UBTECH Ships Hundreds of Walker S2 Humanoids to Chinese Factories, Targets 500 by Year End

Humanoid robots move into working factories

Shenzhen company UBTECH Robotics says it has shipped hundreds of Walker S2 humanoid robots to active industrial sites across China, with plans to deliver 500 units by the end of December 2025. Production increased in mid November, and the first batches are reaching customers seeking extra labor for assembly lines and warehouses.

As of November 15, the company says its order book for 2025 has exceeded 800 million yuan, about 113 million dollars. UBTECH describes the shipments as the first mass delivery of humanlike robots for factory work, placing its claim to an industry milestone on the number of machines entering operating workplaces.

Automakers and electronics manufacturers are central to the rollout. BYD, Geely Auto, FAW Volkswagen, Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor and Foxconn are among the customers named. Their initial uses center on repetitive work that combines walking, handling objects and moving between stations, often keeping human workers on their feet for long periods.

Walker S2 has been available to industrial buyers since July, according to UBTECH. The company presents the latest deliveries as a move from research and showcase videos toward regular factory duty at meaningful volume. Most humanoid projects have so far operated as limited pilots or laboratory demonstrations.

The commercial challenge is straightforward to explain: a robot must complete useful work repeatedly, safely and at a cost that makes sense to its buyer. UBTECH is seeking to demonstrate those qualities outside controlled environments, where machines share space with workers, carts, pallets and changing production demands.

Who is buying the robots?

UBTECH has disclosed several large contracts during 2025, spanning different regions and types of industrial installation. A September order from a major Chinese enterprise was worth 250 million yuan. Other commitments include 159 million yuan from a company in Zigong, Sichuan province, and 126 million yuan linked to a data center project in Guangxi.

Miee Auto in Hubei has placed orders worth more than 100 million yuan. The deals range from specialized installations to larger deployments across multiple sites, showing demand beyond a single factory or manufacturing region.

The named automotive and electronics customers give the rollout a practical focus. These businesses operate production areas where parts must arrive at the right workstation, in the right sequence and with predictable timing. A machine that moves materials reliably can support the line even when it is not directly assembling a finished product.

UBTECH has not provided a delivery breakdown for each named customer. The hundreds of robots being shipped and the target of 500 deliveries by December therefore describe the rollout as a whole, while individual contracts cover different projects and deployment arrangements.

What Walker S2 will do during a shift

The first Walker S2 teams are handling parts sorting, kitting and material movement inside production areas. Kitting means gathering the components needed for a particular job so that workers or machines have them ready when assembly begins.

Warehouse assignments involve moving goods between shelves, receiving docks and packing stations. These jobs require the robot to walk continuously, grasp objects, carry them and place them with consistent force. Reliability depends on completing that sequence again and again without disrupting the work around it.

Customers want operations through the day and night with minimal oversight. Early testing outside the laboratory has focused on keeping cycle times stable while reducing the fatigue that people experience from repeated movements. A cycle time is the time needed to finish one task before starting the next.

Stable timing matters because a production line depends on coordinated activity. If materials arrive irregularly, another station may have to wait. UBTECH's goal is steady throughput, meaning a predictable amount of completed work, with fewer brief interruptions.

How the robot keeps moving and handles objects

Walker S2 is designed to be tall and sturdy, with joints that move in ways similar to human joints. UBTECH says it can handle heavier items while maintaining precise control at its fingertips, combining carrying ability with the care needed to position parts.

Sensors and cameras help the robot navigate around people, carts and pallets. Its control software coordinates walking, grasping and placement, aiming for predictable contact forces and safe movement in spaces shared with people and other equipment.

Contact force describes how hard the robot pushes or grips when it touches something. A useful factory machine needs enough force to hold an item securely while controlling that force during placement. Walker S2's design aims to make these actions repeatable on factory floors where space can be tight.

Energy management is another central part of UBTECH's pitch. The company says Walker S2 can remove and replace its own battery within minutes without a human operator. That capability is intended to reduce downtime and allow the machine to continue across long shifts.

A battery change without a human operator

Walker S2's battery routine begins when the robot approaches a docking station. It unlatches its depleted battery pack, slides it into a charging bay, retrieves a charged pack and installs that pack in its own body.

The robot then checks the connection, performs quick checks and returns to work. Several charged batteries can be kept near the workspace, allowing robots to rotate through the station while depleted packs recharge.

UBTECH's approach addresses a simple limitation of battery powered equipment: time spent charging is time away from the assigned job. Swapping a battery lets charging happen separately while the robot resumes its duties. It also reduces the need for staff to handle battery packs manually.

The company argues that managing energy without human help can distinguish Walker S2 from robots that depend on charging through a plug or battery changes performed by staff. Short, reliable swaps could reduce the labor needed to support a fleet and increase uptime, the share of time a machine is available to work.

The benefit depends on the supporting equipment as well as the robot. Swap stations need to be affordable, safe and easy to service on a busy factory floor. Keeping charged packs available is part of maintaining the steady operating rhythm that customers want.

Why use a machine shaped like a person?

Factories and warehouses already contain aisles, shelves, tools, doors and workstations arranged for people. Installing fixed automation can require costly changes to that layout and take time. A humanoid is intended to work within more of the existing space.

