Topstar launches Star, a 10 kg-payload biped, but its repeat humanoid customers buy its machine tools

Topstar unveiled Star, a full-size bipedal humanoid robot for factory work, at its TOPS DAY 2026 open day on Nov. 7. The robot is 172 cm tall, weighs 72 kg and can carry 10 kg with both arms, Jiemian reported. Its 7-axis humanlike arms end in cross-shaft wrists, and Topstar pitches it at material handling and sorting. Until now the embodied-AI section of Topstar's website listed a wheeled humanoid, a dual-arm humanoid, a robot arm and a quadruped, but nothing that walked on two legs, Beijing Business Today noted.

Star got the stage, but the humanoid business that already pays Topstar is supplying other robot makers. In its first-half report the company credited growth in its CNC machine tools to "a clear increase in demand for machining humanoid robot parts." At the same event its subsidiary Evermi launched the S400, a five-axis machine for humanoid joints, arm links and housings. Lewei, which machines humanoid joint housings, said it has bought 100 Evermi five-axis machines since choosing them in 2023, and Zhejiang Leiwang signed a five-axis machine order the same day.

Topstar's own humanoids are still in small batches

Topstar's own robots are at an earlier stage. Its financial reports describe its embodied AI robots as being in "small-batch validation with customers in different industries." Kaihang Technology, a Dongguan maker of high-speed optical connectors for AI computing, signed an agreement on Nov. 7 to buy Topstar's wheeled humanoid, Xiaotuo; the reports give no quantity. Huang Jing, who runs Topstar's robot business, said the team validated more than 30 scenarios and tasks over the past year and settled on three: high-mix, low-volume sorting, multi-step integrated work and material handling.

The conventional robot line is still the core. Industrial robots and automation systems brought in about RMB 707 million in the first half, 54.9% of revenue, on about 6,800 units signed and 5,500 shipped. Revenue for the first nine months was about RMB 1.969 billion, up 16.68%.

Hou Wenjie, secretary-general of the Yuce think tank, told Beijing Business Today that Star offers "upside elasticity, not a switch of baseline," and that Topstar's valuation should stay anchored on its equipment business. Beijing Business Today asked Topstar about Star's price and use cases and had no reply by publication. The number to wait for is the size of Kaihang's order: a connector maker buying Xiaotuo by the dozen would make Topstar's humanoids a second business, not a showroom for its machines.