63 investments and over 10 billion yuan in funds: Big tech companies are frantically shoring up their weaknesses in the robotics race.

"Which robot project are you looking into recently?"

This has become a common ice - breaker among investors in the past six months.

Since the beginning of this year, the robot industry has heated up rapidly. According to data from the GGII (Gongkong Industry Institute), in the first half of 2025, there were a total of 144 financing events in the domestic embodied intelligence industry chain, with a total financing amount of 19.5 billion yuan and an average single - financing scale of 135 million yuan.

As capital enthusiasm and industrial layout both heat up, the presence of Internet giants in the embodied intelligence industry is rapidly expanding.

In the past three months, JD.com has completed six investments related to embodied intelligence, covering multiple aspects such as sensors, dexterous hands, and humanoid robots.

At the just - concluded 2025 World Robot Conference (WRC), JD.com, as the "Exclusive Global Strategic Partner", appeared with multiple robot enterprises and launched the "Intelligent Robot Industry Acceleration Plan", promising to invest over 10 billion yuan in resources in three years to promote robot products into one million terminal scenarios.

Not only JD.com, but also other giants like Alibaba, Meituan, Tencent, ByteDance, and Baidu are quickly making moves in relevant fields.

So, what targets have these traditional Internet giants bet on?

Actually, JD.com is Making up for Its Shortcomings

At first glance, JD.com's investment in the embodied intelligence field this year seems quite significant. However, when compared with other Internet giants, JD.com is actually the "latest starter".

According to statistics from Yilan Business, Alibaba and Meituan have initiated at least 13 investments in the embodied intelligence industry chain. Tencent and ByteDance - affiliated capital have also made at least 11 investments, and Baidu has made a cumulative of 8 investments. JD.com's 7 investments are the least among these giants.

From a time perspective, this gap is even more obvious : Alibaba invested in Yigongli Intelligent, an intelligent car - washing robot enterprise, as early as 2018. Meituan invested in Pudu Technology in 2020, and Tencent bet on UBTECH, which is now listed, many years ago.

Therefore, among JD.com's embodied - intelligence - related investments this year, many are strategic lead investments. For example, in the recent Series A financing of Pacini, a company centered around 6D Hall array sensing technology, which has launched the dexterous hand DexH1 and the humanoid robot TORA - ONE and built a factory with massive data collection capabilities.

Through lead investments, JD.com can obtain the right to speak and priority in cooperation in the project with large - scale capital contributions, and directly integrate into the company's product roadmap and commercialization plan, thus ensuring that key technologies and production capacity are first implemented in its own logistics, retail, and other application scenarios.

This means that JD.com's frequent actions now are more like accelerating the pace of catching up, trying to secure a place before the industrial pattern takes shape.

Looking at the investment targets again, the layout of these giants has given rise to a group of companies recognized as "stars" in the industry.

For example, Unitree Robotics, which has appeared on the Spring Festival Gala, is one of the most internationally influential quadruped robot companies in China. Meituan, Alibaba, Tencent, and ByteDance have all obtained shares in the company's Series C financing.

Fourier Intelligence, which Meituan invested in at an early stage, leads in the fields of exoskeleton robots and rehabilitation robots. Its products have entered hundreds of hospitals and rehabilitation institutions and gained popularity in the international market.

ZhiYuan Robotics, invested in by JD.com and Tencent this year, is regarded by the outside world as one of the companies most likely to achieve large - scale mass production in China first, thanks to its full - stack self - research ability and integration of the industry chain.

Zhuji Dynamics is iterating rapidly in the bionic biped robot track. Its products are close to the international top level in terms of flexibility and stability, attracting multiple first - tier capitals and strategic investors. Zhongqing Robotics has become the preferred partner for customers in multiple industries such as logistics and manufacturing, thanks to its core advantages in flexible actuators and omnidirectional mobile chassis.

So, what changes will robots bring to these Internet giants behind a series of investments?

The "New Labor Force" of E - commerce Giants

The accelerated evolution of embodied intelligence first touches the consumer scenarios closest to us - e - commerce and local life services. Whether it is warehousing and sorting, last - mile delivery, or store operation, these links that originally relied on a large amount of human labor are becoming the test beds for the first implementation of robot technology.

In this wave of investment boom, the three leading platforms, JD.com, Meituan, and Alibaba, have chosen different entry points based on their own business structures and strategic goals, but they all point to a common goal: Reshape fulfillment efficiency and user experience with embodied intelligence.

JD.com's entry point is its long - term mental advantage in the digital 3C category. In the past year, JD.com has attracted more than 30 brands, including educational and companion robots, as well as industrial - grade delivery and sorting robots, making robots change from niche consumer products to regular categories on the platform. During the 618 shopping festival, the sales of the robot category increased several times year - on - year, indicating that consumers' willingness to buy is rapidly taking shape.

In the after - sales service, JD.com uses its self - operated system to make up for the "insufficient maintenance points" of robot manufacturers, providing full - link support from pre - sales consultation, delivery and installation, in - warehouse maintenance to after - sales customer service. This not only reduces the user's threshold for use but also provides a safety net for the commercialization of manufacturers.

JD.com also uses investment to feed back its scenario advantages into product iteration. For example, Zhongqing Robotics' dual - arm humanoid products can perform picking tasks in complex warehousing environments, and Qianxun Intelligence's 3D vision sorting system can identify multi - shaped packages. These projects are directly trained in JD.com's own warehousing and logistics network, realizing "training while using".

Meituan's layout is more scenario - oriented, focusing on the high - frequency fulfillment links in local life services.

