Scaling the humanoid robotics supply chain into billion-dollar wins | McKinsey

Humanoid robots are approaching an inflection point, with advances in AI, hardware, and investment accelerating their path from prototypes to real-world deployment. Venture capital funding for robotics surged more than threefold between 2023 and 2025, when it reached $40.7 billion annually.1 Governments have declared embodied AI a strategic priority, with China alone committing a $138 billion state venture capital guidance fund to AI and robotics, among other high-tech sectors.2 Both start-ups and established OEMs across Asia, Europe, and the United States are now scaling pilots in manufacturing, logistics, and industrial environments while training foundation models on real-world interaction data. The strategic question is no longer whether humanoid robots will work but whether they can scale economically—and at what cost, speed, and reliability. In “Humanoid robots: Crossing the chasm from concept to commercial reality,” we identify four bridges to commercial viability: radical cost

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• Nevedhaa Ayyappan