From "showing off skills" to "getting the job done," wheels are more popular than bipedalism... Goldman Sachs summarizes the latest trends in humanoid robots at WAIC

For investors focusing on the humanoid robot sector, the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) has released several extremely clear and important signals. Goldman Sachs' latest observation report reveals that the entire industry is making significant strides toward a pragmatic phase of commercialization, which means that the pure technological "show-off" is receding, and robots that can truly "get the job done" are becoming the main characters.

According to news from the Chasing Wind Trading Desk, Goldman Sachs stated in its research report on the 28th that, unlike the previous pursuit of "cool" bipedal humanoids, this year's exhibition saw robot prototypes with wheeled chassis (similar to AGVs) becoming the absolute mainstream. This "wheel-first" trend is a pragmatic choice made by manufacturers to accelerate short-term commercialization.

In addition, the application scenarios for robot products are flourishing, with over 60 robot products showcased, far exceeding last year's 25 static prototypes. They are no longer static exhibits but are deeply involved in specific scenarios such as manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, consumer retail, and even home care for the elderly for task demonstrations. The industry is actively exploring feasible commercialization paths.

However, the "hand" remains the core bottleneck. Despite significant advancements in the mobility of robots, fine manipulation remains the biggest challenge. The success rate, stability, and operational speed are still far from truly replacing human labor.

Goldman Sachs stated that the cost curve for robots is declining, with Yushu Technology even launching an entry-level model priced at 40,000 RMB, but the overall cost reduction is not significant. The technological inflection point is approaching, but it has not yet arrived. For related stocks to achieve sustainable outstanding performance, clearer industry signals are still needed.

Unprecedented Scale, Pragmatism Prevails: Wheeled Solutions Accelerate Commercialization

This year's WAIC has shown a significant increase in industry investment and government support, both in scale and participation. The venue area expanded to 70,000 square meters, a year-on-year increase of 35%; ticket prices rose by 31% to 168 RMB per day; and the number of exhibitors surged by 60% to 800.

Especially in the field of embodied intelligence, over 60 types of robot products were exhibited, compared to only 25 static prototypes last year. Most robots have stepped down from the exhibition stands to conduct real-time interactive task demonstrations, marking substantial product progress in the industry.

Goldman Sachs noted that one of the most noteworthy trends at this conference is that working prototypes are clearly converging in design to adopt AGV-style wheeled bases, rather than the more complex and costly fully-driven bipedal walking solutions.

This shift indicates that the industry is moving from pursuing "complete anthropomorphism" in technology to prioritizing "near-term commercial viability." Wheeled solutions have clear advantages in stability, cost, and energy consumption, making them easier to deploy quickly in flat environments such as factories and warehouses. Goldman Sachs explicitly pointed out that this trend may pose a negative impact on suppliers of components closely related to bipedal gait, such as planetary roller screws.

At the same time, innovations in the hardware sector are also more focused, with several companies launching new dexterous hand models. Notably, some traditional robot component companies, such as robot actuator companies Ti5 Robot and TLIBOT, as well as sensor company SYSMO, have also launched their humanoid robot prototypes in just about six months of R&D time

Clear Application Scenarios: Deepening into Manufacturing and Service Industries

Goldman Sachs stated that compared to 2024, major manufacturers are exploring application scenarios with more specificity. Robots are no longer a "cure-all," but are designed to solve specific problems.

• Industrial and High-risk Scenarios: The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center showcased robots used for power inspection and light bulb quality control. Baosight Software's Turin robot is specifically designed for "dirty, dangerous, and harsh" "3D" environments like steel mills.
• Consumer and Service Industries: Evolution Matrix's wheeled robots can serve ice cream, load clothes into washing machines, and even provide massages. X Square Robotics demonstrated robots that can tidy rooms and create souvenirs. Gabot's retail robot system has been deployed in some stores in Beijing and has received orders from 100 stores.
• Medical Rehabilitation: Fourier Intelligence's GR-3 robot is designed for healthcare interaction, and its integrated rehabilitation center solution has reportedly been deployed in over 300 medical institutions.

Core Bottleneck: "Dexterity" Still Requires Time

Goldman Sachs noted that while robots have made significant progress in autonomous navigation and dynamic movement capabilities, such as Gabot's robots achieving autonomous navigation and Yushu Technology's robots participating in boxing warm-ups without human control, the "hand" capability for fine manipulation remains the biggest shortcoming.

During demonstrations at the exhibition, operational failures occurred frequently. The speed of tasks is also far behind that of humans; for example, retrieving an object from a shelf may take 30-40 seconds. Even remotely controlled robots face difficulties in accurately replicating human actions.

The industry generally believes that the visual-language-action (VLA) large model is the foundational "brain" for achieving general capabilities, while reinforcement learning (RL) serves as the "expert tuner" to enhance performance and adaptability for specific tasks. The combination of the two is key to commercial success.

Costs and Data: Price Wars Emerge, Data Collection Faces Trade-offs

In terms of costs, Yushu Technology's new model R1 has a starting price of 40,000 RMB, making it the lowest price in the industry. However, mainstream manufacturers' full-size (approximately 1.7 meters tall) robots still sell for around 400,000 to 500,000 RMB, while small (approximately 1.3 meters tall) robots are priced between 100,000 and 300,000 RMB. Although the cost curve is trending downward, there has not been a significant turning point.

Regarding data, Goldman Sachs stated that high-quality real-world interaction data is crucial for training general VLA models, but the collection costs are high. Therefore, companies generally adopt a mixed strategy, combining 10% to 50% of real-world data with synthetic data for model training based on their budgets.

Based on observations from WAIC 2025, Goldman Sachs maintains a constructive view on humanoid robots as a long-term technological trend, noting that although the technological turning point is approaching, it has not yet reached a stage where strong visibility can drive related stocks to consistently outperform