Many global executives took advantage of their visit to China to visit China's advanced manufacturing companies, including manufacturers of electric vehicles, smart home appliances and humanoid robots.
Recently, hundreds of CEOs from global multinational companies gathered in China to participate in the China Development Forum. China Business News reporters learned that many global executives took advantage of their visit to China to visit China's advanced manufacturing companies, including manufacturers of electric vehicles, smart home appliances and humanoid robots.
Philippe Delorme, President and CEO of Finnish elevator giant Kone Group, visited a number of local companies in many cities in China. He has a deep impression of the digital ecological construction of Chinese companies.
De'Longhi told China Business News at an event held recently to celebrate the 30th anniversary of KONE Elevator's entry into China: "There are three areas of ecology in China that interest us, digital ecology, electric vehicles and robot ecology." He said that KONE Elevator's digital solution in China will be completely based on China's ecosystem and use technology developed in China.
KONE Elevator is increasing its investment in intelligent manufacturing in China. To date, the company has shipped more than 1.8 million devices. KONE Elevator's latest new-generation smart elevator technology platform, which has made its world premiere in China, has increased computing power by 22 times. It integrates into various digital ecosystems through open APIs and can use artificial intelligence to shift maintenance services from "passive maintenance" to "active prevention."
DeLong said that robot ecology is also one of KONE's key development directions in the future. "China has invested heavily in the field of robots and is developing very fast." Delong told China Business News. "We see the broad application potential of robots in the elevator industry, especially in key links such as installation, service and maintenance, where there are opportunities to significantly improve efficiency."
He also said that the development of China's robot industry has brought new capabilities and ideas to the industry. Kone Elevator is actively exploring cooperation with experts in the field of robotics in China to jointly create professional robot solutions suitable for the elevator industry, including the establishment of intelligent and standardized systems for the future industry. "These robots are expected to be produced in China and exported to the global market." Delong said.
China's robots have rapidly iterated from traditional robotic arms to the field of humanoid robots. These robots are expected to alleviate future labor shortages by adding artificial intelligence functions. These robots are expected to gradually enter industrial, medical, home and other fields in the next few years.
A report released by Morgan Stanley in the United States in 2025 pointed out that the global humanoid robot market is expected to reach US$5 trillion in 2050, with more than 1 billion robots in use, and the leading countries are China and the United States.
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, as of 2025, there will be more than 140 companies in China engaged in the research, development and production of humanoid robots, including leading companies such as Zhiyuan Robot and Yushu Technology, which have attracted the attention of multinational companies. It is reported that some humanoid robot manufacturers are setting up large-scale factories to collect data in order to obtain the data needed to develop AI for autonomous control of robots and machinery. This also allows multinational industrial giants to see opportunities.
In the past week, Siemens’ global head of data and AI also visited many different types of companies in China, including humanoid robot manufacturers. Xiao Song, chairman, president and CEO of Siemens China, told China Business News that China's innovation potential has begun to be released at an accelerated pace in recent years, and industries such as embodied intelligence are at the forefront of the world. “This brings important opportunities to multinational companies like Siemens,” said Chausson.
To this end, Siemens recently announced an in-depth cooperation with Alibaba Cloud at the first technology conference held in China. The company will integrate Siemens' simulation product portfolio with Alibaba Cloud's computing power and infrastructure, and provide computer-aided engineering (CAE) capabilities delivered in the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model to customers in the Chinese market. These services may be of interest to humanoid robotics companies such as Yushu Technology.
Xiao Song told China Business News that as an emerging technology, embodied intelligence is still lacking in data for the entire industry. "For Siemens, our data covers a very wide range of industries, which is of great value to emerging industries such as embodied intelligence." He said, "We are also actively discussing with industry parties to explore how to share this data in compliance with regulations. It is still very difficult to break down data barriers."
