100 humanoids fighting live - Hong Kong InnoEX 2026 changes everything
100 humanoids fighting live - Hong Kong InnoEX 2026 changes everything
A hundred humanoid robots, live on stage. Boxing, singing, speaking English and Mandarin. The Euronews video already has 10 million views.
April 13, 2026. Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. InnoEX 2026 alongside the Hong Kong Electronics Fair. And one scene nobody saw coming.
Four of the world’s top five humanoid makers - AgiBot, Unitree, EngineAI, UBTECH - all from China. All in one place. For the first time.
AgiBot X2 Ultra - the star of the show
A robot the size of a small child. It sang songs. It chatted with the audience in English and Mandarin. It answered questions.
Someone asked about its hobbies. It said it likes sports, dancing, and music.
A second robot boxed. A third played an instrument. A fourth ran a rescue scenario.
Sounds like sci-fi. It isn’t. It’s 2026.
These aren’t prototypes
The single most important number from the whole fair - AgiBot is already shipping 10,000 units a year. That’s not an engineering demo. That’s serial production.
Boston Dynamics just signed a deal with Hyundai - tens of thousands of Atlas robots will go into car factories. Tesla is planning Optimus production at $20-30K per unit.
These robots are entering warehouses, factories, healthcare. The question isn’t whether they’ll show up in your industry. It’s when.
What surprised me most
The most striking part wasn’t the robots themselves. It was that anyone walking the floor could approach AgiBot X2 Ultra and just have a chat. About hobbies. About how it felt. Whether it liked music.
This is the first generation of humanoids that are both physically capable and conversationally natural. Before, you got one or the other. Now you get both.
My take
For the past three years, the AI world has been dominated by language models - ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. Software. Code.
Hong Kong InnoEX signals the next wave: physical world. Robots entering factories. AI getting a body.
The question is whether Europe and the US can keep up. Because right now, every single maker on stage is Asian. Boston Dynamics is the lone American name. Europe? Nowhere.
Maybe a future AITU episode will feature a European robotics startup. I’m waiting.
Sources
- Euronews - “Humanoid robots box and perform at Hong Kong AI and robotics fair” (April 15, 2026)
- South China Morning Post - “AI in action drives Hong Kong tech fairs” (April 15, 2026)
- TechXplore - “Humanoid robots show off their language and boxing skills in Hong Kong” (April 14, 2026)
- Bastille Post - “InnoEX 2026 Kicks off in Hong Kong” (April 14, 2026)
- Washington Times - “Humanoid robots show off their language and boxing skills” (April 13, 2026)
- The Young Reporter HKBU - “InnoEX 2026 Hong Kong” (April 16, 2026)