The laparoscopic surgical robot is hailed as the "crown jewel of surgery." It uses algorithms to eliminate surgeon hand tremors, provides 4K high-definition three-dimensional imaging, elevates surgical precision to the sub-millimeter level, and significantly shortens the learning curve for surgeons, making complex minimally invasive procedures more reproducible.
Clinical data indicates that in complex fields like hepatectomy and rectal cancer surgery, robot-assisted surgery demonstrates statistically significant advantages in reducing blood loss, lowering complication rates, and shortening hospital stays. For instance, a 2025 study from Columbia University showed that patients undergoing robotic hepatectomy achieved a "textbook outcome" rate of 85%, significantly higher than the 64% for open surgery, with overall lower hospitalization costs.
For a long time, the global laparoscopic robot market was dominated by a single player, Intuitive Surgical. By the end of 2025, the global cumulative installed base of the da Vinci system surpassed 11,000 units, with cumulative procedures exceeding 20 million. Its 2025 revenue broke through the $10 billion mark, with consumables and service revenue accounting for over 75%, forming a solid business loop of "equipment sales + consumables repurchase + service fees."
However, this unipolar dominance is being disrupted, especially in the Chinese market, where the collective rise of domestic manufacturers is reshaping the competitive landscape. In 2025, the number of laparoscopic surgical robots awarded to domestic public hospitals reached 90 units, with domestic brands winning 47 of those bids, exceeding a 50% share for the first time. This marks the entry of domestic substitution into a substantive phase. Representatives of the domestic first tier, such as MicroPort MedBot (HKG: 02252) and Jifeng Medical, have not only achieved a leap from following to running alongside in technology but have also taken the lead in initiating global expansion, competing head-on with Intuitive Surgical in overseas markets.
Core Product Commercialization Accelerates, Domestic Substitution Reaches Breakthrough
Taking MicroPort MedBot as an example, in 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of 5.51 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 114.22%. Its net loss attributable to owners narrowed to 254 million yuan, a reduction of 60.73% year-on-year. The adjusted net loss was 165 million yuan, a reduction of 65.81% year-on-year. The company's loss margin continues to narrow, and profitability is steadily improving, with multiple securities firms predicting the company is expected to achieve profitability in 2026.
In terms of products, the Toumai laparoscopic robot is the company's core revenue source, contributing over 80% of revenue in 2025. As of the end of March 2026, global commercial orders for the Toumai system exceeded 220 units, with cumulative commercial installations surpassing 140 units, covering over 50 countries and regions. Its global order volume is second only to Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci system, securing the global second position.
The rapid development of MicroPort MedBot is inseparable from its continuous technological innovation. The company consistently adheres to independent research and development, achieving a series of breakthroughs in core surgical robot technologies, and has even surpassed international giants in areas like remote surgery and AI-powered autonomous surgery.
In April 2025, the Toumai remote surgery system obtained the world's first multi-department remote surgical robot registration certificate, enabling remote surgeries in urology, gynecology, general surgery, thoracic surgery, and more. The system employs advanced low-latency transmission technology and a multi-network fusion backup solution, supporting various communication methods including dedicated lines, 5G networks, conventional networks, high-orbit satellites, and low-orbit satellites.
Through the Toumai remote surgery system, top experts from Beijing and Shanghai can perform surgeries for patients in remote areas or even abroad, allowing more patients access to high-quality medical services. By early April 2026, the Toumai remote system had been approved for launch in nearly 10 countries worldwide, completing over 800 remote surgeries with a 100% success rate.
In December 2025, leveraging the Toumai robot and the Neuron MicroGenius multimodal autonomous surgery large model, the company completed the world's first large model autonomous surgery animal experiment. On a 30kg experimental pig, the large model autonomously completed core steps such as bile duct clipping and cutting, with a success rate of 88% for local operational steps, and demonstrated real-time autonomous dynamic adjustment and correction.
It is understood that the Neuron MicroGenius large model adopts an HL+LL dual-large-model architecture, overall being a multimodal action generation model trained on a 3-billion-parameter scale. The HL model, trained on 23,000 surgical video clips, possesses strong clinical scene understanding and surgical strategy planning capabilities. The LL model, through learning from 10,000 multimodal operation clips, achieves precise response and smooth operation of robotic arms.
