On the outskirts of Beijing, young Chinese entrepreneur Cheng Hao sits on an indoor soccer pitch – but this turf isn’t for humans. It’s where engineers working for his start-up, Booster Robotics, train human-like robots to play soccer using artificial intelligence – dribbling, passing, shooting and blocking.
Cheng, a 37-year-old Beijinger, is at the vanguard of China’s decade-long push into humanoid robot technology.
He founded the company in 2023, inspired by the release of Tesla’s first humanoid Optimus and the then-groundbreaking ChatGPT-4, and wants to develop the world’s most advanced soccer-playing humanoids.
“There are hundreds of robot soccer teams in the world,” he told CNN. “We need to be the first one in this niche market and then go to other markets.”
China’s robot industry has accelerated since 2015, when the government listed robotics as one of the 10 sectors in a blueprint for upgrading Chinese industries and shedding its reputation as the world’s cheap-labor factory.
Today, the country has over 150 humanoid robot companies, and this number is steadily increasing, according to officials.
For many robot start-ups like Cheng’s, sports have become a testing ground – a way to showcase robotic capabilities and explore real-world applications.
That led to a boom in robot sporting events across China in 2025. Dozens of robots danced together on stage at the Spring Festival Gala – the country’s biggest annual variety show; humanoids ran their first half-marathon; and Beijing hosted the world’s first Humanoid Robot Games, which put machines through their paces in soccer, boxing, martial arts and other sports.
This robot sports craze comes as humanoid robots emerge as a key front of China’s global tech competition with the US and other countries. China’s not only racing to exploit the market’s multibillion-dollar potential, but to boost productivity in a country with a rapidly aging workforce.
When CNN met Cheng in the company’s lab, engineers were fine-tuning their robots: one robot was suspended from a rope attached to the ceiling as an engineer used a remote control to make it jump and land, to test its balance.
Another engineer guided a robot as it walked around a mini-size indoor soccer field, often pausing to closely inspect its components.
The team at Booster Robotics was preparing for RoboCup, a major international tournament then just days away that would test the robots’ use of artificial intelligence to play a game.
Soccer has long been recognized as a benchmark task for scientists to test robots. The earliest testing took place in the 1990s, which led to the birth of the first RoboCup games later that decade in Nagoya, Japan. It’s now an annual event.
Peter Stone, a previous president of the competition and a professor of computer science at the University of Texas at Austin, said robot soccer requires many “fundamental capabilities,” including motion, vision, localization, collaborative strategic planning, and adversarial reasoning.
“An inspirational goal of RoboCup is to create a team of robots that can beat the best human soccer team on a real soccer field,” said Stone, who is also the chief scientist of Sony AI. “I sometimes compare it to challenges like landing a man on the moon. It is an ambitious technological challenge that can only be accomplished with the help of progress in science and engineering.”
Cheng’s obsession with soccer-playing robots began early. He grew up watching soccer and fell in love with robots in high school. His undergraduate studies included how to train robots to play soccer.
But now, Cheng is looking beyond that. “We think robots playing soccer is a test. We test a lot of technologies in the soccer game, but in the future, we will use this technology in factories or at homes,” he said.
Robot sports are also a good way to attract attention and investment.
An exhibition robot soccer league, held by Booster Robotics one weekend in June, drew online livestreaming from China’s state broadcaster, and sponsorship from brands ranging from e-sports and liquor to a children’s physical training center. More than 700 tickets were sold at $15 apiece.
By the end of last July, the company announced over $14 million in Series A+ financing – only two days after it won the championship at the 2025 RoboCup in Brazil.
“It (robot soccer) is a show,” said Cheng. “But like a show in Las Vegas, it can earn a lot of money, then we can hire more talents to develop our algorithms for future real-world uses.”
Behind China’s robot sports push
Like the growth of electric vehicles and other high-tech industries, the Chinese government has played an instrumental role in galvanizing the country’s robot boom.
