Bosch is deepening its commitment to China as both a key market and an increasingly important innovation hub, while accelerating its push into robotics and automation technologies, company executives said at their 2026 Bosch Connected World conference in Berlin.

Stefan Hartung, chairman of the board of management of Bosch Group, said the company sees growing opportunities in China's rapidly evolving innovation ecosystem, and remains confident about its long-term development prospects.

China has become one of Bosch's most important global markets. The company entered the Chinese market in 1909 and now employs more than 57,000 people in the country. In the fiscal year 2025, Bosch generated sales of 149.8 billion yuan ($20.8 billion) in China.

At the same time, Bosch is positioning itself to benefit from the fast-growing robotics sector, particularly the rise of humanoid robots.

Hartung said technologies including sensors, software, and electric drives — areas where Bosch has accumulated extensive expertise — are becoming essential building blocks for modern robotics. The company expects robotics and automation to open up a business opportunity worth billions of euros in the coming years.

Rather than manufacturing complete humanoid robots, Bosch is focusing on supplying core technologies and components, including sensors, actuators, automation platforms, and AI-enabled systems. The company is also expanding partnerships with robotics companies and startups around the world to accelerate commercialization.

China plays a central role in that strategy. In January, Bosch established the Bosch Robotics Center China, or BROC, which is dedicated to embodied AI and humanoid robotics technologies.

The center aims to leverage China's strengths in manufacturing, supply chains, industrial data, and real-world application scenarios to accelerate the development and deployment of intelligent robotic systems.

According to Bosch, the BROC will help integrate local partners and support innovation in embodied intelligence, while advancing the commercialization of robotics solutions in industrial settings.

The company recently entered a strategic cooperation agreement with Chinese robotics startup Spirit AI, to jointly explore robot data collection, model training, industrial deployment, and key component development.

As AI, automation, and robotics converge, Bosch sees China not only as a market for its products, but also as a source of technological innovation that will help shape the future of intelligent manufacturing and next-generation robotics.