age has been marked by a huge surge in demand. The total number of industrial robots in operational use worldwide was 4,664,000 units in 2024.”
Asia’s Robotic Dominance
Chart by ZME Science with data from the report.
Asia’s grip on the world of robotics is nothing short of a stranglehold, with the continent accounting for a staggering 74% of all new industrial robot installations in 2024.
Japan and the Republic of Korea are the early pioneers of automation, establishing the world’s most robot-dense factories long before China’s recent surge. For years, Japan stood as the planet’s largest market and leading manufacturer of industrial robots, while South Korea consistently ranked among the top global adopters.
Yet, China is now the undisputed heavyweight champion.
At first glance, this seems surprising. A nation that was, just a couple of decades ago, reliant on a seemingly endless supply of cheap labor is not where you’d expect robotics to thrive. But China had a meticulously crafted strategic plan,
A Plan for Progress
This plan can be traced back to 2015, with the unveiling of a bold and ambitious government initiative: “Made in China 2025.” It was a ten-year blueprint designed to transform China from the world’s factory into the world’s leading technological powerhouse. In 2015, Beijing’s noted that rising labor costs, an aging population, and increasing competition from other developing nations meant that the old model of manufacturing was unsustainable. The future, they decided, would be automated.
Under “Made in China 2025,” robotics was elevated to a top national priority, alongside other advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and semiconductors. The state swung its immense power and resources behind the goal, and it worked.
“You can see how well that strategy worked out; without a strategy, a country is always at a disadvantage,” said Susanne Bieller, the general secretary of the robotics federation.
The strategy had two prongs. The first was to get as many robots into Chinese factories as possible. The second, and perhaps more crucial, was to ensure that those robots were made in China. For years, Chinese factories imported their high-tech automation from industry leaders in Japan, Germany, and Switzerland. But Beijing was not content to be a customer. It wanted to be the supplier.
The plan worked beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. A decade ago, domestically produced robots accounted for about a quarter of the Chinese market. Last year, for the first time ever, Chinese manufacturers sold more robots in their home country than all foreign suppliers combined. Their market share soared to nearly 60%. China’s share of the world’s robot manufacturing has jumped to a third of the entire global supply, eclipsing the former leader, Japan.
China is not just using more robots; it is rapidly becoming the world’s preeminent robot builder.
What Does the Future Look Like?
Factory robots. Image via Wiki Commons.
The main takeaway from this report is that at the moment, China appears to be an indispensable hub of global manufacturing. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of supply chains and sparked a wave of calls for “nearshoring” or “reshoring” — bringing manufacturing back home. But China’s massive lead in automation seems to be a big lead.
The surging wave of AI will only accentuate this gap, the report suggests.
“Companies in China are using A.I. to swoop in and say which machines are doing great and which are a little off,” said Cameron Johnson, a supply chain consultant in Shanghai. Outside of China, he added, “people aren’t looking at it as a manufacturing tool, at least not yet, and not how the Chinese are.” This potent combination of robotics and artificial intelligence creates a competitive advantage that is hard to overstate.
Robots themselves are starting to change, a revolution also spearheaded by China. Chinese government support has fueled a boom in start-ups racing to build two-legged, human-like machines. One such company, Unitree Robotics, is already selling its basic humanoid models for around $6,000 in China, a fraction of the cost of similar robots from American pioneers like Boston Dynamics. Yet this same company was recently found to secretly send data to China, showing how humanoid robots can become surveillance nodes and cyber weapons.
Lastly, the report offers some information on the very nature of work. The age-old fear of robots taking over jobs is now in full swing, but the picture is nuanced. For now, robots have indeed taken over low-skilled, repetitive assembly jobs. Human labor in this fields is continuing to disappear. Yet China now has a massive demand for skilled electricians and computer programmers who can install, program, and maintain such complex robotic systems. In fact, China has a substantial worker shortage now, showing that robots swooping in doesn’t necessarily eliminate jobs; quite the opposite.
Of course, the impact of AI in this field is hard to estimate. AI promises to do well at high-skilled jobs and could take over some of the supervising roles, but it’s unclear what supervision AI itself will require.
While Western nations debated the future of work and the ethics of automation, China built it. Now, the rest of the globe is playing catch-up. The long-term consequences for global labor markets, supply chains, and geopolitical alignments are still unfolding. But one thing is certain: the future is being built, one robotic arm at a time, in the humming heart of the new robot empire. And it is a sound the world can no longer afford to ignore.
Dr. Andrei Mihai is a geophysicist and founder of ZME Science. He has a Ph.D. in geophysics and archaeology and has completed courses from prestigious universities (with programs ranging from climate and astronomy to chemistry and geology). He is passionate about making research more accessible to everyone and communicating news and features to a broad audience.
