Financing, investment, listing... The strategic moves of Zhiyuan Capital are accelerating.
There is new news about Zhiyuan's "listing".
Recently, Zhiyuan Robotics (hereinafter referred to as "Zhiyuan"), which is still pushing forward the acquisition of Shangwei New Materials for 2.1 billion yuan, was reported by multiple media outlets citing informed sources that the company is preparing for an IPO in Hong Kong before the third quarter of next year, with a target valuation as high as HK$40 - 50 billion.
It is reported that Zhiyuan has hired China International Capital Corporation and Citic Securities to lead its Hong Kong listing matters. Among them, Morgan Stanley also joined the project in recent weeks. The company is expected to issue 15% - 25% of its total equity.
One of the investment banks participating in this IPO confirmed that the above news is true. In response, Zhiyuan stated that the news is false.
In fact, right after officially announcing the acquisition of the controlling stake in Shangwei New Materials in July this year, there were reports that Zhiyuan's goal of listing in Hong Kong remained unchanged. At that time, Zhiyuan responded that the relevant information was false and there was no clear plan for a Hong Kong listing for the time being.
Zhiyuan has denied the listing rumors twice. However, it cannot be denied that for Zhiyuan, which is actively involved in both financing and investment, its capital game is far from over and is accelerating.
Acquiring a 53.284 - billion - yuan listed company for 2.1 billion yuan, and emphasizing again that there will be no "back - door listing" within 3 years
As a new materials company, Shangwei New Materials' business and products are mainly involved in the wind power generation field. In 2024, the company's revenue 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%. In the first half of this year, the company's revenue was 784 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 12.50%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 29.9004 million yuan, a year - on - year decrease of 32.91%.
In July this year, an announcement issued by Shangwei New Materials showed that Zhiyuan would spend 2.1 billion yuan to acquire 69.99% of the company's shares in two steps.
In the first step, through these three share transfer agreements, Zhiyuan will ultimately control 29.99% of Shangwei New Materials' shares. The transfer price per share is 7.78 yuan, and the total transaction price is 941 million yuan.
In the second step, a tender offer. Based on the above - mentioned agreement transfer, Zhiyuan's affiliated company's shareholding platform, Zhiyuan Hengyue, plans to further increase its stake in Shangwei New Materials through a partial tender offer. The number of shares to be tendered is approximately 149 million, accounting for 37.00% of the total equity of the listed company. Calculated at 7.78 yuan per share, the acquisition price is 1.161 billion yuan.
After all transactions are completed, Zhiyuan Hengyue and Zhiyuan Innovation will jointly hold 66.99% of Shangwei New Materials' shares. The actual controller of Shangwei New Materials will change to Deng Taihua, the actual controller, chairman, and CEO of Zhiyuan. The original shareholders of Shangwei New Materials have promised to waive the voting rights of all the shares they hold in the listed company.
In September this year, Shangwei New Materials issued an announcement stating that Zhiyuan's "tender offer" had entered the implementation stage. The tender offer period is a total of 30 natural days, from September 29, 2025, to October 28, 2025. Zhiyuan has deposited 232 million yuan in a designated bank account as a performance bond.
Previously, Zhiyuan disclosed in the "Detailed Report on Changes in Equity Interests" that within the next 12 months, it will not change the main business of the listed company, nor will it sell, merge, etc., the company's assets and business.
Regarding Zhiyuan's acquisition of the controlling stake in Shangwei New Materials, the market generally expects that Shangwei New Materials will become Zhiyuan's future listing platform and thus become the "first stock of humanoid robots" in the A - share market.
Even so, the enthusiasm in the secondary market has not subsided. Since resuming trading on July 9, Shangwei New Materials has achieved 11 consecutive "20% limit - up" daily gains, breaking the record for consecutive daily limit - ups on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. On the trading day before the suspension for verification (September 25), Shangwei New Materials hit another "20% limit - up", with a closing price of 132.1 yuan per share, setting a new historical high again, and the total market value reaching 53.284 billion yuan.
According to data from the Wind financial terminal, from the beginning of the year to the close on September 25, Shangwei New Materials' cumulative increase was approximately 1892%, ranking first among A - share stocks.
Source: Xueqiu
Due to abnormal fluctuations in the stock price, Shangwei New Materials suspended trading for verification from September 26 this year until resuming trading on October 13.
On the evening of October 10, Zhiyuan and Shangwei New Materials issued a suspension - for - verification announcement, emphasizing again that as of now, within the next 36 months, Zhiyuan has no plan or arrangement for back - door listing through the listed company.
