China's embodied intelligence sector needs to be wary of speculation

For China's embodied intelligence industry, as well as other frontier industries alike, striking a balance between pursuing growth and preventing speculative excess is very necessary, the country's top economic regulator said on Thursday.

Fueled by innovation and rising market demand, China's intelligence industry, led by humanoid robots, has been expanding at an annual rate exceeding 50 percent. Market research firms predict the sector will be worth over 100 billion yuan ($14.1 billion) by 2030.

Li Chao, spokeswoman for the National Development and Reform Commission, said that key aspects of humanoid robot sector, including technical pathways, business models and application scenarios, remain immature, and that with more capital flowing into the sector, China now has more than 150 humanoid robot companies, over half of which are startups or cross-sector entrants, a positive for fostering innovation.

"However, we must remain vigilant against risks, including a surge of highly similar products and the narrowing of space for research and development," Li said at a news conference in Beijing on Thursday.

In response, the NDRC will move to foster the healthy and orderly growth of the embodied intelligence industry by fast-tracking the development of industry standards and evaluation systems, accelerating breakthroughs in core technologies, and promoting nationwide resource integration and open sharing to speed up the real-world deployment of embodied intelligent systems, Li added.