According to CMB International's research report, leading humanoid robot manufacturers in the embodied intelligence sector have begun scale delivery, driving strong revenue growth, while second-tier players remain in the capability-building phase; industrial, collaborative, logistics, and service robot companies are expanding into embodied intelligence and overseas markets.
Actuator suppliers are transitioning from verification to volume delivery, with leading reducer manufacturers showing strong revenue growth but yet to achieve scalable profitability, and are expanding into platformized and modularized solutions.
The sector has recently come under pressure from liquidity constraints, lock-up expiry, and tightened listing policies; key catalysts in the fourth quarter include Tesla (TSLA.US) Optimus capacity ramp-up, as well as new product launches and customer reorder momentum from leading companies.
The main views from CMB International are as follows:
Leading Humanoid Robot Manufacturers Begin Scale Delivery
The bank noted that in the first half of this year, UBTECH Robotics (09880) and Unitree Robotics (688836.SH) saw revenue growth of 104% and 49% respectively, demonstrating high growth elasticity; Tesla, XPeng-W (09868), and Xiaomi Group-W (01810), which have not yet achieved large-scale delivery, still mainly rely on their core businesses with lower growth elasticity.
Unitree was the first to achieve profitability through its self-developed and self-produced high-margin model, while UBTECH Robotics significantly narrowed its losses, with gross margin expanding by nearly 10 percentage points.
Warehousing and logistics applications are commercializing relatively quickly, with Geekplus-W (02590) leading in revenue scale; overseas business drives revenue growth and serves as a profit stabilizer, and companies with higher overseas exposure such as Geekplus and Dobot (02432) also have higher gross margins.
Embodied intelligence has become the sector's second growth engine, with Rokae Robotics (03752), Dobot, and Woan Robotics (06600) having embodied intelligence revenue shares of approximately 34%, 14%, and 13% respectively, but R&D expenses have generally increased by close to or more than 100% year-on-year, remaining a significant factor in the sector's overall losses.
Actuator Supply Chain Shifting from Verification to Volume Delivery
The bank stated that in the actuator supply chain, Leaderdrive (688017.SH) and Laifu Harmonic (03952) saw revenue growth of 39% and 80% respectively in the first half; Minth Group (00425) generated approximately RMB 100 million in revenue from robot and liquid cooling-related products, Sanhua Intelligent Controls (02050) entered volume delivery and capacity ramp-up, while Zhaowei Machinery & Electronics (02692) focused on end effectors and built a multi-tier dexterous hand product portfolio.
In the broader robot supply chain, Horizon Robotics-W (09660), Hesai-W (02525), and RoboSense (02498) saw revenue growth of 33%, 25%, and 30% respectively in the first half, and are accelerating expansion into embodied intelligence.
Hesai's embodied intelligence-related shipments accounted for approximately 24% of total shipments, while RoboSense's robot-related share was close to half.
Focus on Companies Leading in Commercial Deployment and Rapidly Expanding Embodied Intelligence Businesses
The bank believes that embodied intelligence is still in the early commercialization stage, stock prices are highly sensitive to events, and the robot sector has recently experienced a significant pullback.
The bank is bullish on complete machine manufacturers with leading commercial deployment and reasonable valuations, core component suppliers deeply bound with leading complete machine manufacturers such as Tesla, and companies with solid core businesses, rapidly expanding embodied intelligence businesses, and sustainably trackable progress.
The key focus list includes: UBTECH Robotics and XPeng for humanoid complete machines; Dobot and Geekplus for industrial, collaborative, logistics, and service robots; Sanhua Intelligent Controls and Minth Group for actuators; Horizon Robotics and Hesai for robot peripheral suppliers.
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