Meanwhile, the above - mentioned announcement also issued a risk warning regarding the stock price movement: "Currently, there has been no major change in the company's fundamentals, but recently, the company's stock trading price has seriously deviated from the company's current fundamentals. The company's stock price may fall rapidly at any time, and investors may face significant market risks when participating in trading."
While preparing for "listing", accelerating both financing and investment simultaneously
For Zhiyuan, which has been established for less than 3 years and is still in a loss - making state, how can it come up with 2.1 billion yuan to acquire Shangwei New Materials? The answer may be financing. After all, Zhiyuan is truly a favorite of the capital market.
In February 2023, Zhiyuan, founded by the former Huawei "Genius Youth" Zhi Huijun, with the meaning of "intelligent humanoid robots", was established. In March of the same year, Hillhouse Capital and Miracle Plus extended an olive branch; then in April, it completed two rounds of financing, adding BV Baidu Ventures, Matrix Partners, CDH Investments, Gao Rong Capital, etc. as shareholders.
After the above - mentioned financing, there were reports that Zhiyuan's market valuation reached more than one billion US dollars, which means it directly entered the "unicorn" club in less than half a year.
Throughout 2023, within less than a year of its establishment, Zhiyuan completed 5 rounds of financing. In 2024, when its financing pace slowed down slightly, it still quietly completed 2 rounds of financing. This year, Zhiyuan has accelerated its financing again amidst the surging wave of embodied intelligence.
In March this year, Zhiyuan completed a new round of financing led by Tencent Investment, which was also Tencent Investment's first move in the field of embodied intelligence. Currently, Tencent Investment holds 2.6264% of Zhiyuan's shares. At that time, according to informed sources, Zhiyuan was in talks for a new round of financing at a valuation of 15 billion yuan.
Just two months later, Shanghai State - owned Investment Corporation officially announced that its affiliated fund led the investment in Zhiyuan, with JD.com co - leading the investment. After this round of financing, Zhiyuan set a record for the largest cumulative financing amount in the Chinese embodied intelligence track.
During the process of acquiring Shangwei New Materials, Zhiyuan has also been promoting its financing process: in July, Zhengda Robotics became a new investor; in August, the company received a joint strategic investment from LG Electronics and Korea Future Asset Group.
As of now, Zhiyuan, which has been established for less than 3 years, has completed 11 rounds of financing. The specific total financing amount cannot be calculated, and its valuation is also immeasurable. The investors include many well - known investment institutions such as Hillhouse Capital, Tencent, BYD, M31 Capital, BlueRun Ventures, Zhongke Chuangxing, Sequoia China, Baidu, JD.com, SAIC, BAIC, etc.
With sufficient funds, Zhiyuan is capable of acquiring Shangwei New Materials. This deal is quite cost - effective for Zhiyuan. Based on Shangwei New Materials' latest market value of 53.284 billion yuan, the market value of the shares held by Zhiyuan is approximately 35.695 billion yuan.
Before and after acquiring the controlling stake in the listed company, Zhiyuan's external investments have also been in full swing. As a startup, Zhiyuan has directly invested in more than 20 startups in the embodied intelligence industry chain, covering multiple fields such as robot components, embodied intelligence systems, and bionic robots.
Information from Tianyancha App shows that since July 2024, Zhiyuan's external investment targets include: Hangzhou - Shaoxing Embodied Intelligence Technology, Jingzhi Embodied, Lingzhi Innovation, Zhilait Robot, Silicon - based Ark, Puzhi Future, Zhiqi Future Technology, Guanggu Dongzhi, Lizhi Sensing, Annu Intelligence, Huazhi Tiancheng Technology, Yushu Intelligent Robot, Ruantong Tianqing Robot, Wujie Wisdom, Digital China, Lingchu Intelligence, Xingyuanzhi Robot, Shouxing Technology, Linghou Robot, Fuxing Motor, Qianjue Robot, Zhiding Robot... The shareholding ratios range from 0.3289% to 30%.
Source: Tianyancha
Taking the most recent investment as an example, in September this year, Zhiyuan participated in the 200 - million - yuan angel - round financing of Xingyuanzhi Robot, which was established in August this year and incubated by the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence. It is committed to achieving multi - modal spatial intelligence and building a general embodied brain in the physical world.
In August this year, in order to support early - stage innovative forces, Zhiyuan officially announced the launch of its first startup acceleration program focusing on the embodied intelligence industry chain - the "Zhiyuan A Plan". The plan aims to incubate more than 50 high - potential early - stage projects and build a 100 - billion - level industrial ecosystem within three years. Zhiyuan will provide participating partners with rich benefits such as technical support, financing empowerment, scene opening, and startup incubation.
