Liu Qiangdong, go on a big shopping spree today.

There is no such thing as the hottest; there is only something hotter.

The investment community obtained three embodied intelligence financings today (July 21st):

Spirit AI completed a nearly 600 million yuan Pre - A+ round of financing; LimX Dynamics also received a new round of financing; Zhongqing Robotics also announced a nearly 1 billion yuan Pre - A++ round and A1 round of financing. Among them, there is a common figure—JD.com.

Quietly, Liu Qiangdong has led JD.com to become one of the most active hunters in the Chinese embodied intelligence track.

During this period, the wave of embodied intelligence has been surging. On one hand, ZHIYUAN ROBOTICS and Unitree Technology have set off a listing boom. On the other hand, startup companies are engaged in a fierce financing competition. The pattern is about to be set, and time waits for no one. There is not much time left for everyone to fight.

JD.com's Shopping Spree

Just Led Three Rounds of Financing

The financing in the field of embodied intelligence has gone completely crazy.

First, Spirit AI announced today that it has completed a nearly 600 million yuan Pre - A+ round of financing, led by JD.com, with well - known institutions such as China Internet Investment Fund, Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund, Huatai Zijin Investment, and Fosun RZ Capital participating in the follow - on investment. At the same time, old shareholders such as Prosperity 7 Ventures (P7), Shunwei Capital, Huakong Fund, Huafa Group, Qiancheng Capital, Jingya Capital, and Honghui Fund have all over - subscribed for additional investments.

Behind the company are two big names. The founder and CEO, Han Fengtao, is a veteran in the robotics industry. He graduated from Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a bachelor's degree and then pursued a graduate degree in neural networks at Zhejiang University. He was involved in the establishment of LuoShi Robotics. The co - founder and chief scientist, Gao Yang, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and studied under Pieter Abbeel, a titan in the field of embodied intelligence. He focuses on cross - modal interaction research of robots. In June this year, Spirit AI officially released the fully - powered humanoid robot Moz1 equipped with its self - developed VLA model.

Next, look at LimX Dynamics, which announced that it has received a strategic leading investment from JD.com in a new round of financing. So far, LimX Dynamics has gathered Alibaba Group, China Merchants Group Venture Capital, Shangqi Capital, NIO Capital, Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, Bianshi Times, Nice Group, Oasis Capital, Mingshi Venture Capital, Fengrui Capital, Gaojie Capital, Nanshan Strategic and Emerging Industries Investment, etc.

The company is located in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. Zhang Wei, the founder of LimX Dynamics, graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China with a bachelor's degree and from Purdue University with a doctor's degree. Since the biped robot TRON 1 was released in October last year, its customers come from well - known domestic and foreign universities, smart device enterprises, and technology companies. With its minimalist form and multi - terrain mobility, the dual - wheeled feet of TRON 1 have explored large - scale applications in scenarios such as inspection, security, and distribution together with developers.

Not far from LimX Dynamics, in the Shenzhen Bay Science and Technology Park, Zhao Tongyang, who once founded the robot team "XPENG Robotics" under XPeng, founded Zhongqing Robotics in October 2023. Just 10 months after its establishment, it launched its first fully open - source and full - size biped robot product.

Also today, Zhongqing Robotics announced that it completed two rounds of financing in July this year. The Pre - A++ round was invested by Xinghang Capital, which was initiated by XPeng Motors as the cornerstone investor; the A1 round of financing was led by JD.com, with industrial investors such as Puquan Capital under CATL and Intime Group, as well as financial investors such as Huakong Fund, Guochen Fund under Fortune Capital, and Huangpu River Capital participating. At the same time, old shareholders such as Middle East Capital, Guoxiang Capital, Honghui Fund, Xunshang Venture Capital, and Baohe Venture Capital also participated in the consecutive capital increases in these two rounds.

Looking at it all, it's surprising that JD.com led all three rounds of embodied intelligence financing today.

Liu Qiangdong's Determination

With such a scene, JD.com's embodied intelligence map is quietly emerging.

Actually, as early as July last year, JD.com made a strategic investment of 200 million yuan in Xianglu Technology. This is a developer of household service robots. Its products cover categories such as hotel self - service terminals and delivery service robots, and it has launched several products such as the Jingxiaozhu hotel self - service terminal, and the hotel delivery robots Jingxiaoyuan H2 and H9.

In 2025, JD.com accelerated its embodied intelligence strategy. It not only established the "Intelligent Robot Business" department to comprehensively layout the strategic emerging industry of intelligent robots but also started to invest in embodied intelligence startup companies.

Among them, ZHIYUAN ROBOTICS is the most typical example. In May this year, ZHIYUAN ROBOTICS revealed that it had completed a new round of financing, and JD.com became one of the new shareholders. Recently, ZHIYUAN ROBOTICS made a tender offer to acquire Shanghai Shangwei New Materials Co., Ltd., a company listed on the STAR Market, and it is expected to be the first robot IPO invested by JD.com.

During this period, Liu Qiangdong's personal actions are a concentrated manifestation of JD.com's strategic will.

