Investing with the left hand and winning major contracts with the right, ZHIYUAN is on a rampage!

In the current era of rapid development in the AI field, major Internet companies have once again included strategic investment in their core agendas, using it as a means parallel to business operations to accelerate the competition for a favorable position in the AI era. Although their strategic approaches are the same, they have taken very different paths in choosing investment directions.

Recently, Shenzhen Yushu Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yushu Intelligent") underwent industrial and commercial changes, with Zhiyuan Innovation (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd., an affiliated company of Zhiyuan Robot, being added as a shareholder. The registered capital of Yushu Intelligent increased to 52.6316 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of approximately 5%.

Yushu Intelligent was established in March this year with a registered capital of 50 million yuan, and its legal representative is Yang Bo. Equity penetration shows that Yushu Intelligent is a subsidiary of A-share listed company Yuhetian. Its business scope includes: artificial intelligence application software development; artificial intelligence hardware sales; artificial intelligence industry application system integration services; manufacturing and sales of service consumption robots, etc.

Meanwhile, Zhiyuan Robot announced that it had won a cooperation order worth tens of millions of yuan from Fuling Precision Industry. The first batch of over a hundred robots will be stationed in Fuling Precision Industry's factory, becoming the first large-scale commercial signing case of embodied robots in the domestic industrial field.

Through "investment - financing - product implementation", Zhiyuan Robot is gradually exploring its own commercial growth path.

Orders and application requirements behind the new investment

The in - depth cooperation between Yushu Intelligent and Zhiyuan Robot was launched long ago.

In June this year, Yushu Intelligent announced that it had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Zhiyuan Robot to establish the "Shenzhen Yushu Embodied Robot Intelligence Innovation Center", focusing on data collection and technological innovation of embodied robots, and laying the foundation for general intelligent applications of robots.

It is reported that a dedicated full - scenario robot testing space has been set up in Yushu Intelligent's office. By collecting real - time multi - modal interaction data, robots are trained to adapt to complex physical rules, solving the long - standing limitation of the industry's heavy reliance on simulation data.

For Zhiyuan Robot, taking a stake in the interaction data training center is expected to form a R & D chain of "technological R & D - product incubation - industrial collaboration". This R & D requirement is closely related to Zhiyuan Robot's current strong demand for product delivery and scenario application.

In October 2024, Zhiyuan Robot announced the official start of mass production of multiple robot products. After several months of capacity ramping up, the 1000th embodied intelligent product of Zhiyuan Robot officially rolled off the production line in January 2025. Currently, the company's mass - production focus is on the bipedal humanoid robots Expedition A2 and Lingxi X1 to meet the current mainstream commercial application fields such as interactive communication, entertainment display, and educational explanation.

In July this year, China Mobile Procurement and Bidding Network released an announcement, declaring that Zhiyuan Robot and Unitree Technology had successfully won the bid for the procurement project of humanoid bipedal robot OEM services.

The total budget of this project is as high as 124 million yuan, making it the largest single - purchase order disclosed in the domestic humanoid robot field. Among them, Zhiyuan Robot's winning bid project is for full - size humanoid bipedal robots, with a procurement budget of 78 million yuan.

Meanwhile, the demand for wheel - legged and dual - armed robots, which are more suitable for industrial production scenarios, is also constantly increasing.

After a one - month single - production - line deployment test, on August 11th, Zhiyuan Robot officially announced that it had reached a project cooperation worth tens of millions of yuan with Fuling Precision Industry Co., Ltd. Nearly a hundred Expedition A2 - W robots will be officially deployed in Fuling Precision Industry's factory.

It is reported that the operating range of the A2 - W has been expanded from the initial individual production - line points to 15 feeding points in the two core workshops of the powertrain and reducer. It is estimated that the Expedition A2 - W will be responsible for traditional and cumbersome tasks such as raw material distribution, automatic empty - box recycling, and handling for a daily production capacity of over 500 units, reducing the burden of repetitive and single tasks on workers.

