Web Summit 2026: China’s robots and the busiest Thursday yet

A collage showing Web Summit branding, a speaker wearing a “FREE” sweater, and a white humanoid robot gesturing on stage.

Paddy Cosgrave estimates that Chinese companies make about 98% of the humanoid robots installed around the world. At his press briefing in Lisbon, he also described how crews rebuilt the Web Summit site in under 2 days after the storm. These are my notes on what he said, and on what the robotics figures could mean for Europe.