That shape also offers flexibility. A robot that can walk between stations and use equipment designed for people can potentially be reassigned when production changes. UBTECH's pitch includes movement between workstations and even buildings, an attraction for manufacturers facing frequent changeovers, short product cycles and fluctuating staffing.

Humanoids are not suited to every industrial task. Fixed robot arms and purpose built machinery remain better suited to fast picking and placement or heavy welding. Those machines can be designed around a specific operation and repeat it at high speed.

Walker S2's intended role is work that combines movement with handling: preparing kits, picking parts from bins at moderate speeds, staging materials and using common tools. Simple inspection involving sensors or fixtures carried by hand also fits that pattern.

The economic appeal comes from matching the machine to the work. A humanoid's ability to move between tasks is useful where walking and handling are both necessary. Customers still need consistent output, manageable maintenance and a lower cost per completed task to make that flexibility worthwhile.

Orders grow while UBTECH remains in the red

Humanoid products now account for about 30 percent of UBTECH's total sales in 2025, compared with roughly 10 percent a year earlier. On those approximate figures, their share has tripled, a rise of about 20 percentage points.

The shift accompanies growing production capacity and stronger customer demand. UBTECH's contracts across several regions and sectors show the commercial interest behind its target of delivering 500 Walker S2 units by the end of December.

For the first half of 2025, UBTECH reported revenue of 621 million yuan, an increase of 27.5 percent from the same period a year earlier. Gross profit reached 217 million yuan, up 17.3 percent. Gross profit is the money left from sales after the direct cost of producing what was sold, before other business expenses.

The company still recorded a net loss of 440 million yuan, although that loss narrowed by 18.5 percent compared with the previous year. Management says it is improving its cost structure while increasing factory output. Expanding sales and reducing losses are therefore happening alongside a continuing need to bring the business toward profitability.

Investors have responded strongly. UBTECH's stock has risen more than 150 percent during 2025 to about 133 Hong Kong dollars. Citi and JPMorgan maintain buy ratings, with price targets above 170 Hong Kong dollars. UBTECH became the first robotics company to list on the Hong Kong exchange in 2023, and the new deliveries are central to its growth story.

Where the rollout sits in the global race

Tesla has previewed Optimus, Figure is piloting Figure 01 with automotive partners, and Agility Robotics is advancing Digit for warehouse tasks. Each effort is part of the wider push to move humanoids from prototypes into useful work.

Many competing programs remain in pilot phases, with small fleets and controlled environments. UBTECH bases its claim on scale and location: hundreds of machines being placed inside active factories, rather than demonstration laboratories.

Battery management is a second part of that competitive argument. UBTECH says a robot able to change its own battery can spend less time waiting for either charging or human assistance. The value for a buyer depends on how reliably the complete arrangement works during normal operations.

Factory performance will shape whether these first deployments lead to repeat purchases. The pace and size of follow on orders will help show whether Walker S2 can secure lasting roles in routine industrial work, beyond its initial introduction.

A viral shipping video brings scrutiny

A promotional video showing rows of Walker S2 robots marching into shipping containers drew millions of views and mixed reactions. Some viewers praised the coordination, while others questioned whether parts of the footage used computer generated imagery, or CGI.

Brett Adcock, chief executive of Figure, publicly suggested on social media that portions of the video might be computer generated. UBTECH has promoted the start of mass delivery and said hundreds of units are being sent to partners.

Customer sites will provide the practical measures of success: uptime, safe interaction with people and machines, consistent cycle times and a lower cost for each completed task. Early work in factories and warehouses indicates operation beyond laboratory settings, while the developing deployments will provide experience with reliability and maintenance needs.

BYD, Geely Auto, FAW Volkswagen, Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor and Foxconn are among the customers whose deployments will help show how the robots perform in working environments. Return on investment, meaning whether the value of the work justifies the purchase and operating costs, will matter alongside technical capability.

From July availability to a December target

Walker S2's commercial rollout has progressed through several stages during 2025. The next stated delivery milestone is the end of December, when UBTECH aims to have delivered 500 units.

• July 2025: Walker S2 became available to industrial buyers, according to UBTECH.
• September 2025: UBTECH disclosed a 250 million yuan order from a major Chinese enterprise.
• Mid November 2025: Production increased, with hundreds of robots shipped and the first batches reaching customers.
• End of December 2025: UBTECH targets cumulative deliveries of 500 Walker S2 units.

The schedule puts the immediate focus on completing deliveries and establishing regular operations. Over longer use, maintenance windows, dependable task completion and the cost of keeping each fleet working will determine the value customers receive.

Key Points

• UBTECH says hundreds of Walker S2 humanoid robots have shipped to active industrial sites across China.
• Its 2025 order book exceeds 800 million yuan, about 113 million dollars, with 500 deliveries targeted by the end of December.
• Named customers include BYD, Geely Auto, FAW Volkswagen, Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor and Foxconn.
• Initial jobs include sorting parts, preparing kits, moving materials and warehouse logistics.
• Walker S2 can replace its own battery within minutes, according to the company.
• Humanoid products represent about 30 percent of sales, up from roughly 10 percent a year earlier.
• First half revenue reached 621 million yuan, while the company recorded a net loss of 440 million yuan.
• A promotional video prompted questions about CGI. Factory uptime, safety, task costs and repeat orders will be central measures of commercial success.