Das von Zhiyuan mit 2,1 Milliarden Yuan investierte Unternehmen hat in drei Tagen um 2,287 Milliarden Yuan an Wert zugenommen.

In the field of embodied robots, where the financing boom continues to soar, another capital drama that leaves many people puzzled has unfolded.

On the evening of July 8th, Shangwei New Materials released an announcement stating that Shanghai Zhiyuan Hengyue Technology Partnership (hereinafter referred to as "Zhiyuan Hengyue") and its concerted action party, Shanghai Zhiyuan Xinchuang Technology Equipment Partnership (hereinafter referred to as "Zhiyuan Xinchuang"), plan to acquire at least 63.62% of the company's shares in total through two methods: "agreement transfer" and "tender offer". Calculated at the transfer price of 7.78 yuan per share, the total transaction value is approximately 2.1 billion yuan.

The Tianyancha App shows that both Zhiyuan Hengyue and Zhiyuan Xinchuang are shareholding platforms jointly funded by Shanghai Zhiyuan Xinchuang Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhiyuan Xinchuang") and its core team. Among them, Zhiyuan Xinchuang is the parent company of Zhiyuan Robotics. Zhiyuan Hengyue was established in June 2025 and is the entity established for this transaction. Zhiyuan Xinchuang was established in 2024 and holds a 0.5% stake in Zhiyuan Hengyue.

From the perspective of equity control relationship, the actual controller of the above three companies is Deng Taihua, the CEO of Zhiyuan Robotics. Therefore, after the announcement was released, there have been constant speculations in the market about "Zhiyuan Robotics backdoor listing" and "the Science and Technology Innovation Board may welcome the first embodied intelligent robot company".

Although the asset injection of Zhiyuan into Shangwei New Materials has not yet occurred, this operation has already ignited the enthusiasm of stockholders. From July 9th to 11th, Shangwei New Materials had a strong daily limit at the opening for three consecutive days, and its market value swelled by approximately 2.287 billion yuan.

01. Is it a "backdoor listing"?

Shangwei New Materials, which has been "favored" by Zhiyuan, was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in 2020. Its main business focuses on the R & D, production, and sales of new materials, covering fields such as environmentally friendly high - performance corrosion - resistant materials and materials for wind turbine blades.

However, due to the relatively dispersed equity of Shangwei Investment and Control, the indirect controlling shareholder of Shangwei New Materials, it has been in a state without an actual controller until this transaction.

From the financial reports, Shangwei New Materials has a book profit and is actually not short of money. In 2024, Shangwei New Materials' operating income was 1.494 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 6.73%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 88.6814 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 25.01%.

As a listed company in the wind power and environmental protection fields, Shangwei New Materials' business has little connection with the fields of artificial intelligence and embodied intelligence.

However, none of these hinders Deng Taihua, the actual controller of Zhiyuan Robotics, from taking control of it through a clever capital operation.

Deng Taihua graduated from the School of Computer Science and Engineering of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and once served as the vice - president of Huawei. He is a senior expert in the fields of communication and artificial intelligence. Another core executive of Zhiyuan Robotics is Peng Zhihui, also known as Zhihui Jun, a well - known KOL in the technology circle. He joined Huawei's "Genius Youth Program" in 2020 and co - founded Zhiyuan Robotics with Deng Taihua in February 2023.

In just two years since its establishment, Zhiyuan Robotics has completed 10 rounds of financing. In March this year, Zhiyuan Robotics received a new round of financing led by Tencent; in May, JD.com, Shanghai Embodied Intelligence Fund participated in a new round of financing of Zhiyuan, and many old shareholders such as SAIC increased their capital. After the financing, the valuation of Zhiyuan by third - party research institutions has reached as high as 15 billion yuan.

Extensive financing in the primary market has not delayed Deng Taihua's merger and acquisition plan in the secondary market. According to the announcement, Zhiyuan's operation mainly consists of two major steps to take control of Shangwei New Materials.

First, relevant parties of Zhiyuan signed multiple share transfer agreements with the major shareholders of Shangwei New Materials, changing the controlling shareholder from SWANCOR Samoa to Zhiyuan Hengyue. In this way, Deng Taihua obtained 29.99% of the shares of Shangwei New Materials, thus skillfully avoiding the 30% full - tender offer red line.

