IFA Berlin Stages First Robot Catwalk in 102-Year History

On September 5, 2026, at 12:45 PM, IFA Berlin staged 'Robots on the Runway' — the first robot fashion catwalk in the exhibition's 102-year history. On a purpose-built T-stage at the Creator Stage in Messe Berlin's Palais am Funkturm, humanoid robots walked, posed, danced, and turned backflips in front of a live public audience. No human models were involved.

Eleven robotics exhibitors were on the bill: Primebot Robots, EngineAI, Cozio Robotics, Dobot Robot, DEEP Robotics, AgiBot, Unitree, ZBy – Mind with Heart, Ollobot, Astrall Dynamics and AiMOGA. Nine of the eleven names on the runway were Chinese, reflecting a structural shift in the industry's center of gravity.

The scale of the Chinese contingent was the story underneath the choreography. Chinese firms accounted for 932 of IFA 2026's 1,900-plus exhibiting brands — close to half the show and roughly 200 more than a year ago. IFA Management CEO Leif Lindner attributed this to supply chain integration: 'When design, engineering, production and testing are all happening within the same ecosystem, ideas naturally move from prototype to product much faster.'

Morgan Stanley twice raised its 2026 China humanoid shipment forecast — from 14,000 units in January to 50,000 in June — and projects 446,000 annual units by 2030. Bank of America projected 90,000 global shipments in 2026. Goldman Sachs put the 2035 humanoid TAM at $38 billion on 1.4 million units, a sixfold upward revision of an earlier estimate.

NEURA Robotics, which announced a Series C of up to $1.4 billion in June 2026, keynoted the Innovation Stage two doors down. The governance gap between the US and EU was stark: the FCC placed Unitree on its Covered List in July 2026, while Europe has no equivalent import restriction, meaning the same hardware can be procured freely inside the EU.

When design, engineering, production and testing are all happening within the same ecosystem, ideas naturally move from prototype to product much faster.

— Leif Lindner, CEO, IFA Management