Just yesterday, the Spring Festival Gala officially named Galaxea AI as its designated embodied large-model robot provider.

On January 23, the Gala had already announced Magic Atom as its strategic partner for intelligent robots. Over three straight days, two robotics companies received official billing.

But according to people familiar with the matter, “Unitree and Songyan Power are also on the Spring Festival Gala list.”

For now, the only point still in dispute is whether AgiBot and Deep Robotics will also appear on the Gala.

Several robotics companies are racing to get on the Spring Festival Gala. Behind that push is an intense capital game: dancing on stage, chess off stage.

Official Announcements and Online Rumors

On January 23, Magic Atom was first to announce that it had become the first robotics partner for the 2026 Spring Festival Gala.

Under the partnership, its MagicBot Z1 humanoid robot and MagicDog quadruped robot will perform difficult moves, including getting up after falling and backbends, in a “Ten Thousand Horses Galloping” themed performance.

After the news broke, co-founder Gu Shitao seized the moment to say the company had accelerated its IPO process and could make a new move as early as 2026. Just two days later, Galaxea AI followed.

On January 25, CCTV officially named it the Spring Festival Gala’s “designated embodied large-model robot.”

Attention then immediately turned to Unitree. In 2025, Unitree shot to fame overnight with “Yang BOT,” a northeastern yangge dance choreographed by Zhang Yimou, becoming the robotics industry’s breakout star.

For Unitree, the 2026 Spring Festival Gala is a “title defense.”

Although there has been no official announcement, a leaked document said to be a Spring Festival Gala program list shows Unitree robots performing a dance called “Qiji New Form,” reportedly an upgraded version of last year’s “Yang BOT.”

The routine reportedly includes a number of difficult dance moves, such as backflips and bionic horse stances.

Although officials have not responded, someone suspected to be a staff member posted on Douyin with images claiming that, one day earlier, a Unitree robot team had just finished recording for a Spring Festival Gala branch venue.

Several people familiar with the matter said Songyan Power will also appear on the Gala. “It won’t be just one or two robots. The whole Songyan robot family will be there, reportedly at the main venue,” one person said.

The person said Songyan Power launched a 9,998-yuan near-consumer-grade humanoid robot in October 2025 called “Little Bumi.” It stands 0.94 meters tall and weighs 24 jin, or about 12 kilograms.

“This robot is also said to be going on the Spring Festival Gala, so sales have been pretty strong recently. Orders are already lined up for more than 2,000 units. If you order now, the earliest delivery window is March or April,” one person familiar with the matter said.

Many of the companies buying “Little Bumi” are automakers.

“Buy a car and get a dancing little robot has become a major selling point.”

Some companies are also giving the small robots to clients as gifts, calling them “quite novel.”

At present, Little Bumi comes with two built-in dances. More dances will be added through free updates for users over time.

But what users care about most is: “Will Little Bumi be able to dance the Spring Festival Gala routine?”

That shows how entertainment and companionship have become the fastest commercial landing scenarios for robots.

From Solo Dance to Team Battle

Last year’s Spring Festival Gala was a solo act by Unitree. This year, at least for now, it looks more like a team battle among robotics companies.

Several people familiar with the matter have said on social media that “for robots to appear on the Spring Festival Gala, each company has to pay 100 million yuan in sponsorship fees.”

For robotics companies still relying on financing and lacking core profit-making scenarios, 100 million yuan is no small sum.

Even so, they are still rushing in. At the 2025 Spring Festival Gala, Unitree Technology’s yangge-dancing robots drove a sharp increase in order inquiries. That night’s program and robot performance were widely rebroadcast and covered by CCTV and international media, reaching billions of views.

Who would not want that kind of mainstream breakout impact?

If one company cannot swallow the opportunity alone, then it becomes a “Pinduoduo” model.

People familiar with the matter told media that “a total of five leading companies have funded plans to appear on the Spring Festival Gala: Unitree, AgiBot, Galaxea AI, Deep Robotics, and Songyan Power.”

So far, the only one officially confirmed is Galaxea AI.

The market is full of smoke screens around reports that AgiBot is bidding for the Spring Festival Gala.

One moment, there are rumors of a 60 million yuan bid; the next, the company denies them.

But it is worth noting that among the shareholders behind Songyan Power, Deep Robotics, and Galaxea AI, there is one common name: the CCTV Converged Media Fund.

This is a 10 billion yuan fund led by China Media Group, with a first phase of 3.7 billion yuan. It invested in Songyan Power in October 2025, then made a cluster of investments in Deep Robotics and Galaxea AI in December.

Capital Maneuvering

Most people will simply find it novel to see robots perform on the Spring Festival Gala.

But another group wants to make money from the positive news.

As soon as Galaxea AI’s Spring Festival Gala appearance was officially announced, countless bloggers began analyzing which market segments were worth watching. Anything even loosely connected to Galaxea AI was picked apart. The day after the announcement, Tianqi Automation Engineering and Baida Precision both closed at the daily limit up in the A-share market.

Tianqi Automation Engineering and Galaxea AI jointly established Tianqi Galaxy Robot, each holding 50%. Baida Precision, by contrast, had only signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Galaxea AI to deploy more than 1,000 embodied AI robots at scale.

Then there is Magic Atom, the first company to make an official announcement. It was founded only in 2024 and is, strictly speaking, just two years old.

But its background is not simple: behind it is Dreame Technology’s supply chain.

While others are still hand-building components, Magic Atom has directly reused Dreame’s mature motor production lines and pushed capacity to the limit.

Co-founder Gu Shitao previously signaled that the company is moving on the “fastest timetable.” The Spring Festival Gala traffic is the crucial final push before a listing.

For other robotics companies, the return on investment from the Spring Festival Gala is “absolutely worth it.” Their calculation is clear: spend 100 million yuan, and if valuation rises by 10%, a company like Galaxea AI, valued at 20 billion yuan, gets a 2 billion yuan paper gain.

The more critical factor is the timing window.

Unitree Technology completed IPO tutoring in November 2025 and is sprinting toward an A-share listing. Galaxea AI is rumored to be seeking a Hong Kong listing at a $4 billion valuation. Zhihui Jun’s AgiBot also appears to be exploring a backdoor-style listing through acquisition. Magic Atom is racing toward an IPO as fast as possible.

For these companies, 2026 is a “life-or-death year” for going public. They badly need a national-level story to support lofty valuations.

After all, the successful precedent is right there.

UBTech appeared on the Spring Festival Gala four times. After 540 Alpha robots performed at the 2016 Gala, the company raised $100 million within six months and its valuation surged to $1 billion.

In December 2023, UBTech listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the “first humanoid robot stock.” Listing windows close quickly, and the Spring Festival Gala is the fastest catalyst.

In 2025, the embodied AI sector saw 329 financing deals, but capital kept concentrating at the top.

The nine largest single-round financing events took more than 10 billion yuan, or 25% of the total.

Investors have less money in hand and are increasingly willing to back only “certainty.”

Appearing on the Spring Festival Gala has become an important benchmark for that “certainty.” Someone in the industry put it bluntly: “For us, the Spring Festival Gala is not about converting users. It is about converting investors. Our target audience is not viewers, but the investors and stock traders sitting in front of their televisions.”

But the Spring Festival Gala is only a magnifying glass, not a shrine. Those that make it onto the stage may not necessarily enter everyday life; only those that enter everyday life deserve a place in history.

The robotics battle has never been about who jumps higher, but who survives longer.

In 2026, let’s see who is still smiling at the end.