Leaderdrive
Suzhou maker of strain wave reducers and rotary actuators for robot joints, listed on Shanghai's STAR Market.
- Inside Unitree Robotics, where humanoids now outsell robot dogs but nearly three-quarters go to labs and classrooms
Unitree Robotics, the Hangzhou maker of quadruped and humanoid robots that listed on Shanghai's STAR Market in August 2026, now earns more from humanoids than from robot dogs. Its filings show 73.6% of humanoid revenue in the first nine months of 2025 came from research and education buyers, the central question for a company worth about RMB61 billion at its issue price.
Mentioned - Who supplies humanoid robot joints? Japan's Harmonic Drive and Nabtesco, China's Leaderdrive and Germany's Schaeffler lead, while Tesla and Figure build their own
The joints of today's humanoid robots come from a short list of gear and actuator makers: Harmonic Drive Systems and Nabtesco in Japan, Leaderdrive, Tuopu and Sanhua in China, and Schaeffler in Germany, while Tesla, Figure and Unitree design key parts themselves. Filings show orders reaching the Japanese incumbents first, yet Tesla's stated Fremont capacity alone implies 25 million to 30 million joint actuators a year, about 22 times the 1.15 million precision reducers Nabtesco can make annually.
Subject - Harmonic Drive Systems' orders jump 55.7% to ¥24.1 billion as robot, surgical and chip demand returns, and it lifts its profit forecast by 37%
Harmonic Drive Systems booked ¥24,128 million of orders in April to June 2026, up 55.7% from a year earlier, and lifted its operating profit forecast for the year to March 2027 from ¥6,200 million to ¥8,500 million on 7 August. A large North American surgical robot order and AI driven semiconductor spending led the recovery, while China delivered the smallest order intake of its four regions.
Mentioned - Nabtesco's robot gear orders rise for a fourth straight quarter, doubling component profit as China and Korea EV projects return
Nabtesco, which estimates it supplies about 60% of the joint reducers in medium and large industrial robots, said component segment orders rose 16.2% to ¥82.4 billion in 2025 and operating income more than doubled to ¥5.4 billion. The Tokyo-listed company forecasts precision reduction gear sales of ¥88.2 billion in 2026, with robot demand recovering mainly in the second half, while its Changzhou plant already runs at 115% utilisation.
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