In the pharmaceutical retail scenario, Meituan cooperates with Galaxy General to build a "humanoid robot smart pharmacy". The Galbot robots have been deployed in two pharmacies in Beijing, completing 24 - hour replenishment and drug retrieval, and the plan is to expand to 100 stores by the end of the year. During peak dining hours, Meituan has introduced Pudu Technology's food - delivery robots, which can automatically avoid obstacles and deliver to multiple tables, relieving the pressure on manual labor.

Meituan has also established a robot research institute, collaborating with universities to promote multi - modal perception and control technology. Its Longzhu Capital has also invested in Zibianliang Robotics, an embodied intelligence large - model enterprise, building a closed - loop among algorithms, hardware, and scenarios.

Alibaba emphasizes more on the ecosystem and cross - scenario collaboration. Lingbo Technology, a subsidiary of Ant Group, has built an open training ground for humanoid robots in Pudong, introducing upstream component and large - model enterprises to form a complete technology chain of perception, decision - making, manipulation, and safety, and extending to service scenarios such as family, elderly care, and medical care.

In the field of key components, Lingxinqiaoshou, a dexterous - hand manufacturer, has received financing from multiple institutions including Ant Group. In addition, Alibaba and Ant Group participated in the Series A financing of manufacturers such as Xinghaitu, Xingchen Intelligence, Yuanluo Technology, and Zhuji Dynamics early on, covering multiple links such as robot bodies, large models, and core components.

This means that Alibaba is not limited to fulfillment scenarios but hopes to use its ecosystem and platform capabilities to enable robots to serve both warehousing and commercial use and enter family and personal life.

How Do Other Giants Layout?

Let's see how other giants layout in the robot field.

Baidu first invested in the self - media "Robotics and Automation News", which focuses on robots, in 2018. Since then, it has gradually accelerated its pace. Its investment targets cover industrial robots (Xinghaitu), humanoid robots (ZhiYuan Robotics), embodied brains (Youlu Robotics), joint replacement surgical robots (Jianjia Robotics), etc. Baidu not only invests in body manufacturers but also actively invests in upstream algorithm and operating system companies.

For example, Baidu Smart Cloud has reached a strategic cooperation with ZhiYuan Robotics. Relying on software and hardware capabilities such as the "Yijian Visual Large - Model Platform" and the "EdgeBoard Edge Computing Development Board", they jointly launched the "Yuanzheng" series of data - collection robots, interactive service robots, and the open - source humanoid robot "Lingxi X1", promoting secondary development and training scenarios in educational and scientific research scenarios. Based on these technologies, students can independently train robots to complete tasks such as sorting or inspection in the AI training laboratory.

ByteDance's embodied intelligence layout is more inclined to "combining software and hardware and prioritizing the ecosystem". On the one hand, its investments cover the entire hardware chain, from the body to core components. On the other hand, relying on its platform traffic and open interfaces, it tries to build a developer ecosystem for embodied intelligence.

From a timeline perspective, ByteDance has made a total of 11 investments at a steady pace. Its investment targets include logistics handling (Juxing Technology), industrial manufacturing (Songzhi Intelligence), mobile robots (Yingzhi Technology), humanoid robots (Xingchen Intelligence), consumer - grade robots (Lexiang Intelligence), etc. At the component end, it invests in enterprises such as Yinghe Robotics and Inxus to ensure control of underlying standards and supply capabilities.

ByteDance's advantage lies in its data and content distribution system. The company has built interfaces such as a general robot model API and hardware SDK internally, encouraging third - party developers to develop applications based on the ByteDance ecosystem. It hopes to form a dual - wheel - drive model of "hardware standardization + software ecosystem" through investment in hardware targets, making robot manufacturers users of platform capabilities and data contributors, thus consolidating its AI computing power and distribution advantages.

Tencent's investment path in embodied intelligence is closer to "occupying the entire industry chain", covering a comprehensive layout from underlying components to the body and then to ecological standards.

As early as 2017, Tencent invested in Leju Robotics, a humanoid - like robot company, and Yunji Technology, a commercial service robot company. Since then, its investment targets include UBTECH (the leading humanoid robot company), Gaoxian Robotics (navigation and positioning system), Pudu Technology (intelligent delivery robot), CMR Surgical (intelligent surgical robot), etc., with a total of 11 companies. Such a combination almost covers all scenarios including commercial, industrial, and medical use.

Just one week ago at the WAIC 2025 (World Artificial Intelligence Conference), Tencent launched its first modular embodied intelligence open platform Tairos. It is a "robot brain" platform integrating multi - modal perception models, task planning models, and action models, and providing simulation tools, SDK, and data services. In the on - site demonstration, the Unitree G1 equipped with Tairos served as a robot tour guide, and Xiaowu could understand language and interact with the audience.

In addition, the partners of the Tairos platform include Yuejiang Technology, Leju Robotics, Zhongqing Robotics, Unitree Robotics, etc., outlining a framework for industry standards and ecological linkage.

From retail warehousing to food delivery, from classroom experiments to industrial inspections, embodied intelligence is rapidly penetrating our most familiar life and production scenarios. Business - oriented giants such as JD.com, Meituan, and Alibaba are using real commercial demands to feed back the implementation of technology. Platform - type giants such as Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent are making multi - line layouts in hardware, models, and ecosystems, trying to build a "technological moat" for future competition.

It can be predicted that when the diverse paths of these giants intersect in the real world, industries such as e - commerce, local life, education, and industry that we are familiar with will undergo a profound reshaping.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Yilan Business” (ID: yilanshangye), written by Li Yan, and published by 36Kr with authorization.