China launches its first open robot rental platform, Qingtian Rental, in Shanghai. Covering 50+ cities, it offers humanoid robots for commercial and industrial use, with expansion to 200+ cities by 2026.
On Dec.22, China launched its first open robot rental platform, Qingtian Rental, in Shanghai. The platform already covers 50 major cities and works with over 600 service providers. It offers multiple robot brands and models for rent, with fees ranging from 200 yuan (£23) to over 10,000 yuan (£1,150), according to CNS.
According to Jiang Qingsong, partner at Zhiyuan Robotics and chairman of Qingtian Rental, the platform plans to expand to more than 200 cities by 2026.
Currently, most demand for humanoid robots comes from commercial performance events. However, Jiang notes that as applications mature, the platform will gradually roll out industrial robot rentals, starting with pilot projects in 2026.
Robots Roll Off the Assembly Line
Zhiyuan Robotics, Shanghai’s first humanoid robot mass-production company, has scaled its shipments from 1,000 units at the beginning of 2025 to 5,000 units. The company says that as production scales up, manufacturing costs for general-purpose humanoid robots are expected to fall further. Meanwhile, the vast data accumulated from robots operating in multiple scenarios will feed back into technology upgrades.
This trend could accelerate the adoption of embodied intelligence across industrial manufacturing, logistics, and public services. In turn, it supports platforms like Qingtian Rental, enabling a shift from fragmented services to a connected and structured ecosystem for robot usage.
China’s Robot Industry on Fast Track
Looking ahead, the market for humanoid robots in China is expected to grow significantly. By 2035, the industrial sector alone could reach 1.6 trillion yuan (£184 billion), while the service sector could hit 1.9 trillion yuan (£219 billion). These projections highlight the long-term potential of humanoid robotics and underline the strategic importance of platforms like Qingtian Rental in shaping the industry.
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