On the closing day of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Chinese humanoid developer Matrix Robotics (Matrix Super Intelligence) announced an upgrade to its physical-world foundation model and a program to expand abroad — the latest sign that China's humanoid sector is racing to commercialize.
The WAVE upgrade
The centerpiece is an upgrade to the company's proprietary WAVE Physical World Foundation Model, built on what Matrix calls a "brain-cerebellum" collaborative architecture — WAVE acting as the high-level "brain" for planning while a separate motion-control model serves as the "cerebellum" governing movement. The design aims to let one system generalize across tasks rather than being hand-coded for each.
Going global
Alongside the model, Matrix launched a MATRIX Global Partner Program to expand in China and overseas — an explicit bid to build a distribution and integration network beyond its home market, where humanoid competition is intensifying.
The robot on the floor
Matrix showcased its third-generation humanoid, MATRIX-3 (first unveiled in May). By the company's own figures it stands 1.70m, weighs 65kg, carries a 27-degree-of-freedom tendon-driven dexterous hand with 0.1-Newton fingertip sensing, runs about four hours continuously, and is priced from RMB 580,000 (roughly $81,000). These specifications are company claims and were not independently verified.
The scale claim
Matrix says it has accumulated roughly 1,000 robot orders and plans annual capacity of 5,000 units in 2026, rising to 10,000 in 2027, at a manufacturing base in Shanghai's Zhangjiang district. It frames "low cost, high adaptability and rapid transferability" as the core commercial value of general-purpose physical AI — the pitch nearly every Chinese humanoid firm is now making as the field shifts from demos to production.