Chinese humanoid robots that help people in their houses were one of an array of advanced machines showed off at a conference this week.

A Beijing conference played host to humanoid robot that can do chores, sort parcels and pack mobile phones. The companies behind them hope that the conference can help such machines move from displays that please and horrify the world – and into people’s actual homes and workplaces.

More than 300 mostly domestic ⁠companies are attending the World Robot Conference, which runs through Sunday, displaying over 2,000 exhibits and launching more than 150 products, according to organizers.

The event comes amid a surge of investor interest in humanoids, a potential new source of industrial growth for China and an arena of technological competition with the United States.

Shares in Unitree, China’s best-known humanoid robot maker, soared nearly sixfold in their Shanghai trading debut on Wednesday, after Unitree’s initial public offering was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors.

Following Unitree’s IPO, startup Lumos Robotics and the robotics ⁠division of China’s largest auto exporter Chery Automobile told Reuters they were also considering stock ​market ⁠listings.

Madison Huang, a senior Nvidia executive and daughter of the U.S. chipmaker’s CEO Jensen Huang, made an unannounced visit to the event, watching robots perform flying kicks and dance routines before stopping at a companion-robot booth to ask about its sensors.

Huang, who drew onlookers much ⁠as her father has on past visits to Beijing, oversees marketing for Nvidia’s Omniverse and robotics platforms, software used to simulate and test physical AI — ​systems that can ⁠perceive and act in the real world.

Despite geopolitical tensions ‌and U.S. restrictions on exports of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips to China, her visit highlighted foreign suppliers’ role in China’s push to develop robots for its factories, warehouses and homes.

RealSense, a U.S.-based maker of vision systems for robots and one of the few foreign exhibitors at the conference, said it was ‌building sales partnerships in China as the sector develops.

“We see China as a very ‌strategic market for us,” said Mike Nielsen, the company’s chief marketing officer.

“It is becoming the center of humanoid technology.”

Read More: Inside China World Robot Conference as humanoid machines lead the way