BEIJING — The 2026 World Robot Conference (WRC) will open in Beijing on August 19 for a five-day run, organizers said, bringing together more than 300 exhibitors and over 2,000 exhibits at a moment when China's robotics industry is notching a string of high-profile milestones. The event arrives roughly a month after the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) closed in Shanghai and days after humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics priced China's first mainland-listed humanoid robot IPO.
WRC 2026 will run through August 23 at the Beiren Yichuang International Convention and Exhibition Center in Beijing's E-Town, under the theme “Human-Robot Symbiosis, Industry-Demand Integration,” according to conference organizers. Organizers said exhibitor numbers are up 36% and exhibit counts up 27% from last year, with more than 150 products expected to debut and roughly 50,000 square meters of floor space split across four halls. Close to 30% of attendees are expected to be international, with support from the UN Industrial Development Organization, the International Federation of Robotics and IEEE's Robotics and Automation Society.
For the first time, the show will include a dedicated pavilion for state-owned enterprises, with 49 central SOEs presenting a combined 12 application scenarios spanning energy, aerospace, manufacturing, logistics and emergency response. China's state assets regulator, SASAC, is separately launching a Central Enterprise Robotics Innovation Consortium timed to the event.
The conference is also introducing a four-day themed format: an August 19 launch day for product and technology announcements; an August 20 “Procurement Day” focused on buyer-seller matchmaking; an August 21 developer day covering robot operating systems, foundation models and simulation tools; and public-access days on August 22 and 23, which will include the World Robot Contest and a new consumer-facing “Robot Consumer Street.” Organizers are also launching a Global Robotics Application Exploration Program that will place mass-produced humanoid robots, quadrupeds and dexterous hands with outside teams for real-world deployment testing.
WRC follows a run of major industry developments. Unitree priced its Shanghai STAR Market listing at 150.8 yuan a share on August 6, implying a valuation of roughly 61 billion yuan (about $9.04 billion) and raising about 6.1 billion yuan; the offering makes Unitree the first humanoid robot manufacturer listed on mainland China's exchanges, with subscriptions opening August 10. The company reported 2025 revenue of 1.7 billion yuan, with humanoid robots — at 867.8 million yuan — overtaking quadrupeds as its largest business line for the first time. Strategic placement investors in the offering include AI developer DeepSeek, which committed 141 million yuan under a three-year lockup, along with Tencent, China National Petroleum Corp., China Southern Power Grid, China Telecom, CITIC Securities and the National Council for Social Security Fund.
At WAIC in July, humanoid robot maker AGIBOT unveiled four new products — a humanoid platform, a modular education robot, an industrial task robot and a dexterous robotic hand — and cited a production-line deployment at electronics manufacturer Longcheer Technology in which its humanoids were running continuous multi-shift operations, part of what the company has said is a broader push into commercial-scale manufacturing use. AGIBOT said in March it had produced its 10,000th humanoid robot. Chinese manufacturers accounted for roughly 90% of humanoid robot units shipped globally in 2025, according to industry estimates, with AGIBOT, Unitree, Leju Robotics, Galbot and UBTech ranked among the largest producers by volume.
WRC 2026 registration and exhibitor details are available through the conference's official channels. RobotToday will report from Beijing throughout the show.
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