Ubtech Robotics Pushes Humanoids into the Public Sphere with Expo Debut and Airport Trials

Ubtech Robotics' Walker C1 serves as expo spokesperson while Walker E tests at Haneda Airport, signaling shift to consumer and service markets. Shares rise 9.88% but remain down 6% YTD.

The line between factory automation and public-facing robotics is blurring for Ubtech Robotics. The Chinese company dispatched its Walker C1 as the first-ever “Silicon Spokesperson” at the China International Supply Chain Expo this week, while simultaneously testing a sibling model, the Walker E, on the tarmac at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. The twin deployments signal a deliberate push beyond industrial walls into consumer and service environments.

Investors took notice. Shares closed at €13.64 on Friday, up 9.88% on the day and 12.39% over the week. Yet the stock still sits roughly 6% lower year-to-date, leaving room for the recent rally to mark a turning point.

From Expo Stage to Airport Tarmac

At the Beijing expo, the Walker C1 represents Ubtech in a public-facing capacity that goes beyond static display. The robot greets visitors and delivers presentations—a role the company considers its most ambitious public test to date. A successful run could bolster confidence in the humanoid line’s readiness for commercial scale.

Meanwhile, at Haneda, the Walker E is part of a two-year pilot with Japan Airlines and GMO AI & Robotics that began in May. The robot handles ground tasks such as towing aircraft, loading baggage, and cleaning cabins. It shares the shift with a Unitree G1 from rival Unitree Robotics. Japan Airlines cited severe labour shortages in ground handling as the catalyst, exacerbated by a tourism boom that brought over 7 million visitors to Japan in the first two months of 2026 alone. Last year, the country set a record with 42.7 million arrivals.

For Ubtech, the airport trial matters beyond symbolism. A reliable performance in a high-stakes logistics environment expands the addressable market from factories into transport, warehousing, and services.

Commercial Traction and Market Leadership

The Walker series is already generating real revenue. Ubtech delivered over 500 units of the previous Walker S2 to industrial customers in 2025, with annual capacity exceeding 1,000 units. The company targets 5,000 deliveries in 2026 and has accumulated orders worth nearly 1.4 billion yuan for industrial humanoids.

A global market study ranks Ubtech among the most commercially advanced humanoid providers, with roughly 112 million dollars in cumulative orders. The Walker S2 is deployed at clients including BYD, Geely, FAW-VW and Foxconn. China dominates the sector, accounting for more than 80% of all humanoid installations in 2025. The worldwide commercial humanoid market was valued at an estimated 0.9 billion dollars last year, with base-case projections reaching 7 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate of around 51%.

Ubtech’s nearest competitors include AgiBot, which delivered over 5,100 units and booked more than $140 million in revenue in 2025, and Agility Robotics, which operates a paid robotics-as-a-service model in a GXO warehouse since mid-2024.

Supply Chain Localisation and Cost Reduction

Ubtech has completed the acquisition of supplier Fenglong, which manufactures motor and hydraulic components. Roughly 90% of the supply chain is now domestic, and management expects annual cost reductions of 20% to 30%. That matters because profitability remains the open question: revenue surged 53.3% to 2.001 billion yuan in 2025, but the net loss stood at 789.8 million yuan. Gross profit jumped 101.6% to 754 million yuan, driven by the humanoid segment, which grew 23-fold to 820.6 million yuan and carried a gross margin of 54.6%.

Share Buyback and Developer Ecosystem

At the annual general meeting in Shenzhen on 7 May, shareholders approved a buyback mandate allowing Ubtech to repurchase up to 10% of its H-shares. The company intends to cancel the acquired shares, reducing share capital and boosting the stake of remaining holders. The meeting also ratified the board report, annual accounts, profit distribution proposal, and financial budget. PricewaterhouseCoopers Zhong Tian LLP remains the external auditor.

On the software front, Ubtech unveiled the Thinker Cosmos developer platform at the FAIR Plus 2026 expo in Shenzhen. Borrowing from the smartphone ecosystem model, the platform lets third-party developers build specialised applications for the Walker series. Vice President Jiao Jichao described a unified architecture with a data loop that scales a common base model across industries. The Haneda experiment provides a tangible testbed for that vision.

What’s Next

The next earnings report is due by end of August. Operational milestones include ramping deliveries toward 5,000 units in 2026 and a logistics pilot with Rossmann in Germany. The Haneda trial heightens visibility, but firm orders outside China would lend more substance to the share price momentum. For now, Ubtech is betting that humanoids can move from factory floors to airport terminals and trade show stages—and that the public is ready to meet them.