Furthermore, in February 2025, the Toumai single-port laparoscopic surgical robot received NMPA registration, becoming the world's second approved single-port laparoscopic surgical robot after the da Vinci SP, filling a domestic gap. With this, MicroPort MedBot has established a complete technological layout in the laparoscopic robot field: "multi-port + single-port + remote + AI."
Breaking Unipolar Monopoly Through Global Expansion, Domestic Substitution Extends Worldwide
MicroPort MedBot established a globalization strategy from its inception, aiming to become a world-leading surgical robotics company. Unlike other domestic medical device companies that typically prioritize the domestic market before expanding overseas, MicroPort MedBot adopted a "walking on two legs" strategy, steadily developing the domestic market while vigorously expanding into international markets.
In May 2024, the Toumai four-arm laparoscopic surgical robot obtained CE certification, becoming one of the earliest domestic laparoscopic robot brands to achieve this breakthrough. Subsequently, the company accelerated its overseas market registration pace. By the end of 2025, the Toumai system had obtained market access in nearly 60 countries and regions worldwide, covering Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and more.
In terms of commercialization, MicroPort MedBot first entered emerging markets that are more price-sensitive and have relatively lower entry barriers, then gradually expanded into developed markets like Europe. The company established localized sales and service teams overseas, building deep cooperative relationships with local distributors and hospitals. In 2025, the company's overseas business revenue reached 400 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 287%, accounting for 72.63% of total revenue, a significant increase from 40.24% in 2024. The overseas market has become the company's core growth engine.
In the European market, the Toumai system has been installed in countries including Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, completing hundreds of procedures. In the Southeast Asian market, its market share is rapidly increasing in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other countries. In the Middle East market, the company signed cooperation agreements with large medical groups in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others, securing batch orders.
While vigorously expanding overseas markets, MicroPort MedBot is also steadily advancing its domestic market development. In recent years, the Chinese government has introduced a series of policies supporting innovative medical devices, creating a favorable environment for the development of surgical robots.
In June 2023, the National Health Commission released the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Allocation of Large Medical Equipment," planning for 559 intraperitoneal endoscopy surgical systems during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, with a cumulative planned total of 819 units. In January 2026, the National Healthcare Security Administration issued the "Guidelines for the Establishment of Medical Service Price Items for Surgical and Therapeutic Auxiliary Operations (Trial)," clarifying pricing standards for surgical robots, implementing a coefficient-based charging model linked to the primary surgery.
In 2025, the Toumai system secured nearly 20 new domestic awards, with cumulative domestic installations exceeding 60 units, covering top-tier hospitals in over 20 provinces and municipalities across the country. With the issuance of the "15th Five-Year Plan" allocation permits and the refinement of medical insurance payment policies, the company's domestic installation volume is expected to increase further.
Despite significant achievements in commercialization and technology, MicroPort MedBot still faces numerous challenges. Firstly, the company has not yet formed a "consumables + services" business loop comparable to Intuitive Surgical's. In 2025, independent consumables repurchases accounted for only about 12% of Toumai's overall sales, far below Intuitive Surgical's nearly 60% consumables revenue share. This indicates the company's current revenue primarily relies on equipment sales, resulting in weaker cash flow stability and room for improvement in profitability.
Secondly, domestic market competition is intensifying. Products from competitors like Sizhe Rui and Shurui show little gap in price and performance compared to Toumai and have established local advantages in certain regional markets. In the 2025 domestic public hospital bidding, Jifeng Medical won 16 bids, Sizhe Rui won 10, forming a tripartite competitive landscape with MicroPort MedBot's 11 wins.
Furthermore, gaps in core technology persist. The da Vinci 5 system achieves real-time perception and transmission of three-dimensional push-pull forces by equipping sensors at the instrument tip. In contrast, current domestic platforms primarily achieve force display—indirectly deducing the force acting on internal organs by calculating the contact force between the surgical instrument and the cannula—still lacking in precision and real-time capability.
Moving forward, domestic manufacturers still need to confront these risks and challenges, persist in technological innovation, refine their business models, deepen global expansion, and strengthen industry collaboration to stand out in the fierce market competition.
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