Dissecting "ZhiYuan Robotics": The Capital Chess Game and the "Huawei Affiliated" Operators
Text | Wang Fangyu
Editor | Su Jianxun
In recent months, the capital operations of Embodied Intelligence unicorn "ZhiYuan Robotics" have been truly dazzling, as it both raises funds for survival and invests in the industrial chain.
On May 20th, the Embodied Intelligence startup "Annu Intelligence" announced the completion of a multi - million - level seed round of financing. Industrial and commercial records show that among the shareholders of Annu Intelligence, the unicorn ZhiYuan Robotics stands out, holding a 20% stake.
This is not the first time that ZhiYuan Robotics has made an external investment in a robotics company.
Since 2025, ZhiYuan Robotics has been jointly establishing robotics companies with listed companies at a rate of one per month. According to statistics from "Intelligent Emergence", ZhiYuan Robotics' listed company joint - venture partners include Bosung Precision, Dafeng Industry, Wolong Electric Drive, iSoftStone, Junpu Intelligence, Dongyangguang, Fuling Precision, etc.
That is to say, ZhiYuan Robotics not only manufactures robots on its own but also jointly manufactures them with listed companies.
ZhiYuan Robotics establishes a joint - venture company with a listed company. Source: Chart by Intelligent Emergence
As a startup, ZhiYuan Robotics has also directly invested in several startups in the Embodied Intelligence industrial chain, including Digital Huaxia, Lingchu Intelligence, Qianjue Robotics, Fuxing Electromechanical, etc., covering multiple fields such as robot components, Embodied Intelligence systems, and bionic robots.
Such intensive capital operations have left many industry insiders scratching their heads.
For a long time, the public image of ZhiYuan Robotics has been mainly represented by Peng Zhihui, a former "Genius Teenager" from Huawei, whose online name is "ZhiHuijun". He is one of the top 100 UP owners on Bilibili and quite influential in the entire tech circle, showcasing the technological and geeky side of ZhiYuan.
However, in reality, ZhiYuan Robotics shows a completely different temperament in its operations. It has put aside the nerdy quality of geeks who only focus on technology and has become a seasoned operator good at ecological construction and resource integration.
"ZhiYuan adopts an ecological approach - quickly becoming a large company while incubating other startups to build its own industrial ecosystem. To be honest, this approach doesn't seem like that of a traditional startup," Xu Huazhe, the co - founder of Xinghaitu, once commented in an interview.
It wasn't until a change in industrial and commercial registration information in April this year that another side of ZhiYuan Robotics, unknown to the public, was revealed.
According to the industrial and commercial registration platform, Shanghai ZhiYuan New Technology Co., Ltd. completed its industrial and commercial change in early April. The legal representative of the company changed from Shu Yuanchun to a new name - Deng Taihua. Deng Taihua was the person in charge of Huawei's wireless product line (communication base stations, such as 5G) in the early years and later served as the former vice - president of Huawei and the former president of the computing product line.
However, in fact, Deng Taihua didn't "join" ZhiYuan recently. He has always been the founder and actual controller of this robotics unicorn. He just remained in the background and wasn't publicly known before, which led some media reports to claim that "Deng Taihua, a former vice - president of Huawei, joined ZhiYuan Robotics".
It's not just Deng Taihua. The management team of ZhiYuan Robotics also includes Qiu Heng, the Chief Operating Officer (former CMO of Huawei's China enterprise business), and Jiang Qingsong, the partner and vice - president of marketing (former head of Huawei's P&S solution product management department). Don't forget that even ZhiHuijun himself was a full - stack R & D engineer in Huawei's Ascend computing product line before.
This "Huawei - affiliated" team composition also explains where ZhiYuan Robotics' proficient capital operations and ecological approach come from.
This is not a romantic story of a genius teenager starting a business to pursue the ideal of Embodied Intelligence, but a realistic story of a resource operator weaving an ecosystem and building a robotics giant.
"Starting a business in the way of running a large company"
Under the leadership of the "Huawei - affiliated" team led by Deng Taihua, ZhiYuan Robotics shows a completely different style and approach from other Embodied Intelligence startups. Many industry insiders described it to "Intelligent Emergence" as "starting a business in the way of running a large company" and "initiating all - element competition from Day One".
Since humanoid robot technology is still immature, most robotics startups focus on developing a certain ability when positioning their business. Some projects focus on the "brain", while others focus on the robot body. In terms of form, some projects focus on upper - limb operation ability, while others focus on lower - limb movement ability.
ZhiYuan Robotics, on the other hand, develops comprehensively. "ZhiYuan is one of the few humanoid robot companies that can make a full - stack layout in the body, cerebellum, and brain," Wei Qiang, the president of ZhiYuan Robotics' Lingxi business line, said in a recent media interview.
