Berg Insight has published a forecast putting the humanoid robotics industry at an early stage of long-term commercial growth. Annual shipments are projected to rise from 16,000 units in 2026 to 26.0 million units by 2040, a compound annual growth rate of 63.7 percent. Over the same period, global market value is expected to grow from $890 million to $554 billion.
Key takeaways
- More than 100 companies are developing full-size humanoid robots, but most remain in research, prototype testing or pilot deployment; a small group has begun scaling production and preparing larger-scale commercial manufacturing.
- Named vendors shaping the landscape include Figure AI, Tesla, Agility Robotics, Boston Dynamics, Apptronik, 1X Technologies, Neura Robotics, Unitree Robotics, UBTECH Robotics, AgiBot, Leju Robotics, EngineAI and RobotEra.
- 2025–2026 saw heavy investment activity, with strategic investors including Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Hyundai and OpenAI increasing involvement, alongside partnerships for embodied AI, engineering expertise, manufacturing capacity and deployment access.
- Competition is shifting from hardware performance toward software, embodied AI and scalable manufacturing; cellular connectivity is expected to become common for remote monitoring, diagnostics, fleet management and software updates, with associated subscriptions growing at an 84.9 percent CAGR from 5,000 in 2025 to 50.6 million in 2040.
For manufacturing automation planners, the report points to a decade in which humanoid platforms move from pilots toward production scale, making software ecosystems, cost-efficient manufacturing and connected fleet operations the decisive differentiators.
Source: Robotics & Automation News · Published 2026-09-15T08:28:26 · “Humanoid robot shipments forecast to surge to 26 million a year by 2040”