Southeast Asia's physical AI push: commercial robots over humanoids
Tech in Asia maps SEA's physical AI startup ecosystem - the region's defining choice is to bet on commercial and industrial robots, not humanoids.
Jul 27, 2026 at 10:17 8 8
Japan's humanoid moment: Mitsubishi Motors and Fanuc pull robots into daily production
Mitsubishi Motors will mass-produce humanoid robots for its own factories (1,000/month by 2027, via a University of Tokyo spin-out). Fanuc + Taisei doubled a warehouse's space efficiency with AI. Japan is not talking about humanoids - it's ordering them.
Jul 11, 2026 at 11:41 3 8
Inside Shanghai's Robot Carnival: China's Humanoid Industry Has Left the Lab
MIT Technology Review sent a correspondent to a humanoid robot event in Shanghai described as a "carnival"—and the BBC profiled Chinese factory workers saying, *"I went to sleep, and the world changed."* The picture that emerges isn’t of a country racing to catch up. It’s of an industry that has already moved from benchmark competition to volume deployment and public demonstration.
Aug 25, 2026 at 16:23 4 5
India's ground game: Bangalore's warehouse and construction robots quietly go live
Two announcements without humanoids or show, but with ground - and both based in Bangalore: Hachidori Robotics delivers warehouse robots without rails or magnets, Flo Mobility deploys material transport up to 1.5 tons at L&T and Godrej. The real "ground" of applied AI is advancing on the Indian side.
Jul 26, 2026 at 18:40 10 7