In terms of products, most humanoid robot startups focus on one or two products. For example, "Galaxy General", which also follows the hardware - software integration route, has only one robot body product, the G1, so far. In August last year, ZhiYuan Robotics launched five humanoid robots at once.
The product pictures on the official website show that ZhiYuan's hardware products include four series: Expedition, Lingxi, Elf, and Dust - Free. The product categories include interactive service robots, flexible manufacturing robots, commercial cleaning robots, etc. In terms of form, there are bipedal humanoid robots, robot chassis, and even traditional non - humanoid robots.
In addition, Wei Qiang recently revealed to the media that the company also plans to launch a quadruped robot, the Lingxi D1, in the second quarter.
ZhiYuan's Expedition series robots serve as "sales consultants". Source: Visual China
Instead of choosing the OEM assembly method commonly used by startups, ZhiYuan Robotics built a factory in Lingang, Shanghai, and achieved direct production. This is a somewhat risky move. The person in charge of a robotics company told Intelligent Emergence that building a robot factory by oneself involves heavy assets and high risks, and startups usually choose the OEM method to start.
Why does ZhiYuan choose to go big and bold, acting like a large company right from the start, spreading out and investing heavily?
"This is a competitive strategy of ZhiYuan. It can build an image in the investment field and create a leading momentum. After all, it's easier to achieve scale than technology," a senior Embodied Intelligence investor told Intelligent Emergence. Although the Embodied Intelligence track is currently very popular, commercialization has always been a chronic problem in the industry. It's difficult for enterprises to generate their own revenue, and financing has become one of the key factors for startups to survive.
"In terms of enterprise competition, the current focus is mainly on the financing field. If a company can't keep up with financing, it will soon be eliminated," Jiang Zheyuan, the founder of Songyan Power, said in a recent interview.
ZhiYuan Robotics' financing strategy has proven to be very successful. Its valuation quickly reached $1 billion within a few months after its establishment, making it the fastest - growing Embodied Intelligence company in the world to become a unicorn. In March this year, ZhiYuan completed its Series B financing led by Tencent, and recently completed a new round of financing led by JD Technology.
Of course, with the soaring valuation, ZhiYuan Robotics also faces greater pressure in terms of commercialization and technology. The above - mentioned investor told Intelligent Emergence: "As ZhiYuan's valuation keeps rising and reaches 15 billion yuan in the new round of financing, it will inevitably face requirements from investors regarding the company's revenue. Having only technological achievements is not enough; there must also be commercial achievements."
A realistic story of Embodied Intelligence
According to valuation, domestic humanoid robot startups have clearly formed different echelons. There are three companies in the first echelon: Unitree Robotics, ZhiYuan Robotics, and Galaxy General. The second - echelon companies include more than a dozen, such as Zhujie Power, Qianxun Intelligence, and Zhifangfang.
ZhiYuan Robotics is the most special player in the first echelon. According to ZhenFund's theory of evaluating entrepreneurs, Wang Xingxing, the founder of Unitree Robotics, and Wang He, the founder of Galaxy General, can be classified as "technologists", while Deng Jianhua should be classified as an "operator", usually referring to management talents with experience in leading teams in large companies. They have experience in independent decision - making and starting from scratch.
Different types of founders also endow enterprises with different styles and characteristics.
Wang Xingxing of Unitree Robotics started by researching robotic dogs and focuses on hardware. He has never touched the large - scale Embodied Intelligence model. Wang He of Galaxy General has always adhered to the technical route of training Embodied Intelligence models driven by simulation data and has only made one robot body so far. They have all chosen specific directions or technical routes, showing a "technologist" - like persistence.
ZhiYuan Robotics represents a more realistic choice and trend: it does both hardware and software, explores multiple model technical routes, and is very open to the choice between self - research and purchasing from third - parties.
For example, in the choice of Embodied Intelligence models, on the one hand, ZhiYuan has invested in the Embodied Intelligence model company Lingchu Intelligence, and on the other hand, it has reached a cooperation with the US Embodied Intelligence model company Physical Intelligence (PI). At the same time, it is also conducting self - research on the Embodied Intelligence model, the Qiyuan large - scale model GO - 1.
Another example is that ZhiYuan is not limited to manufacturing humanoid robots but has expanded its business to commercial cleaning robots. The commercial application of such traditional robots is already mature, and it can quickly generate revenue. To expand this business, ZhiYuan has also poached talents from Gaoxian Robotics, a leading company in the commercial cleaning field.
