The Most Buzzworthy Stage: A Showcase for Emerging Technologies

In less than a month, the lunar Year of the Horse will dawn upon us. As the quintessential 'New Year tradition' for Chinese people worldwide, gathering to watch the China Media Group (CMG) Spring Festival Gala on New Year's Eve is a cherished ritual. The CMG Spring Festival Gala for the Year of the Horse is currently undergoing its final, rigorous preparations.

In recent years, the CMG Spring Festival Gala has increasingly embraced a technological flair. With the advent of cutting-edge technologies and products like AI and robots, China's most anticipated annual spectacle has naturally evolved into the ultimate platform for showcasing technological advancements.

The upcoming Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala will spotlight 'Technology Empowerment,' seamlessly integrating 'Technological Intelligence' into stage design, content creation, and beyond. Take stage design, for instance; the gala will leverage AI, AR, and XR technologies to craft an immersive, three-dimensional visual experience where 'the audience is part of the scene, and the scene moves with them' across virtual and real worlds. Following the intelligent robots' Yangko dance performance at the Year of the Snake Spring Festival Gala, which became an internet sensation, robots will once again grace the stage, showcasing China's technological prowess with their scientific and innovative spark.

Image Source: CCTV News

Moreover, the CMG Spring Festival Gala (formerly known as the CCTV Spring Festival Gala), through its sponsors, program content, and topics, provides a window into China's evolving economic landscape, shifting consumer trends, and societal focus points. Thus, it is often hailed as a 'barometer' of China's economy.

The list of sponsors for the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala is gradually being unveiled. Compared to the previous dominance of internet and tech giants, this year's sponsor lineup signals a new trend: AI application and hardware companies are emerging as the 'new favorites' on this grand stage, highlighting a profound transformation in the industry.

Forty-Three Years of the Spring Festival Gala: A Journey of Technological Evolution

In 1983, the inaugural CCTV Spring Festival Gala made its debut. Through live broadcasts on black-and-white televisions, Chinese families experienced, for the first time, a tangible atmosphere of celebration where 'the whole nation celebrates together' on New Year's Eve. Notably, the first CCTV Spring Festival Gala introduced an interactive format, allowing viewers to call in and request programs.

The live broadcast format, festive ambiance, and sense of mass participation have been the cornerstone operational models of the Spring Festival Gala since its inception. After a strong start, the development of the Spring Festival Gala accelerated, with technological innovation and commercial progress being two consistent threads throughout.

In terms of technological innovation, subsequent Spring Festival Galas have witnessed continuous upgrades in stage technology, effects, live broadcast capabilities, and visual effects. Television equipment for viewers has also evolved from black-and-white to color TVs, from color TVs to large screens, and from large screens to smart terminals.

A pivotal shift occurred when, since the new millennium, devices like computers, mobile phones, and tablets have become mediums for watching the live broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala. This has fundamentally expanded the scale and reach of the Spring Festival Gala's audience. New interactive forms, such as 'watching the Spring Festival Gala on TV and grabbing red envelopes on mobile phones,' have not only extended the sense of mass participation through technology but also innovatively bridged the interaction between large and small screens, ensuring that using mobile phones and watching the Spring Festival Gala are no longer mutually exclusive.

Correspondingly, tech companies have become the largest group of sponsors for the Spring Festival Gala, with different types of companies taking the stage at various stages.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the main sponsors of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala were concentrated in the light industry and fast-moving consumer goods sectors, such as watches, bicycles, and Baijiu (Chinese white liquor). Entering the new century, giant home appliance companies, represented by Midea, began to dominate. In the 2010s, with the rise of the mobile internet wave, internet giants enjoying huge growth dividends from the industry gradually became the largest sponsors of the Spring Festival Gala, frequently appearing and conducting brand marketing. Over a decade, a steady stream of internet companies took the stage, with two major waves of open competition:

The first wave (2015-2017): The competition between WeChat Pay and Alipay accelerated the popularization of mobile payments in China.

The second wave (2020-2021): The rivalry between Kuaishou and Douyin (TikTok's Chinese counterpart) ultimately saw Douyin emerge victorious.

