Chinese Big Tech firms from Huawei Technologies’ spin-off Honor to Alibaba Group Holding are moving to the forefront of the country’s robotics push as Beijing seeks to spur growth in the sector.

Honor, which separated from Huawei in 2020 to focus on smartphones and wearables and only expanded into robotics last year, emerged as the surprise gold medal winner at the second Beijing humanoid half-marathon on Sunday, besting the country’s robotics darlings from Unitree to X-Humanoid.

Its Lightning humanoid model crossed the finish line in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, eclipsing the human world record of 57:20 set by Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo.

The performance underscores how Chinese tech companies are jumping on the robotics bandwagon. While not competing in the race, Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba’s online mapping unit Amap debuted a quadruped robot called Tutu, capable of navigating open fields autonomously.

Du Xiaodi, an engineer from the winning team, credited Lightning’s success to structural durability, self-developed electric motors and advanced liquid cooling systems adapted from smartphone technology. He added that while the country’s robotics industry was still at an early stage, its growth would drive advances in other sectors such as manufacturing.

The half-marathon champion model would be deployed across Honor’s offline retail shops to help sell smartphones and “improve retail efficiency”, Du said.