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What To Know
- Dubai has already started putting humanoids in front of the public and putting real training on the calendar, which makes this trend feel less like a distant tech story and more like a category Dubai is actively tracking right now.
- Modar Alaoui, who founded the summit, tied the renewed interest directly to the commercial surge in AI and the belief that embodied AI will become normal in daily life.
- The vibe still stayed practical, because most people in the room kept the conversation focused on what it takes to turn demos into repeatable use in workplaces and households.
Humanoid robots get fresh investor heat and it looks promising
Humanoid robots have had a reputation problem in Silicon Valley for years, and investors loved to say the category looked expensive, complicated, and kind of boring. That tone shifted fast in late 2025, because the AI boom started changing what robots can learn, see, and respond to in real time. The result looks like a new money wave in humanoids, a packed summit in California, louder competition with China, and serious debates about timelines. Dubai has its own reason to pay attention, because humanoid robotics already has public-facing moments and hands-on programming happening in the city.
Silicon Valley Suddenly Cares Again
The Humanoids Summit in Mountain View pulled in more than 2,000 engineers and investors, plus teams from Disney, Google, and a long list of startups trying to prove their bots can handle real tasks. Modar Alaoui, who founded the summit, tied the renewed interest directly to the commercial surge in AI and the belief that embodied AI will become normal in daily life. The vibe still stayed practical, because most people in the room kept the conversation focused on what it takes to turn demos into repeatable use in workplaces and households.
Disney’s Olaf Robot Sets the Near-Term Tone
One of the clearest examples of where humanoids fit today comes from entertainment, because Disney has a walking robotic Olaf planned to roam independently through Disneyland parks in Hong Kong and Paris early next year. That kind of robot can exist now because it has a controlled environment, a clear purpose, and a high tolerance for complexity.
China Leads Funding and Hardware Momentum
McKinsey researchers counted about 50 companies worldwide that have raised at least $100 million to develop humanoids, led by about 20 in China and 15 in North America. The article links China’s lead to government incentives tied to parts production and adoption, plus a mandate tied to a humanoid ecosystem timeline. On the expo floor, Chinese firms showed up heavily, and Unitree robots stood out because U.S. researchers buy the cheaper models to test their own software.
Dubai Already Has Humanoid Moments on the Calendar
Dubai’s interest in humanoids is not theoretical. The Museum of the Future has featured Ameca, a humanoid robot presented publicly during Dubai AI Week coverage, with updates focused on guest interaction. Dubai Future Foundation also published details for a Humanoid Robotics Camp 2025 running 15–26 December, offering hands-on assembling and programming using the Printable Intelligent Bot platform. That puts Dubai in the same conversation as the summit’s core question: when AI gets better at seeing and understanding, humanoids stop looking like a novelty and start looking like a serious product category.
The Humanoids Summit showed a clear shift: AI progress has changed how investors talk about humanoid robots, and China’s momentum has forced everyone to pay attention. Dubai has already started putting humanoids in front of the public and putting real training on the calendar, which makes this trend feel less like a distant tech story and more like a category Dubai is actively tracking right now.
