{"id":98801,"date":"2026-07-08T09:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/98801\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T09:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:37:10","slug":"physical-ai-space-race-can-europe-compete-with-china-and-the-us-in-humanoid-robotics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/98801\/","title":{"rendered":"Physical AI \u2018space race\u2019: can Europe compete with China and the US in humanoid robotics?"},"content":{"rendered":"

European firms say they are fighting to secure a foothold in physical AI<\/a> \u2013 the integration of artificial intelligence into robotics and machinery \u2013 as China and the United States take an early lead in the sector, with industry insiders warning the continent faces the threat of further deindustrialisation if it fails to establish a competitive industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see China and the US \u2026 because of AI \u2026 typically they are considered the leaders, but do not count out Europe,\u201d said David Kehr, president of Humanoid Robotics, a division of German firm Schaeffler Technologies.<\/p>\n

Traditionally focused on automotive and industrial components, the Bavaria-based company entered the sector in January through a partnership with UK start-up Humanoid. Under the deal, Schaeffler supplies the actuators \u2013 mechanical joints and motors that power a robot\u2019s movement \u2013 and plans to deploy the British firm\u2019s AI models across its own factories.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the main stage at Machina \u2013 an inaugural one-day summit held in Paris on Tuesday that positions itself as the continent\u2019s leading event dedicated to the industry \u2013 Kehr identified safety standards and faster training speeds as the industry\u2019s primary hurdles.<\/p>\n

Europe could lead on global safety standards, he said, but cautioned that lawmakers must strike a careful balance. Regulation must not become so heavy that it \u201cstifles\u201d the continental humanoid and physical AI market, he warned.<\/p>\n

The uphill battle facing European players was starkly reflected on the summit\u2019s main stage, where most presenting companies were headquartered in the US. European firms, by contrast, made up only a small fraction of the speaker line-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European firms say they are fighting to secure a foothold in physical AI \u2013 the integration of artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35207,24,48565,25,51486,387,51488,700,13931,11138,51484,51485,7837,708,51487,214,33973],"class_list":["post-98801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-agibot","tag-ai","tag-apptronik","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-bcg-france","tag-china","tag-eurobotics","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-humanoid-robotics","tag-lightwheel","tag-machina","tag-paris","tag-physical-ai","tag-schaeffler-technologies","tag-united-states","tag-unitree-robotics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}