just put on a show. At the Beijing E-Town Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon on Sunday, a robot called Lightning didn’t just win. It smashed the human world record. Built by smartphone company Honor, it ran 21km in 50 minutes and 26 seconds fully autonomously, no remote control. Over 100 teams competed this year, up from just 20 at last year’s inaugural event where most robots couldn’t even finish. Three Chinese firms, AGIBOT, Unitree Robotics and UBTech, are now the only first-tier humanoid robot vendors on the planet by shipment volume. The race is written into China’s national 2026-2030 plan to dominate the humanoid robotics industry. The robots are coming for the track. The factory floor is next.
Sources: NBC News, CNBC, CGTN
