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Galbot’s outlets in Hung Hom, Kai Tak and Wan Chai will be its first outside mainland China, with plans for 10 more outlets

Hong Kong’s first convenience stores operated by humanoid robots will open on Tuesday, with the Beijing-based company behind it planning to establish about 10 more outlets locally as it makes the city its first stop in “going overseas”.

Following an opening ceremony on Monday, the first “Galbot stores” will open in Hung Hom, Kai Tak and Wan Chai the next day, marking the company’s first outlets outside mainland China.

The embodied-intelligence robotics company launched its first store on the mainland last August and has since expanded to about 200 outlets across 50 cities nationwide.

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“This is a genuinely important step for us in going overseas as Hong Kong is an important window and platform for [mainland] China facing the international market,” said Zhao Yuli, chief strategy officer of Galbot, noting that the business had operated a Hong Kong office since 2024.

She said the company planned to open about 10 more Galbot stores in the city over the coming years, in high-footfall districts.

According to Zhao, each Galbot store is run by wheeled humanoid robots powered by the company’s embodied foundation model, AstraBrain.

The robots can take orders, deliver goods and prepare drinks using a linked coffee machine, though a human attendant is still needed for certain store operations, including some replenishment tasks, with full automation expected eventually.

Zhao said Galbot’s robots won gold, silver and bronze medals in the retail category at the World Humanoid Robot Games. The competition required robots to restock shelves, manage inventory and autonomously identify misplaced items and correct their positioning.

“Although Hong Kong has had many robotics and artificial intelligence exhibitions before, those were all demos running for a limited time,” she said. “What residents have rarely seen is a robot that can actually keep working, continuously.”

Zhao said the robot at the Hong Kong outlet would be able to understand Cantonese, which would be one of the highlights of the launch. The stores would also sell cultural and creative products, in addition to drinks and food.

Asked about the city’s high rents and labour costs, she said the company was willing to invest in the business and estimated that it would break even within 12 to 18 months. She described that time frame as “common” for bricks-and-mortar retail.

Zhao cited examples in Beijing and Jiangxi, where the company sold cultural and creative merchandise linked to local landmarks, including Beijing-themed items near the Summer Palace and porcelain blind boxes in Jingdezhen.

She said stores at cultural and tourism sites had increased foot traffic at some locations by 20 to 30 per cent over the past year.

She added that the autonomous robots could also help extend operating hours where round-the-clock staffing was difficult. She cited Galbot’s smart-pharmacy deployments on the mainland, which operate 24 hours a day across multiple cities.

Established in 2023, Galbot saw domestic orders across all its robot models exceed 1,200 last year, Zhao said. The company only began systematic international expansion in earnest this year.

“We are actively exploring collaboration models with local partners, and expect to see more deployment across different international markets before long,” she said.

She added that the company would also plan to introduce other robots to Hong Kong, including the Galbot ET1, its first learning-capable agentic bipedal humanoid robot.

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (www.scmp.com), the leading news media reporting on China and Asia.

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