Remember in March this year, Liu Qiangdong, who had not appeared in public for a long time, showed up at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He visited the artificial intelligence projects such as the multi - modal model Mini - Gemini of the team led by Professor Jia Jiaya. In addition, Liu Qiangdong also visited the Zheng Jiacun Robotics Laboratory and the noise testing platform for drones.

At the Q4 2024 earnings conference call, Xu Ran, the CEO of JD.com, once said that considering the characteristics of JD.com's business model, JD.com will apply AI more deeply in the supply chain. For example, in logistics, AI algorithms can improve the accuracy of matching demand and supply in supply chain management and fulfillment, and enhance the automation level of logistics.

At the same time, in the core retail scenario, JD.com has reshaped the search and recommendation system through AI, improving search satisfaction and traffic distribution efficiency. In addition, it has launched an AI shopping guide assistant, in - depth research, and AI digital humans. For example, in April last year, the "AI Digital Human of Liu Qiangdong, the Merchandising Manager" made its live - streaming debut in the merchandising live - streaming room of JD.com Supermarket.

"In the future, AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) must move from the digital world to the physical world." As embodied intelligence enters the deep - water zone, JD.com is building a closed - loop ecosystem from underlying hardware to scenario implementation.

In July this year, JD.com launched the "JoyInside Platform" for the robotics field, aiming to build an implementation ecosystem for humanoid robots in retail and logistics scenarios, integrating JD.com's years of experience in intelligent interaction in scenarios such as customer service, digital humans, and shopping guides. Currently, the platform has connected products from several robot manufacturers, such as the MagicDog Pro quadruped robot and Zhongqing PM01. Meanwhile, JD.com has also established in - depth cooperation relationships with Horizon Robotics, Ecovacs, Ninebot, Xinshida, EVAT, Shanghai Whale Robotics, etc.

It can be seen that JD.com's actions are not just simple financial investment behaviors but a bet on a future industry that can reshape its core businesses such as logistics and retail, seizing the ticket to the next era: embodied intelligence.

As JD.com said today, the company currently attaches great importance to technological hotspots including embodied intelligence and large models. In the future, it will focus on the supply chain scenario and continue to build a technological innovation ecosystem through internal technological innovation and external investment.

Behind the Fierce Competition

Only Orders Can Ensure Survival

It's obvious that China's embodied intelligence is experiencing an explosion.

Before July is over, there have already been a series of financings: Kuawei Intelligence completed hundreds of millions of yuan in Series A1 & A2 financing; almost at the same time, Xinghaitu completed over $100 million in Series A4 and A5 financing; Tashizhihang also announced a $122 million Angel + round of financing; Xingdong Jiyuan and Deep Robotics also officially announced that they each completed a new round of nearly 500 million yuan in financing.

What's even more impressive is that not long ago, Galaxy Universal completed a new round of over 1.1 billion yuan in financing, attracting strategic investments from listed companies such as CATL, Puquan Capital (CATL Capital), SDIC Venture Capital under the China Development Bank, Beijing Robotics Industry Fund, and GGV Capital, and received additional investments from several old shareholders. It's worth mentioning that this is the largest single - round financing in the field of embodied large - model robots so far.

There is also a significant sign—the two iconic founders in the field of embodied intelligence, Zhuo Yuejun and Wang Xingxing, have both started their IPO journeys. First, ZHIYUAN ROBOTICS made a tender offer to acquire Shanghai Shangwei New Materials Co., Ltd. and suddenly entered the STAR Market overnight. Then, last Friday, the China Securities Regulatory Commission disclosed the listing guidance filing report of Unitree Technology, which started to sprint for listing on the A - share market.

The competition in the track is extremely fierce, and everyone is competing to see who has more "ammunition" in reserve. However, the real - world challenges are also obvious. Most embodied intelligence companies are still in the early stage, and they are only groping for commercialization and have not fully achieved large - scale implementation.

Many investors also said that they are cautious about the future valuation pressure of embodied intelligence, worrying that the over - enthusiasm in the industry has pushed up valuations without real commercial revenue support.

As is generally recognized, commercialization is a difficult problem for embodied intelligence. Therefore, we can see that in recent embodied intelligence financings, industrial capital such as JD.com and Meituan is more active than traditional financial investment institutions. Because they not only bring funds but also orders.

Recently, orders have become the touchstone for the embodied intelligence track. In July, ZHIYUAN ROBOTICS and Unitree Technology won the bids for the procurement project of humanoid biped robot OEM services from China Mobile (Hangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd. from 2025 to 2027. Among them, the budget for the order won by ZHIYUAN ROBOTICS is 78 million yuan (including tax); the budget for the order won by Unitree Technology is 46.05 million yuan (including tax).

Over the past weekend, UBTECH announced that it won the bid for a 90.5115 million yuan procurement project of robot equipment from Shanghai Miyi Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., setting a new record.

This field will surely experience a brutal reshuffle. In the end, it often comes back to the most basic business essence—only companies that can continuously get orders can survive.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment World" (ID: pedaily2012), written by Zhou Jiali and Liu Bo, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.