Xiaomi says humanoid robots begin factory trials, targets large-scale deployment within five years

Factory trials at the EV plant

Xiaomi (小米) has begun trialing humanoid robots on production lines at its automobile factory and aims to roll them out at scale across its facilities within five years, according to CEO Lei Jun. In a social media post cited by TechNode, Lei said the company’s robotics unit has made progress and is moving from lab demos to shop-floor pilots. The timeline is ambitious. Can Xiaomi turn prototypes into reliable, safe, 24/7 industrial labor?

From concept to shop floor

The consumer electronics giant, which entered electric vehicles in 2024, has been investing in robotics as a strategic bet to integrate hardware, software, and AI across its ecosystem. Xiaomi unveiled a humanoid concept, CyberOne, in 2022 and has since showcased improvements in actuators and balance control; the company did not disclose which platform is running in the factory trials. Details on specific tasks, throughput, or safety certification were not provided.

A crowded humanoid race

Xiaomi’s move lands amid a global sprint to commercialize bipedal robots in logistics and manufacturing. Tesla is testing Optimus on internal lines; Agility Robotics’ Digit has piloted with Amazon; Figure is working with automotive partners. Chinese rivals UBTech (优必选), Unitree (宇树), and Fourier Intelligence (傅利叶智能) have unveiled industrial humanoids and are courting factory deployments. The core challenge is the same for all contenders: can they achieve robustness, cost, and autonomy that beat traditional automation?

Policy tailwinds, tech constraints

China’s government has labeled humanoid robots a strategic priority and urged industry to achieve early applications by mid-decade, framing them as part of “new quality productive forces” and a response to an aging workforce. At the same time, U.S. export controls on advanced chips complicate access to high-end AI accelerators used for perception and training, though Chinese firms are turning to domestic alternatives. Against this backdrop, Xiaomi’s factory pilots mark a notable step—but the true test will be scaling deployments without sacrificing safety, uptime, or unit economics.