Li Shi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Chinese Association of Automation, has been organizing domestic robot sports games for decades.
“Whether it’s Beijing, Shanghai, or even more so in Shenzhen, the government is more involved, and with significant investment and extensive media coverage, the influence of robot sports has expanded tremendously,” said Li, who also presides over RoboCup’s junior-level games in China.
In 2021, the Chinese government released a five-year blueprint for its robot industry, outlining a range of financial incentives including higher subsidies, tax cuts for research, and easier loans.
“The next five years and beyond represent a strategic period of opportunity for China’s robot industry to achieve self-reliance and technological leapfrogging,” the plan stated.
That explains why last August, China launched the World Humanoid Robots Games, co-hosted by the Beijing municipal government, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV, and the World Robot Cooperation Organization.
The Games included a 100m relay race, boxing events and soccer matches, and more practical competitions, where robots competed in speed tests to see which could sort and handle materials the fastest in simulated factories and drug stores. Hundreds of companies from 16 countries took part – most were from China.
A district-level government also held a robot half-marathon last April that was broadcast live on dozens of big screens across the city, along with pre-game shows for companies to showcase their robots and attract investment.
But in time the industry wants to show that it can thrive without government backing.
“At this point, we are still very much depending on government support, whether it’s financial backing, efforts to raise visibility, or amplify influence on the broader society,” said Li. “In the long term, (robot sports games) should aim at becoming self-sustaining.”
Scientists have more work to do if sports robots are to beat human athletes. At Beijing’s World Humanoid Robot Games, one robot crashed into a human operator, while another made an unexpected 90-degree turn to collide with the referee seats. Boxing robots frequently missed their punches, and the humanoids kept staff busy by frequently falling over on the soccer pitch.
But for participants, that’s part of the process. Li, also a robot researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said exposing flaws is important to help developers to improve the technologies and make the robots more capable.
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In March 2025, the government included “intelligent robots” in its annual work report for the first time, as it seeks to accelerate robot adoption.
Companies are on the same page. Leju and X-humanoid, whose robots ran in multiple competitions, are both testing their products in factories to handle and sort materials. Humanoids of Unitree, which danced and boxed, are doing the same tests while also being deployed in other scenarios such as industrial inspection.
Globally, the trend is similar. According to Morgan Stanley research released last August, the humanoid robot industry has shifted its focus away from showcasing technical capabilities to exploring real-world adoption and expanding applications.
For instance, the humanoids of both Boston Dynamics and Tesla have been tested for factory logistics. Elon Musk even reportedly told a shareholder meeting in November that Tesla’s Optimus might be able to follow people around to prevent them from committing crimes – as “a more humane form of containment of future crime.”
The concept inevitably raised concerns about surveillance, civil liberties, and how a robot would intervene if its subject moved to break the law.
Cheng and his start-up don’t want to be left behind in the race to create robots capable of practical applications. Just three months after CNN’s summer visit, the company released a kid-size robot on October 24, aimed at broader public uses.
“They are no longer just tools that can only perform tasks. What we see instead are ‘intelligent agents’ with their own specialized skills,” Cheng told hundreds of journalists, investors and business partners at the launch.
“They could be a workout companion that walks and runs with you, a home tutor that can converse with children, and a soccer player sprinting across the pitch,” he said. Users could also program them for other uses, he added.
At the early stage of exploring robots’ various uses, start-ups across China are carving out their own niches to avoid being squeezed out of an already-crowded market. The goal is the same: to convince more consumers to buy their humanoids.
As Cheng spoke, the big screen behind him flashed: “Limited-time offer, starting from 29,900 yuan ($4,200).” This is several times cheaper than its previous exclusively-for-soccer robot, eliciting applause from the crowd.
The Chinese entrepreneur wrapped up his speech with a call to action that could see humanoid robots deployed in every future household.
“Let’s make humanoid robots as simple, reliable, and practical as personal computers.”
