The global robotics industry will consume as much electricity as France generates from nuclear power within a decade, according to new research from Wood Mackenzie. The report, titled "Embodied AI: How Robotics Are Accelerating Global Power Demand," puts combined robotics power consumption at 363 terawatt-hours by 2035, approaching France's nuclear generation of 373 TWh in 2025. The finding comes as energy planners are already struggling to keep pace with AI data centres, making robotics a second and largely unaccounted-for strain on electricity grids worldwide.
Industrial robots will account for the vast majority of that power draw, reaching 357 TWh annually by 2035, while humanoid robots add another 6 TWh each year. The 5 million robots operating today already pull 78 TWh annually, roughly double London's entire electricity consumption and equivalent to 20-25% of global data centre demand. Wood Mackenzie expects the operational fleet to hit 16 million units by 2035 if the current 12% yearly growth rate holds. Annual installations have climbed from 200,000 in 2015 to 500,000 in 2025 and are projected to top 1 million by 2032. Humanoid robots remain early-stage but are expanding at over 90% compound annual growth from 2025 to 2035, reaching more than 10 million units with annual shipments surpassing 4 million. Average humanoid robot prices plummeted 93% between 2020 and 2025 to $58,000, and China's Unitree Robotics G1 now sells for $16,000 with an estimated yearly electricity cost of just $82 at eight hours daily use, based on a global average industrial tariff of $0.14 per kilowatt-hour.
China dominates both markets, responsible for over 70% of annual global industrial robot installations and nearly 90% of all humanoid units deployed in 2025. China State Grid is spending $1 billion in 2026 to purchase 8,500 AI-enabled autonomous robots for more than 600 specialised tasks, from routine grid maintenance to live-line work on ultra-high voltage power lines. "Power constraints are becoming a real brake on robotic adoption, and that matters because labour markets in developed economies are running short of alternatives," said Robert Liew, Director of Integrated Energy Research at Wood Mackenzie. If the global humanoid market reaches one billion units by 2050, the report finds, power demand from humanoid robots alone could match South Korea's entire electricity generation in 2026.
The report explains that robotics demand has climbed for more than a decade, driven by structural labour shortages, rising labour costs, and supply chain security concerns. AI advances in computer vision, large language models, and reinforcement learning have expanded robot capability into logistics, healthcare, and field operations. Most industrial robots draw power directly from local grids without low-carbon sourcing mandates, compounding the strain on electricity infrastructure already stretched by data centres. The cost advantage is stark: at $82 per year in electricity for eight-hour daily operation, the Unitree G1 runs well below human labour costs in most markets, even though it's mostly limited to specific settings for now.
The collision of plunging prices and expanding capabilities means robotics is no longer a niche energy user but a critical infrastructure demand that energy planners can't ignore. China's billion-dollar State Grid purchase signals that robotics has moved from factory floors to national infrastructure, and the report makes clear that power availability may soon decide which economies can automate and which can't. With industrial robots already drawing 78 TWh a year and humanoid units poised for explosive growth, the 363 TWh forecast by 2035 isn't a distant concern—it's a constraint that's arriving faster than grids can adapt.