(Yicai) Aug. 1 -- Chinese home appliance giants such as Midea Group have sparked a new surge in investment in the household service robot market.

Midea debuted its household humanoid robot Meila at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference that ended July 28. The Foshan-based firm also inked a deal with Shanghai's Qingpu district to invest CNY1.5 billion (USD208.1 million) in developing an embodied intelligence technology platform.

Early last month, Haier acquired a controlling stake in Xinshida, a leading industrial robots and elevator control systems manufacturer, which plans to launch androids by the end of this year. In addition, Haier recently released Haiwa, a household service robot that can operate home appliances.

The popularity of nanny robots that can simultaneously handle housework, caregiving, and emotional needs will surpass that of cars in the future, said Zhou Yunjie, chairman of Haier.

Home appliance manufacturers' main business is highly competitive, a person in charge of an exoskeleton robot maker told Yicai. Robot business layout can help them secure new growth drivers and boost sales of existing products, the person pointed out.

However, humanoid robots are still far from entering ordinary consumer households due to high prices and limited performance, so the business may not be profitable in the short term, the person said, adding that an android costs around several hundred thousand yuan, equivalent to thousands of US dollars, and if it can only clean the house, hiring a nanny is more cost-effective.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev