Every conference has that one panel where you can feel the stakes. For me, it was this one — the discussion on how the U.S. stacks up against China in robotics, and whether strategy can keep pace with scale.
Inside the Santa Clara Convention Center theater, the room was filled with people who all had a vested interest in the state of robotics in the United States — engineers, founders, investors, and policymakers. On stage sat three industry veterans: Jeff Burnstein, President of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3); George Stieler, Managing Director of Stieler Enterprise Management Consulting; and Eric Truebenbach, investor and longtime robotics veteran.
The conversation was guided by Eugene Demaitre, Editorial Director of The Robot Report, who steered the discussion with sharp, understated questions that drew honest answers.
How China Pulled Ahead
Stieler didn’t mince words: “To see more than 50 companies exhibiting humanoid robots,” he said, “is an area they’re investing heavily in.”
He pointed to China’s Made in China 2025 plan as the backbone of its manufacturing transformation — a policy that accelerated automation through regional incentives, local funding, and a thriving electric vehicle supply chain.
Between 2012 and 2016, the number of Chinese companies with “robot” in their name jumped from 250 to 6,500, driven by subsidies. “Much of it actually stuck,” Stieler said. “We now have several very successful and highly competitive automation companies.”
Companies like Estun and Inovance have overtaken long-established foreign players in sales within China, while aggressively expanding into global markets.
“Every German manufacturer is feeling the pressure,” he said, “and profits are leaving through the door.”
A Different Way of Thinking
Truebenbach added historical perspective. “When I first started researching robotics in China in 2014,” he said, “there were government incentives to call yourself a robot company. Now, there’s a gap — not just in numbers, but in thinking.”
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