This has become the first large - scale commercial signing case of embodied robots in the domestic industrial field and the world's first large - scale case of embodied intelligent robots "going to work in factories".

Building an "industrial ecosystem": financing on the one hand and investing on the other

As Zhiyuan Robot delivers more and more robot products for application, the demand for algorithm interaction upgrades to adapt to different enterprises and scenarios is also increasing rapidly. Instead of focusing solely on self - research, Zhiyuan Robot has made it a common practice to build a R & D and application cooperation ecosystem by fully leveraging investment and financing means.

Before participating in the investment in Yushu Intelligent, Zhiyuan Robot maintained a stable investment rhythm of making external investments and participating in the establishment of joint - venture companies every month. Currently, it has made external investments in 19 companies related to the industrial chain.

On July 8th, Shangwei New Materials announced that Zhiyuan Robot would acquire 63.62% of its shares, which shocked the industry. Although Zhiyuan Robot quickly denied the view of "backdoor listing" and the investment in Shangwei New Materials would not change its main business, Shangwei New Materials, which mainly engages in the R & D of environmentally friendly resins and other materials, obviously cannot be directly matched with the embodied intelligence - related industries. Amidst the speculations of all parties, Zhiyuan Robot kept a low profile and did not respond much.

Since 2025, as Zhiyuan Robot's product mass - production and application scale have continued to expand, the company has actively joined hands with listed companies, peer technology R & D companies, and component manufacturers to layout the "production - R & D ecosystem".

In order to promote the integration of software and hardware resources as soon as possible and occupy an advantageous position in the industry, Zhiyuan Robot has been actively involved in the open - source design of robots, open - source training models, and the construction of operating systems.

At the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Peng Zhihui, the co - founder and CTO of Zhiyuan Robot, officially announced the open - source plan for "Zhiyuan Lingqu OS", which is expected to be officially implemented in the fourth quarter of this year and gradually completed for open - source. It is reported that "Zhiyuan Lingqu OS" is the first embodied intelligent operating system framework in the industry, aiming to integrate various applications and control programs, achieve cross - device collaboration, and promote the integration of the system ecosystem.

In addition, the dual - armed robot model platform "Genie Envisioner" and AgiBot World, which is formed based on a self - built professional data collection factory, both announced by the company at the same time, have also been announced for open - source.

While continuously making external "money - throwing" cooperation and open - source efforts, Zhiyuan Robot has not stopped its capital operations to expand financing channels and scales.

On August 1st, Zhiyuan Robot announced its fourth investment this year. This time, the participating institutions are no longer limited to domestic ones, but overseas capital has been introduced, jointly invested by LG Electronics and Mirae Asset. Some believe that this move is to prepare for expanding overseas markets this year.

At the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Yao Maoqing, a partner and the president of the embodied business department of Zhiyuan Robot, revealed in an interview with the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily and other media that the company has produced over 2000 mass - produced robots, and the shipment volume is expected to reach several thousand units in 2025. The company has also launched its overseas business, covering markets in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, and overseas product delivery is expected to start this year.

To further strengthen its market coverage and influence, Zhiyuan Robot previously announced that it will hold its first partner conference on August 21st to introduce the latest developments in the company's strategy, business, industry, products, and ecosystem.

Judging from Zhiyuan Robot's current multi - pronged strategy of "financing - investing - R & D", for a leading company in an emerging industry, capital operation ability is as important as the company's R & D reserves.

Can this model offset the outside world's concerns about the "valuation bubble" of the company's embodied intelligence and AI? It remains to be seen whether key indicators such as scale and profitability can be broken through. The Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily will conduct long - term tracking and reporting.

Special statement: The content of this article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investors shall bear the risks associated with their operations based on this information.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Venture Capital Daily", written by Liang Youyun, and is published by 36Kr with authorization.