Robots have raised billions of dollars in funding again this week.
The robot track continues to heat up. According to incomplete statistics, since October 20th, four more domestic companies in the field of embodied intelligence and its upstream and downstream have disclosed financing, with a total amount exceeding 2 billion yuan. The financing covers the entire chain from core components such as high - degree - of - freedom dexterous hands, to full - scale humanoid robots, and then to embodied intelligence platforms. Capital is accelerating the investment across the entire link.
Since this year, the embodied intelligent robot track has undoubtedly been a hot investment project. From the perspective of the investment structure, the participation of funds with state - owned backgrounds has increased significantly. Industrial funds and local government platforms have frequently appeared. From the perspective of the invested companies, investors are paying more and more attention to commercialization capabilities, mass - production progress, and unit economic models, and the price range has quickly dropped to the ten - thousand - yuan level.
Capital and the industry are jointly promoting embodied intelligence to move from the "laboratory" to the "factory line". However, whether the path can be connected and whether commercialization can be self - consistent are still the key points to be tested by the market.
State - owned capital makes heavy - weight layouts, covering from the "brain" to the "hand"
On the embodied intelligence track, more and more "national teams" are gathering.
On October 27th, "Wuba Intelligence", a representative central enterprise in the field of embodied intelligence, announced that it had recently completed its first - round strategic financing of approximately 500 million yuan, becoming the most - watched state - owned capital bet recently. This newly - established company under the ordnance industry system was jointly led by Guoxin Fund and Zhejiang Industrial Investment. Behind it, there are also many state - owned capital forces such as China State - owned Enterprise Mixed - Ownership Reform Fund and Zhejiang Science and Technology Innovation Mother Fund. The financing will be mainly used to accelerate the construction of the pilot test base, tackle the key core technologies of embodied robots, and expand the application in large - scale security and industrial scenarios.
Among private enterprises, state - owned capital has become one of the most active "capital promoters" in the current robot field.
On October 26th, Songyan Power announced the completion of nearly 300 million yuan in Pre - B round financing, in which state - owned capital forces such as CRRC Transformation and Upgrading Fund and CCTV Media Convergence Fund were prominently listed. This company, founded by a team with backgrounds from Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was established in Beijing, China in September 2023. The core founding members of the company come from well - known institutions such as Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The company is committed to the research and development of general artificial intelligence ontology, robot bionics, and embodied operating systems.
On October 22nd, Leju Robot completed nearly 1.5 billion yuan in Pre - IPO round financing. The list of investors includes not only local state - owned platforms such as Shenzhen Investment Holdings Capital, Shenzhen Longhua Capital, and Shijingshan Industrial Fund, but also the capital forces of financial central enterprises such as CITIC Jingshi and CSC Investment. This pattern of joint investment by state - owned capital, industrial capital, and market - oriented funds has become the main theme of current robot industry investment.
Within just one week, state - owned capital has made a layout that runs through from the "brain" to the "hand" in the core links of the embodied intelligence industry chain.
In the dexterous hand segment upstream of embodied intelligence, Lingxin Qiaoshou also received hundreds of millions of yuan in Series A financing on October 24th. The leading investors also include the presence of state - owned capital. Led by Jingguorui Management Company and Bojia Capital, well - known institutions such as Guozhong Capital, Diodes, Zifeng Capital, Shanxi Securities Investment, Jiangjin Zhuoyue Fund, and Hongyi Fund jointly invested, and the old shareholder Ant Group continued to increase its investment.
The frequent actions of state - owned capital are inseparable from the strong support of policies. In the government work report in March 2025, "embodied intelligence" was mentioned for the first time and included in the future industry cultivation system. It was clearly stated that a long - term mechanism for industrial development would be established through the "Artificial Intelligence +" action and the establishment of an investment growth mechanism. Obviously, with its strong strength, state - owned capital has become the first choice for most companies.
As the financing rounds of leading companies progress, the list of financial investors who can invest hundreds of millions of yuan in a single deal has sharply decreased. Industrial parties and state - owned capital have become the main targets for corporate financing. These investors can offer more than just money. The former can help robot companies secure orders, while the latter can assist companies in capitalization and help them obtain government resources and industry resources.
Large orders emerge, prices drop below ten thousand yuan
From the enterprise perspective, the embodied intelligence industry is entering a critical stage of transitioning from technical verification to commercial verification. Since the second half of the year, most companies have successively entered the Series B and C rounds, where they need to prove their revenue and profit models. The capital market has also begun to focus on companies that can truly achieve mass production and delivery and run through the commercial closed - loop.
For example, in just half a year, Songyan Power has completed its fourth round of financing. While announcing the latest round of financing, Songyan Power also launched the world's first humanoid robot priced below ten thousand yuan, "Bumi Xiaobumi", with a selling price of only 9,998 yuan.
