Where Robot Companies Cluster: 297 Cities in 2026
Published: 2026-10-21 15:10 (UTC+8) | Data as of: 2026-10-21 | Source: Zhilianhai robot company directory
What the directory holds today
The English edition of the Zhilianhai directory indexes 633,635 robot-related company records across 297 cities. Each record is built from public company registration data: name, province, city, robot type and excerpts of the registered business scope.
Provinces: Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong lead
| Province | Records |
|---|---|
| Guangdong | 97,438 |
| Zhejiang | 58,564 |
| Shandong | 56,599 |
| Jiangsu | 45,070 |
| Shanghai | 43,136 |
| Beijing | 41,597 |
These six account for roughly 54% of all records. The pattern follows manufacturing geography: the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Rim concentrate both robot makers and the factories that buy them.
Cities: the top eight
| City | Records |
|---|---|
| Shanghai | 43,136 |
| Beijing | 41,597 |
| Shenzhen | 35,169 |
| Hangzhou | 27,922 |
| Guangzhou | 27,521 |
| Chengdu | 16,695 |
| Hefei | 15,731 |
| Wuhan | 14,621 |
Shanghai and Beijing lead on record count largely because of how company names are registered there: a national sales office registers in the city, while the plant sits elsewhere. Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Guangzhou combine headquarters and manufacturing in a way that keeps records and production closer together.
Three ways not to read this
- Not as a capability ranking. A record exists because a company’s name or scope mentions robotics. It does not mean the company builds robots, and it certainly does not rank quality.
- Not as capacity. Registration addresses are offices and headquarters; production may sit hundreds of kilometres away.
- Not as market share. Counting companies is not counting revenue, units shipped or installed base.
How to actually use the distribution
The practical use of city data is service radius. Robot projects need commissioning, spare parts and maintenance, so “how many candidate integrators are within two hours” matters more than provincial totals. A city with 27,000 records and a city with 16,000 records are both viable sourcing pools; the difference shows up in how quickly a supplier can reach the line.
Browse the company directory by region, read the robotics news section for industry context, or review the data methodology on the about page.
Scope and limits
- All figures are as of 2026-10-21 and change as records are cleaned or added.
- Type classification comes from name and scope keywords; two thirds of records remain unclassified by machine type.
- Inclusion is not certification, accreditation or endorsement.