The dexterous manipulator industry in China has reached a critical transition point from the stage of demonstration models to mass production, leading to the formation of a clear first echelon of leaders. A new group of four companies—Yinshi Robotics, Lingxin, LinJieDian, and BrainCo—represents four distinct yet complementary development directions for this sector.
Each of these companies focuses on its unique niche: Yinshi Robotics emphasizes industrial reliability; Lingxin develops a highly degree-of-freedom universal platform; LinJieDian creates integrated solutions for dexterous operation by combining hardware and algorithms; and BrainCo concentrates on human-machine integration based on bionics.
Evaluation criteria in the industry have fundamentally changed: priority is now given to stable supply, creation of real value, and the presence of durable product portfolios, rather than just technical specifications on paper.
Yinshi Robotics has established itself as the benchmark for industrial reliability. Founded nearly ten years ago, the company built its core competence on proprietary research and development of micro servo electric cylinders. It became the first Chinese firm capable of supplying dexterous five-fingered manipulators at a scale of ten thousand units. In 2025, foreign sales accounted for 20 percent of total revenue, serving over 2,000 clients worldwide, including developers of leading humanoid robots, industrial manufacturers, research institutes, as well as medical and commercial users.
The company utilizes a link-driven architecture, prioritizing stability and service life over high degrees of freedom. Yinshi's flagship products have demonstrated a working lifespan of one million gripping cycles. The company's products are suitable for both full-sized Apollo and Adam humanoids and small manipulators designed for confined spaces, and they were among the few that passed testing during a long broadcast at the national Gala Concert during the Chinese New Year.
While Lingxin promotes the direction of a highly degree-of-freedom universal platform, focusing on applicability to various payloads, sizes, and tactile interaction, LinJieDian offers ready-to-use dexterous operation solutions by combining hardware and software. BrainCo, meanwhile, delves into the fields of bionics and human-machine merging.
These four companies collectively address different market challenges: industrial reliability, universal adaptability, operational systemization, and human-machine interaction. As humanoid robot manufacturers and industrial integrators increasingly favor long-term supply capabilities over flashy specifications, market share is now determined by mass production capacity.
Financing in the sector has accelerated. According to IT Juzi, the total financing volume for the Chinese dexterous manipulator industry for the entire year of 2025 reached 16.877 billion yuan, and in the first half of 2026 alone, over 25 billion yuan was attracted, exceeding last year's figures. Shipment volume has surpassed the threshold of one to ten thousand units: more than 20,000 units were shipped in 2025, and market expectations for 2026 reach 70,200 units.
Multiple technological routes currently coexist, including link-driven, tendon-driven, and direct-drive architectures. Leading players are implementing multi-route capabilities to mitigate the risk of technical iterations and satisfy diverse scenarios—from heavy industry to high-precision science.
Competitive standing is now defined by five operational criteria: mass production capability of chassis, durability in real deployment, multi-route technology coverage, product versatility for different robot sizes and load profiles, and the depth of the product line across low and high degrees of freedom. Specifications achieved at the prototype stage no longer matter. Stable supply, consistent output, modular hardware, and proven long-term field operation have become the new baseline requirements. This new quartet of companies reflects this shift from demonstrations to scalable products, marking the entry of China's dexterous manipulator sector into an era of comprehensive capabilities.
China's export strategy is undergoing significant changes. While the country previously focused on producing electric vehicles, batteries, and solar panels, its focus is now shifting to meeting global demand in the fields of artificial intelligence, robotics, and pharmaceuticals.
Chinese artificial intelligence models have been the most sought-after globally for twelve consecutive weeks. Furthermore, the number of countries using surgical robots has increased from 23 to 49. The pharmaceutical industry worldwide paid $110 billion for licenses to Chinese medicines over the last six months.
Thus, China is not limited to simply exporting goods; the country is beginning to export its own ideas.
China's computing power reached 962 EFLOPS, securing second place globally. Furthermore, sales of artificial intelligence servers exceeded sales of general servers for the first time. Five key areas define the future development of the industry: high-performance computing, energy efficiency, domestic substitution, global expansion, and computing services.
According to the '2025 China Server Industry Development Report,' presented at the Smart Computing Foundation event on July 23-24, China's total computing power in 2025 was 962 EFLOPS, accounting for 21% of the global volume. The structure of computing has undergone radical changes: the growth of AI computing significantly outpaces the growth rates of both general and supercomputing systems, becoming the main source of growth.
In 2025, China exported 4.727 million server units, generating revenue of 466.26 billion yuan. This represents a growth of 14.7% and 55.3% compared to the same period last year. The average price per unit reached approximately 111,900 yuan, reflecting a structural shift towards AI servers equipped with high-performance chips and HBM.
AI servers surpassed general servers in sales for the first time in 2025. The AI server market in China reached 761,000 sold units with revenue of 253.03 billion yuan, demonstrating an annual growth of 69.1% and 83.4% respectively. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) from 2021 to 2025 was 34.7% by volume and 63.3% by revenue, which is significantly higher than the growth of the general server segment.
Market demand is highly concentrated: five leading sectors—internet companies, telecommunications operators, government, data center service providers, and financial institutions—collectively accounted for 90.5% of the market. Only internet companies generated 170.04 billion yuan, supported by the race for large models and infrastructure development.
The high-performance computing direction shows the most confident growth, as the revenue growth rate of AI servers significantly exceeds the growth of both general servers and the company's overall revenue. Energy efficiency is viewed as a long-term trend driven by policy, since traditional air-cooled servers cannot support large, high-density load clusters, making the adoption of liquid cooling inevitable.
The domestic substitution direction through Xinchuang ensures stable growth, supported by policy, as state, financial, energy, and military sectors accelerate the replacement with domestic servers to ensure information security and supply chain autonomy. Global expansion opens up long-term growth opportunities, as developing markets abroad continue to actively build out computing infrastructure. Computing services represent a path to increased profitability: the traditional sale of low-margin hardware is transforming into compute leasing, cluster management, and provision of customized solutions, which improves revenue stability and gross profit.
Key challenges facing the industry include trade barriers in supply chains, competition from foreign manufacturers, industry cycle risks, saturation of universal servers, and rapid technological updates. The report recommends strategically positioning in all five directions while simultaneously strengthening supply chain resilience.