Second, Zhiyuan Hengyue further increased its shareholding through a partial tender offer. It plans to acquire 149 million shares of Shangwei New Materials through a tender offer, accounting for 37% of the total share capital of the listed company, thus taking absolute control of Shangwei New Materials.

As the transaction progresses, the combined shareholding ratio of Zhiyuan Hengyue and Zhiyuan Xinchuang may rise to a maximum of 66.99%. The controlling shareholder of Shangwei New Materials will be changed to Zhiyuan Hengyue, and the actual controller will be changed to Deng Taihua.

Zhiyuan's acquisition operation has caused a great stir in the capital market. Especially when many embodied intelligent companies are vying for the first listing, the outside world has also raised doubts about whether the transaction is suspected of "backdoor listing".

However, just a change in the company's control is not enough to meet the criteria for a "backdoor listing".

A capital market insider told "Caixin Global" that according to the regulations of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, "when judging whether it constitutes a backdoor listing, in addition to the change of control, there are also asset injection and financial indicators: after the change of control, the non - listed company injects its assets into the listed company within 36 months, and the scale of these assets meets one of the standards stipulated in the 'Administrative Measures for Major Asset Reorganizations of Listed Companies', then it is regarded as a backdoor listing."

In response to this transaction, Zhiyuan Robotics stated externally that it is not a backdoor listing. "This move aims to inject more high - quality assets in the future and empower the internal incubation of the listed company." According to the disclosure in the "Detailed Report on Changes in Equity Interests", within the next 12 months, the acquirer has no clear plan to change the main business of the listed company or make major adjustments to the main business.

In addition, BlueRun Ventures, an important early - stage investor of Zhiyuan, said in an interview with "ChinaVenture": "This transaction is the first major acquisition of a general - purpose robot enterprise in the capital market and an important milestone in the development of Zhiyuan Robotics. This acquisition will help the company improve its multi - level capital market layout."

02. Embodied intelligence ushers in a wave of financing and listing

The reason why Zhiyuan Robotics can conduct "smooth" capital operations still lies in the booming financing in the field of embodied intelligence this year, and the IPO "race" among robot companies has also begun.

In May this year, Unitree Technology issued a notice stating that due to the company's development needs, Hangzhou Unitree Technology Co., Ltd. will change its name to "Hangzhou Unitree Technology Co., Ltd." as of now. Although Unitree responded externally that "this is a routine change in the company's operation", it then launched an unprecedented financing plan, indicating that the IPO process is in full swing.

In June this year, Unitree completed the C - round financing, jointly led by funds under China Mobile, Tencent, Jinqiu, Alibaba, Ant Group, and Geely Capital. After the financing, its valuation reached 13 billion yuan. At the same time, Unitree also completed the change of its registered capital on June 18th, from 2.889 million yuan to 364 million yuan, an increase of 125 times.

On July 7th, "National Business Daily" reported that relevant investors of Unitree Technology revealed that there are plans for an IPO on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in the future. Unitree did not comment on this officially.

The wave of financing is also spreading to start - up companies. Recently, many embodied intelligent companies have announced new financing and new progress. According to IT Juzi data, as of July 9th, there have been 87 investment and financing events related to humanoid robots in 2025, exceeding the 71 events in the whole year of 2024.

On June 23rd, Galaxy Universal received 1.1 billion yuan in financing led by CATL, with a valuation of over 7 billion yuan.

On July 7th, Xingdong Jiyuan announced the completion of a nearly 500 million yuan Series A financing jointly led by CDH VGC and Haier Capital; Feixi Technology also completed a Series C financing of hundreds of millions of dollars on the same day.

On July 9th, Xinghaitu announced the successive completion of Series A4 and A5 strategic financing, with a total financing amount of over 100 million US dollars.

As the robot track enters an accelerated development stage, capital is pouring in intensively, and the valuations of leading enterprises are also rising rapidly. Moreover, good news of successful listings has come from leading enterprises.

On July 9th, Geek+ was officially listed in Hong Kong. Its main business is in the global AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot) market, and its current market value exceeds HK$21.5 billion.

In the camp aiming for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, there are also companies such as Standard Robots, Seer Technology, LeDong Robotics, WoAn Robotics, and Yunji Technology. As the heat of financing activities in the track continues to rise, which company will be the first to seize the industry's leading position as the "first embodied robot listing" has become the focus of market attention.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Caixin Global WEEKLY". The author is Doukou, and the editor is Li Buqing. It is published by 36Kr with permission.