"It seems that as long as it is beneficial for expanding revenue and occupying the market, ZhiYuan can flexibly participate," an industry insider commented to Intelligent Emergence.
Through extensive strategic investments and cooperation with listed companies, ZhiYuan has built an industrial ecosystem, which can also help it achieve commercialization and scale - up more quickly.
Dafeng Industry, a listed company planning to establish a joint - venture company with ZhiYuan Robotics, disclosed in an announcement in March this year that it will provide ZhiYuan with an intention purchase order of no less than 15 million yuan within one quarter after the establishment of the joint - venture company.
Digital Huaxia, a startup invested by ZhiYuan, has jointly developed a bionic robot, "Xialan", with ZhiYuan, targeting scenarios such as education, medical care, hotel services, and shopping mall guidance.
Cao Wei, a partner of BlueRun Ventures, which has invested in ZhiYuan, said bluntly: "ZhiYuan Robotics has a large number of industrial shareholders, such as BYD and SAIC. The demand from the shareholders alone may create sales of tens of thousands of robots."
The bionic robot "Xialan". Source: Digital Huaxia's official website
In December last year, ZhiYuan Robotics announced the first - ever commercial mass - production of general robots. According to its disclosure, as of the end of December last year, ZhiYuan's mass - production factory had produced more than 900 humanoid robots. Yao Maoqing, the partner and president of the Embodied Intelligence division of the company, once said in an interview that ZhiYuan plans to maintain the shipment volume of robots at several thousand units in 2025, and the revenue will increase several times.
Making up for the missing lesson
Through its bold approach and all - element competition, ZhiYuan Robotics has gained a first - mover advantage in areas such as financing and commercialization. However, this strategy is not without its shortcomings. As a startup, if it tries to develop multiple products and layout multiple technical directions simultaneously without concentrating resources on the most core goals, it will be more difficult to make breakthroughs.
The large - scale Embodied Intelligence model is one of ZhiYuan Robotics' relatively weak technical capabilities.
"If we look at the valuation, ZhiYuan, Galaxy General, and Unitree Robotics are in the first echelon of the Embodied Intelligence track. But if we look at the model capabilities, ZhiYuan doesn't rank in the first echelon. The generalization ability shown in its demo (demonstration video) is quite average," the above - mentioned senior Embodied Intelligence investor commented to Intelligent Emergence.
The investor said that currently, some excellent large - scale Embodied Intelligence models can already perform tasks such as folding clothes, shaving, and zipping up in one continuous shot. However, the Qiyuan large - scale model launched by ZhiYuan in March this year has not replicated the above - mentioned complex abilities but only relatively simple PPT operations (Pick, Place, and Transfer).
Intelligent Emergence previously reported that ZhiYuan Robotics decided to develop a large - scale Embodied Intelligence model for robots in June 2024, which was more than half a year behind startups such as Independent Variable Robotics and Qiongche Intelligence, whose businesses focus on Embodied Intelligence models.
In the second half of 2024, ZhiYuan Robotics' R & D team also underwent adjustments, and several core R & D personnel left. Among those with publicly known destinations, Zhu Guangfei, the former team leader of Embodied Intelligence, joined Zhongqing Robotics, and Gao Xiang, the former chief technical expert, joined Xiaoben Intelligence.
After that, ZhiYuan successively introduced relevant talents in the field of Embodied Intelligence models, such as Yao Maoqing, the former engineering director of NIO (now the president of the Embodied Intelligence division), and Luo Jianlan, a former Google scholar (now the chief scientist). Coupled with some employees brought by Yao Maoqing from NIO, ZhiYuan Robotics' Embodied Intelligence model team has taken shape.
Through a series of actions, ZhiYuan Robotics is working hard to make up for its ability in the large - scale Embodied Intelligence model to narrow the gap with its competitors.
ZhiYuan Robotics revealed that its latest model has been trained to perform relatively complete reasoning tasks and fine - grained operations, such as automatically identifying and cleaning up desktop garbage.
2025 is regarded by many Embodied Intelligence practitioners as the "Year of Mass - Production" and the "Year of Commercialization" for humanoid robots. However, due to the lack of generalization and versatility, the commercialization prospects of current humanoid robots are still unclear. The existing main application scenarios, such as scientific research, government reception, and greeting and guiding, are not only limited in scale but also difficult to maintain market demand.
The root cause behind this lies in the insufficient intelligence of the "brain".
Currently, the most successful and fastest - to - implement operations for robots are "PPT" (Pick, Place, and Transfer). These operations can solve very limited practical problems and are applicable to very limited application scenarios. To unlock more complex scenarios and actions and open up a larger downstream market, we need to wait for new technological breakthroughs in the large - scale Embodied Intelligence model.