China’s State Banks Are Turning Humanoid Robot Startups Into a New Asset Class

HIGHLIGHTS

For China’s biggest lenders, the bet on humanoid robots has moved from experimental credit lines to equity stakes, IPO underwriting, and custom insurance contracts. The numbers now justify a dedicated playbook.

By the end of Q1 2026, banks had extended RMB 20.96 trillion in loans to high-tech enterprises across the country, a 13.6% rise from a year earlier. Nearly 295,000 firms held credit, with loan approval rates creeping up to 58.6%. The six largest state-owned commercial banks alone carried over RMB 23 trillion in technology-related exposure. For a cohort of robotics startups that burn cash on R&D and hold few physical assets, that balance-sheet capacity is a lifeline.

ICBC and Galbot: from lender to shareholder

In December, ICBC Financial Asset Investment — a wholly-owned subsidiary of the state lender — bought equity in Galbot, a Beijing-based developer of embodied multimodal large-model robotics. The transaction moved ICBC from creditor to minority shareholder, giving the startup long-term capital and access to the bank’s industrial relationships. ICBC’s Beijing branch had already been providing working capital as Galbot’s prototypes moved toward production. The equity injection adds a patient-capital layer that a pure loan book cannot provide.

CCB and HCFA: a branch-level credit call

When Zhejiang Hechuan Technology (HCFA), an industrial automation firm expanding into humanoid robots, hit a liquidity squeeze from intensive R&D, it was a subbranch of China Construction Bank in Longyou that responded. The branch structured a credit package of almost RMB 200 million based on HCFA’s cash-flow cycle and product roadmap, not physical collateral. The company’s Qinglong Lite robot later ran a public demonstration; the factory kept operating because a local credit officer understood the sector’s capital intensity.

Manycore Tech: the cross-border IPO machinery

Spatial intelligence firm Manycore Tech listed in Hong Kong on April 17. Bank of China and its Hong Kong affiliates supplied credit lines, cross-border cash management, and IPO account services, while CCB International acted as joint sponsor and global coordinator. CCB’s Zhejiang branch cleared the credit approval in ten working days — a signal of how prepared the banks now are for technology listings.

Insurance: pricing an unknown risk

Ping An Property & Casualty launched a Shenzhen-based product suite for embodied intelligence, bundling R&D cost-loss coverage, product liability, AI system liability, and electrochemical performance degradation. There is almost no historical loss data on humanoid robots, and the technology changes with each iteration. The policy is an early attempt to underwrite a risk class that will grow with the industry.

For the banks, the next distinction is not between lending and not lending, but between those that can value a patent, structure an equity-plus-debt package for a pre-revenue robotics firm, and underwrite a Hong Kong IPO — and those that cannot. The humanoid robot sector, with its extreme capital intensity and uncertain timelines, is becoming the test case.