Besides internet companies, new energy vehicle companies have also been 'secretly competing' on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala in recent years, with different brand automakers vying for stage backdrops, host mentions, and multiple product placements in programs.

Image Source: CCTV.com

Fast forward to 2025 and 2026, the third and fourth waves of open competition have simultaneously begun in the AI cloud and robotics sectors.

In 2025, Alibaba Cloud, as the representative AI cloud company, provided technical support for the Spring Festival Gala, while Unitree, as the representative humanoid robot company, performed on the stage. In 2026, Volcano Engine, a subsidiary of ByteDance, became the new AI cloud partner for the Spring Festival Gala, and it is said that five robotics (embodied intelligence) companies will jointly appear on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala.

Simultaneously, intelligent cleaning robot companies such as Dreame and MOVA have also confirmed their participation in the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala through sponsorships.

Without a doubt, the upcoming Spring Festival Gala will be the one with the highest ever 'AI technology (especially AI hard tech)' content.

The confirmed partner companies for the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala are all from the AI technology and robotics sectors, with specific brands as follows:

Volcano Engine (a subsidiary of ByteDance): Exclusive AI cloud partner;

Dreame: Strategic partner for intelligent technology ecosystem;

MOVA: Strategic partner for consumer electronics;

Shouqu: Strategic partner for intelligent mobility;

Magic Atom: Strategic partner for intelligent robots.

The Competition Among Humanoid Robot Brands May Become the Biggest Highlight of the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala

Notably, Magic Atom became the first officially announced robotics sponsor for the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala. According to previous reports, no single robotics company secured exclusive sponsorship rights for the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala. 'Ultimately, around five embodied intelligence companies will appear on the Spring Festival Gala together, each contributing around 100 million yuan.' Robot companies that have 'shown strong interest' in the Spring Festival Gala stage include Unitree, Enabot, Yibot, Songyan Power, and Deep Robotics.

On-Site Footage from Leitech at CES 2026

Currently, with Magic Atom taking the lead in the official announcement, it is highly probable that the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala will feature a group performance by multiple brands of humanoid robots. The format of a group performance is undoubtedly a better way to showcase the current development trend of China's humanoid robot industry. There are also rumors that robots will participate in more than one program at the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala.

A single flower does not bring spring, while one hundred flowers in full bloom bring spring to the garden. Just as the Leitech CES reporting team observed in Las Vegas, after Chinese humanoid robots made a collective appearance at CES 2026, they garnered enthusiastic responses in the North American market and on the global stage.

On-Site Footage from Leitech at CES 2026

Since the robot Yangko dance at the 2025 Spring Festival Gala captured nationwide attention, robots (especially humanoid robots) have not only become a hot topic in the tech industry but also, after attracting significant capital inflows, sparked an arms race across the entire industry. Correspondingly, important robot components such as dexterous hands and robotic arms, as well as their technological applications, have also become highly sought-after sectors.

With more humanoid robot companies appearing on the stage of the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala, 2026 will see even fiercer brand competition in China's robot and embodied intelligence industry.

Breaking into the Mass Market: Smart Cleaning Category May Be the Biggest Winner at the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala

Besides robot companies, two emerging brands in the smart cleaning sector, Dreame and MOVA, as well as one emerging brand in the smart mobility sector, Shouqu, the three partners from these two new tech sectors, undoubtedly reflect the greatest novelty of the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala—heroes are judged not by their origins but by their market development prospects.

Just as the Leitech CES reporting team observed in Las Vegas, Chinese tech brands represented by the smart cleaning category have also taken center stage at CES 2026. As a continuation of CES 2026, Dreame and MOVA will represent the smart cleaning category on the stage of the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala.

On-Site Footage from Leitech at CES 2026

Smart cleaning, smart glasses, and smart imaging have become the three fastest-growing new hardware categories for the masses. Among them, the smart cleaning category, which combines AI technology and robotics scene applications, also faces the most intense market competition. From the perspective of domestic market category penetration (2024 data), the penetration rate of robotic vacuum cleaners, the flagship products in the smart cleaning category, is only 5.5%, indicating huge market growth potential.

