IFR Counts Just 7,000 Humanoid Robots Sold Worldwide in 2025

The International Federation of Robotics counts about 7,000 humanoid robots sold worldwide in 2025 for industrial and professional service use, according to figures the group shared with Reuters ahead of publication.

Set that against the rest of the robot market and the gap is stark. Around 542,000 conventional industrial robots were installed worldwide in 2024, and an estimated 199,000 service robots shipped that year for jobs like transport, hospitality and cleaning. Humanoids are a rounding error.

The stranger detail is where the 7,000 went. Many were bought not to do work but to generate it: research institutions and companies picking them up to collect real-world data that could improve AI models. Carmakers, cited as the most eager early adopters, are running pilots with "single-digit or sometimes double-digit numbers of robots in their plants," IFR secretary general Susanne Bieller told Reuters.

The forecasts everyone cites look nothing like the ground truth. Bank of America Global Research estimates 90,000 humanoid robots will be shipped in 2026, rising to 1.2 million by 2030, a jump the current figures do not yet justify. IFR notes this is the first time it has collected humanoid data alongside its longer-running industrial and service tallies, so the baseline itself is new.

Humanoids sit inside the broader physical-AI push we've been tracking closely, including Vantora's $100M pivot last week. The unit count is the reality check the hype cycle skipped.