CNBC's The China Connection newsletter: Nvidia's humanoid push relies on China-made robot hands

A mechanical hand is on display at the Robot Mall, world's first embodied intelligent robot 4S store, on August 13, 2025 in Beijing, China. Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty ImagesHi, this is Evelyn, writing to you from Beijing. Welcome to the latest edition of The China Connection — a snapshot of what I'm seeing and hearing from local businesses.Chinese robot companies still underpin many U.S. tech endeavors, especially when it comes to the pain point of robotic hands. Who is one of the latest on Nvidia's radar?In just a few months, Nvidia has showcased two humanoid robot training packages: one with mechanical hands from Sharpa, and another with hands from Wuji.Both have ties to founders in Shanghai.Pan Yunzhe founded Wuji in 2019, eventually moving much of the team to Shenzhen and drawing backers such as Ant Group, HSG and Future Capital, according to PitchBook. A demo video last week claimed a Wuji Hand 2 could autonomously spin a pen, despite interference.The Wuji Hand 2 made it onto a slide Oct. 21 behind Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as he told a crowd in Berlin about a new humanoid hardware system for training the robots on Nvidia software. The robot body comes from Agile Robots, w...