Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been hyping up the Optimus humanoid robot, claiming it could support a market value of trillions of dollars in the future. But what is the reality? Tesla's products have yet to be truly launched and sold, whereas many Chinese companies are already gearing up, planning to start mass production of humanoid robots by 2026. The gap is so obvious.

Chinese companies' mass production plans are much faster than Tesla's. Andreas Brauchle, partner at consulting firm Horváth, directly pointed out: "In the early commercialization of humanoid robots, China is now ahead of the United States." Although in the long term, both the US and China may develop large-scale markets, China's expansion speed is currently significantly faster.

There is a crucial reason behind this — policy support. The Chinese government has included humanoid robots in its "Embodied Artificial Intelligence" development strategy. In October 2025, during the central conference, this field was also incorporated into the 15th Five-Year Plan. This means that from the central to local levels, resources are being invested to build supply chains and large-scale production systems. Once policies are in place, industry chain integration accelerates rapidly.

In comparison, although Tesla makes loud claims, it has not yet produced many tangible results. It seems that China has already taken the lead in this humanoid robot commercialization race.