Humanoid robots able to execute tasks from grape harvesting to welcoming visitors were front and center at France’s Vivatech trade truthful fair this week, with European corporations trying to fill niches beyond what dominant Chinese giants can provide.
French corporation Enchanted Tools was showing off its Mirokai, a “social” robot with long orange ears and huge blue eyes.
Able to speak in more than 50 languages, prototypes of the Paris-primarily based organization’s machine are already out in the wild, welcoming people to hospitals and airports, marketing chief Richard Malterre stated on a Vivatech stage.
The startup expects its first mass-produced models will reached by end of this year.
“At least 60% of the robot is manufactured in Europe, and we’re preventing to hold it that way,” Malterre told AFP.
But some of the AI robotics know-how is “not always available” in Europe, he stated, inclusive of the graphics processors from American chip giant Nvidia that power Mirokai’s brain, as well as the wider generative AI surge.
‘Dark factories’
When it comes to sheer robotics manufacturing capacity, China is unmatched thanks to companies including Unitree and Agibot.
Their androids’ firmly choreographed shows amazed visitors to Vivatech, the latest fair to expose them off in current months.
Around 87% of the 13,000 humanoid robots deployed globally in 2025 rolled off a Chinese manufacturing line, as per the U.K.-primarily based consultancy Omdia.
“China is surely on the forefront” as its companies increasingly show off “darkish factories” wherein robots work mainly without human supervision, stated Joern Buss, a robotics expert at the consultancy Arthur D. Little.
However, Europe is “catching up” behind Japan and South Korea, he brought, highlighting “some appropriate robotics players,” inclusive of long-running corporations.
New players at the European scene include Germany’s Neura, which builds humanoid industrial and household robots as well as a platform for training them to carry out human tasks.
The company currently declared it had raised $1.4 billion.
“We get requests for everything, even dentists, absolutely everyone is asking us and asking if they are able to have a robot as a supporter, due to the fact they cannot locate people,” chief executive David Reger told AFP.
Like other advanced economies around the world, Europe faces an aging population that could squeeze the labor deliver in both production and services.
Reger known as robots like Neura’s the continent’s “last chance,” saying “Europe does need this financial pillar to sustain” itself.
He mentioned same challenges for European tech firms, which includes tight regulation and a harder search for financing than competition in the US.
But Reger has no plans to uproot Neura’s business, that is collaborating with German car-component suppliers Bosch and Schaeffler on factory automation.
He touted Neura’s order book of more than $1 billion.
Data protection
“If all robotic manufacturing goes to Japan or China, that could be a massive issue when it comes to sovereignty,” stated Francesco Ferro, chief executive of Spain’s PAL Robotics.
His company was at Vivatech showing off its latest models bolted together in Barcelona.
One is a black biped that has been dubbed Kangaroo, even as their Tiago machine is fitted with jointed arms that have been placed to apply in logistics as well as to picking grape harvests.
Robotics developers use huge portions of data to train their machines’ actions, and they gather still more information as they carry out their tasks.
The continent must target to form “a totally European supply chain, without questioning only about price,” as that could lead prospective clients to shop for Chinese robots, Ferro stated.
That might risk seeing valuable or sensitive data “falling into the wrong hands,” he warned.
French-American startup Genesis AI plans to reshore manufacturing of its Eno multifunctional robot next year after making it in China.
Prospective clients include “the big commercial base in France, Italy and Germany,” co-founder Theophile Gervet told AFP.
Malterre also believes the demand exists, and “I’m confident in our capacity and creativity to endure.”
“We want to be prepared for a fight, now throw in the towel.”