For the smart cleaning category and related brands, there is an urgent need for a top-trending stage like the Spring Festival Gala, which reaches 'hundreds of millions of household users,' to endorse, promote, and support them. From the evolution of major home appliance brands like Midea to emerging smart cleaning brands like Dreame and MOVA, as the categories and companies collaborating with the Spring Festival Gala in the tech home appliance sector become more trendy, the pace of promotion for related categories and markets is also accelerating. The stage of the Spring Festival Gala has now become a weathervane for China's tech industry.

Image Source: MOVA

Specifically for these two brands, Dreame is the strategic partner for intelligent technology ecosystem at the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala, representing not only the smart cleaning field but also encompassing a full-scene intelligent living product ecosystem that includes intelligent mobility, smart home appliances, smart kitchen appliances, smart audio-visual, and outdoor living. MOVA is the strategic partner for consumer electronics at the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala, representing a whole-house smart home ecosystem that covers cleaning, gardening, personal care, pets, and more.

Intelligent Mobility Robots: The Biggest Surprise at the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala

Besides Dreame and MOVA, Shouqu has become a strategic partner for the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala, drawing outside attention to the intelligent mobility sector.

In fact, both the smart cleaning and intelligent mobility sectors are vigorously embracing AI and robotics technology applications. The environmental perception, autonomous decision-making, and precise execution capabilities possessed by smart cleaning robots are also shared by the intelligent mobility robots launched by Shouqu.

In terms of specific product details, Shouqu has introduced a complete set of technological combinations that upgrade two-wheeled electric vehicles into intelligent mobility robots, including the Skymotor central intelligent brain, SkyKey 1.0 AI self-learning touchless unlocking, and the Zero Threshold OS global operating system.

Image Source: Shouqu

More remarkably, as a company established in 2025, Shouqu has achieved a full-link layout encompassing technology research and development, intelligent manufacturing, channel construction, and brand momentum accumulation in a very short time:

From forging an agreement with Tsinghua University to co-establish a state-of-the-art technology laboratory and surmounting challenges in next-generation mobility technologies, including low wind resistance and self-balancing systems; to sequentially unveiling partnerships with two globally renowned esports intellectual properties, Fearless Tour and League of Legends, with a keen focus on younger demographics; from swiftly erecting a Liuzhou automotive-grade intelligent manufacturing hub with a staggering total investment exceeding 1.5 billion yuan and an annual production capacity of 1.5 million units; to executing a blisteringly fast nationwide rollout of over 1,000 flagship stores in a mere four months.

As a burgeoning representative in the AI and robotics-powered short-distance mobility sector, Shouqu is poised to rocket onto the stage of the Spring Festival Gala.

The intelligent mobility experience, bolstered by AI and robotics technology, has already been fully integrated into the four-wheeled electric vehicle industry. In the short-distance mobility and commuting sector, dominated by two-wheeled electric vehicles, the adoption of a groundbreaking intelligent mobility experience also necessitates acceleration. With its promotion on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Horse, the expedited intelligentization of two-wheeled electric vehicles is eagerly anticipated.

It is worth noting that the roster of partner companies for the Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Horse is still undergoing updates. Based solely on the partner companies unveiled thus far, the Spring Festival Gala's support for novel technologies, applications, and hardware is unparalleled.

Whether in the domains of AI applications, AI hardware, or robotics, all represent the hottest topics in the tech industry in recent years, as well as strategic emerging industries vigorously promoted by top-tier design. The systematic showcase and promotion by the Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Horse also constitute a pivotal task in this historical progression.

To craft a more 'authentic' barometer for China's tech industry, the Spring Festival Gala will undoubtedly place greater emphasis on showcasing and promoting China's hard tech accomplishments, exemplified by AI and robotics technology applications. China's premier stage, once transformed into a premier showcase, will also assume a more pivotal role as a window for internal promotion and external display in the widespread adoption of new technologies, applications, and hardware.

Spring Festival Gala, Technology, AI, Robots, Smart Cleaning

Source: Leitech

All images in this article are sourced from the 123RF licensed image library.