Schaeffler, the popular German automotive and industrial supplier, has been expanding its presence in the humanoid-robotics industry. A new report has surfaced, showing that the company has already secured hundreds of millions of euros in component orders from robot manufacturers.
Citing analysts at Daiwa, The Wall Street Journal reports that Schaeffler had accumulated a humanoid-robot order book worth approximately €350 million as of June 2026.
The orders reportedly come from three global humanoid-robot manufacturers and cover seven products. They include components intended for XPeng’s IRON humanoid robot, which is expected to enter production during the fourth quarter of 2026.
Schaeffler has also held discussions with more than 45 humanoid-robot manufacturers. Daiwa believes this indicates that the industry is gradually moving beyond prototype testing and toward commercial production programs.
Orders could support around 20,000 humanoid robots
Daiwa estimates that Schaeffler’s €350 million order book could correspond to components for approximately 20,000 humanoid robots. However, this is an analyst estimate rather than a confirmed production volume. Although this is not a surprise, since reports have claimed that China is aiming to produce a whopping 100,000 humanoids in 2026, hinting that the supply is present.
Coming back to Schaeffler, the calculation assumes an average selling price of $75,000 per robot, a gross margin of 45%, and Schaeffler-supplied components accounting for approximately half of each robot’s production cost.
Schaeffler mainly produces components such as actuators, bearings, sensors, and gear systems used to control robotic joints. Therefore, the €350 million figure represents component orders rather than orders for delivering fully operational humanoid robots.
The company is also preparing to deploy humanoid robots at its own manufacturing facilities. The future is looking bright as a British robotics company, Humanoid, previously announced plans to deploy between 1,000 and 2,000 robots across Schaeffler’s global factories by 2032.
Separately, Schaeffler and Hexagon Robotics have agreed to deploy at least 1,000 AEON humanoid robots across the supplier’s factories over seven years. With these partnerships in place, Schaeffler is looking like a strong contender in the humanoid-robot industry.
