Midea Group

Midea Group is a Foshan appliance maker founded in 1968 by He Xiangjian, listed in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. It became a robotics owner by taking control of Germany's KUKA in 2017 and buying out the remaining shareholders in 2022, and it reports a research staff of more than 23,000 with 2024 R&D spending of CNY 16.2 billion, about 4 percent of revenue. The company says its humanoid technology stack is developed in-house.

The first machine, an industrial humanoid called Meiluo, was announced as a prototype in early 2025 and put to work from May 2025 at Midea's Jingzhou washing machine plant on data collection, equipment maintenance, materials handling and inspection. A bipedal retail series, Meila, was in final testing in late 2025 for a 2026 launch in Midea stores to guide customers, demonstrate products and make coffee.

On 5 December 2025 Midea unveiled MIRO U, described as a third-generation humanoid: a wheeled base with a humanoid torso and six actuated arms, meant to do three tasks at once. Midea planned to install it at its Wuxi washing machine factory by the end of December 2025 and claimed a 30 percent gain in line changeover efficiency. Unit numbers have not been published, and Midea itself said full industrialisation of humanoids would take at least three to five more years.