Targeting "thousands of units" in shipments this year, accelerating commercialization while also making up for weaknesses
Investing resources and funds in the industrial chain can be regarded as "making the best use of everything and every cent". This is not only related to Zhiyuan's ability to attract a large amount of capital but also closely related to its accelerated commercial development with more than a thousand units mass - produced.
On August 18, 2023, just over half a year after starting its business, Zhiyuan's embodied intelligent robot "RAISE A1" was officially launched. It is 175 cm tall, weighs 55 kg, has a maximum walking speed of 7 km/h, 49 degrees of freedom throughout the body, a total load - bearing capacity of 80 kg, and a maximum single - arm load of 5 kg. It not only resembles humans in form but also shows strong capabilities in bipedal walking, intelligent tasks, and human - robot interaction.
To date, Zhiyuan has built a full - stack technology of "robot body + AI". Its hardware products include four series: Expedition, Lingxi, Elf, and Juechen. The product categories include interactive service robots, flexible manufacturing robots, commercial cleaning robots, etc., with forms including humanoid bipeds, chassis, and even traditional non - humanoid forms.
Currently, Zhiyuan has focused on eight scenarios, including explanation and reception, cultural and entertainment commercial performances, industrial manufacturing, logistics sorting, security inspection, commercial cleaning, data collection and training, and scientific research and education, and has launched customized solutions and achieved large - scale application in multiple industries.
As early as in 2024, the "commercialization year", Zhiyuan achieved the mass - production of 1000 general embodied robots in just 4 months. In March this year, Jiemian News reported that Yao Maoqing, a partner of Zhiyuan and the president of the Embodied Intelligence Business Unit, said in an interview that the company plans to maintain its robot shipments at thousands of units this year, and its revenue will increase several times.
According to Cao Wei, a partner of BlueRun Ventures, which has invested in Zhiyuan, "Zhiyuan has many industrial shareholders, such as BYD and SAIC. The demand from the shareholders alone may create sales of tens of thousands of robots."
With the support of investors and the rapid progress of R & D and commercialization, Zhiyuan can more easily cooperate with listed companies such as Dafeng Industry, Joyson Group, and Fulin Precision. This will also greatly contribute to achieving its higher "shipment" goal.
Taking Dafeng Industry as an example, as early as March this year, the company issued a relevant announcement, planning to form a strategic partnership with Zhiyuan. The two sides will jointly invest in establishing a joint - venture company focusing on the R & D of multi - modal interaction systems and the scenario - based application of intelligent terminals. They will initially start the R & D of cultural, entertainment, tourism, sports, and commercial scenarios. Dafeng Industry will provide an intention purchase order of no less than 15 million yuan for scenario R & D within one quarter after the establishment of the joint - venture company.
In the second half of this year, in the domestic embodied intelligent robot field, orders have been accelerating from the tens of millions - level to the hundreds of millions - level.
On October 9, Zhiyuan just announced a deep strategic cooperation with its investor Longcheer Technology in the application of embodied intelligent robots in industrial scenarios: Longcheer Technology placed a framework order worth hundreds of millions of yuan for Zhiyuan's Elf G2 robots. Zhiyuan said that nearly a thousand robots will be deployed in this cooperation, which is one of the largest orders in the domestic industrial embodied intelligent robot field at present.
It should be noted that Zhiyuan is not perfect. The embodied intelligent large - scale model is one of Zhiyuan's relatively weak technical capabilities. "If we look at the valuation, Zhiyuan, Galaxy Universal, and Unitree Robotics are in the first echelon of the embodied track. But if we look at the model capabilities, Zhiyuan does not rank in the first echelon. The generalization performance shown in its demo (demonstration video) is quite average," a senior investor in the field of embodied intelligence once commented.
Although Zhiyuan decided to develop the robot embodied intelligent large - scale model as early as June 2024, this was more than half a year later than startups such as Zibianliang Robotics and Qiongche Intelligence, which focus on embodied intelligent models.
However, fortunately, in March this year, Zhiyuan released its first general embodied base model - the Genie Operator - 1. It innovatively proposed the Vision - Language - Latent - Action (ViLLA) architecture, which enables learning from human videos, achieves rapid generalization with small samples, lowers the threshold of embodied intelligence, and has been successfully deployed on multiple robot bodies of Zhiyuan.
While making great progress in the capital market and commercial implementation, in the future, how to balance the coordinated development of "soft (brain)" and "hard (body)" through resource integration and industrial ecosystem layout will be a long - term issue that Zhiyuan has to think deeply about.