Commentary: China’s Robotics Push Advances, Yet Investments Fluctuate
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On September 24th, at the 2025 Yunqi Conference held in Hangzhou, a humanoid robot demonstrated cargo handling. Photo: VCG
In August 2025, China’s Robotics Industry Index, or RII, registered 121.7, indicating that the share of investment in the country’s robotics sector relative to total economic input has increased by 21.7% from the base period of January 2024. On a comparable basis, the index fell 2.0% from the prior month, but increased 3.0% from the prior year. Since the beginning of 2024, the proportion of investment in the robotics industry has shown a fluctuating upward trend.
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- In August 2025, China’s Robotics Industry Index reached 121.7, up 21.7% from January 2024; monthly decline was 2.0%, annual rise 3.0%.
- The labor, capital, and technology sub-indexes were 107.3 (-20.7% MoM, +8.5% YoY), 142.0 (+5.5% MoM, +10.7% YoY), and 91.0 (-13.4% MoM, -13.2% YoY), respectively.
- Top investment cities: Beijing, Suzhou, Nanjing; robotics industry average starting salary was 15,499 yuan ($2,123) per month.
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Who’s Who
- Caixin Insight
- Caixin Insight compiles China's Robotics Industry Index (RII), launched in August 2025. This index, based on internet big data, tracks and measures the development of China's robotics industry, and Caixin Insight releases it monthly. The head of research at Caixin Insight is Wang Zhe.
- Caixin
- Caixin (财新传媒) is a Chinese media group. Its research arm, Caixin Insight, compiles the Robotics Industry Index (RII). This index, launched in August 2025 at the World Robot Conference, tracks the development and measures the progress of China's robotics industry using internet big data. Caixin Insight releases this index monthly.
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What Happened When
- January 2024：
- Base period for China’s Robotics Industry Index (RII) established.
- Since the beginning of 2024：
- The proportion of investment in the robotics industry in China has shown a fluctuating upward trend.
- August 2024：
- China’s Robotics Industry Index (RII) value used as a reference for year-on-year comparison.
- July 2025：
- Reference month for month-over-month RII and individual indexes comparison, and for starting salary comparison.
- August 2025：
- China’s RII registered 121.7, up 21.7% from January 2024, down 2.0% from July 2025, and up 3.0% from August 2024.
- August 2025：
- RII was launched at the 2025 World Robot Conference.
- August 2025：
- Labor, capital, and technology input indexes, as well as hardware, software, and application segment indexes, and city rankings, all reported.
- August 2025：
- Average starting salary in the robotics industry reached 15,499 yuan, up 1,065 yuan from July 2025.
- Starting August 2025：
- Caixin Insight will release the RII index in the middle of each month.
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