According to the official introduction, Xiaobumi is positioned as a family companion with both emotional value and educational enlightenment functions, aiming to accompany children's growth, stimulate creativity, and serve as a technological medium to connect the emotions of two generations. Jiang Zheyuan, the founder of Songyan Power, said bluntly at a recent media communication meeting that the price of humanoid robots is not prohibitively high. "A humanoid robot is essentially made of plastic, aluminum, iron, copper wires, magnets, and chips. It shouldn't be that expensive."
2025 is generally regarded by the industry as the first year of large - scale mass production of humanoid robots. Companies such as Unitree, Zhipu, Figure, 1X, and Ubtech have made frequent progress. The annual shipment volume of leading full - scale robot manufacturers has exceeded one thousand units. The industry is moving from the laboratory demonstration stage to real - world scenario implementation and batch delivery.
Against the background of continuous capital inflow, the focus of industry competition is shifting from "telling stories" to "competing in mass production", and various "large - order" phenomena are frequent. On September 3rd, Ubtech announced that it had obtained a 250 - million - yuan procurement contract for embodied intelligent humanoid robot products and solutions from a well - known domestic company, which is considered the largest humanoid robot order in the world so far. Just two months ago, Ubtech also won a 90.51 - million - yuan robot equipment procurement project from Miyi (Shanghai) Automotive Technology Co., Ltd., indicating that its implementation speed in industrial application scenarios is accelerating.
However, behind the eye - catching figures, there are also rational voices within the industry. Many industry insiders pointed out that there may be some "hype" in the so - called "super - large orders".
Some people said that meeting the demand for robots is a gradual process. It is impossible to have so many orders and such a large market demand all at once. Moreover, the capabilities of robots are currently insufficient to meet so many demands, and there may be some exaggeration. But each company has its own strategy. Yao Maoqing, the partner, senior vice - president, and president of the embodied business department of Zhipu Robot, also expressed a similar view. He believes that the authenticity of some large - value orders at present "may be a mix of truth and falsehood".
"From the current development status of the industry, asking full - scale humanoid robots to do high - load, continuous - endurance, and high - rhythm work contains more conceptual elements." Yao Maoqing gave an example. A few months ago, it was very popular for bipedal robots to move boxes in car factories. If you conduct on - the - spot industry research and understand customer needs, you will find that this is an inappropriate solution because its endurance stability, speed, etc. are difficult to meet the high - intensity requirements of factories. In addition, for some outdoor scenarios, the IP protection level of humanoid robots is quite challenging. Currently, humanoid robots are still more suitable for performing more specific tasks in indoor environments."
Against the background of both industry enthusiasm and doubts, although embodied intelligence has opened up new commercial space through mass - production acceleration and price reduction at this stage, the technological maturity and scenario fit are still the key issues determining whether the industry can truly "take root".
Multiple dexterous hand companies announce financing, reaching the "last mile"
As the key execution unit for robots to interact with the physical world, the dexterous hand is regarded as the "last mile" for the implementation of embodied intelligence. Its technological maturity directly determines the adaptability and fine - operation level of intelligent agents in the real environment.
"It is extremely difficult to build a hand as dexterous and efficient as a human hand." Tesla CEO Elon Musk once described it like this. Tesla basically determined the technical route of the dexterous hand half a month ago, but still faces a large number of engineering problems. Take its Optimus humanoid robot as an example. The current dexterous hand is one of the most precise structures in the industry. However, in the training of express sorting tasks, the lifespan of a single hand is only about six weeks, and the cost is as high as 6,000 US dollars. Coupled with other vulnerable parts, excluding electricity costs, the cost of replacing parts for a robot to run throughout the year is close to 100,000 US dollars, which is enough to hire two automobile assembly workers in the United States.
Different from Tesla's situation in the critical stage, domestic dexterous hand companies have recently witnessed a wave of intensive financing. Around the same time as Lingxin Qiaoshou announced its financing news, Shenzhen Starlight Year Technology Co., Ltd. announced the completion of its Pre - A round of financing, led by Saina Capital and Puhua Capital, followed by Kexi Venture Capital, with Shendu Capital serving as the financial advisor. The funds will be mainly used for tackling the underlying technologies of dexterous operation, researching and developing the dexterous hand operating system (cerebellum model), and expanding the core team.
As a leading player in the domestic dexterous hand field, Lingxin Qiaoshou also announced more detailed commercialization progress after completing hundreds of millions of yuan in Series A financing on October 24th. According to Touzhongwang's information from the company, its products have achieved mass production and market - oriented application, and the order volume from the industrial circle, scientific research institutions, and embodied intelligence companies has exceeded one thousand units. It has become the only company in the world to achieve mass production of high - degree - of - freedom dexterous hands in the thousands.
Lingxin Qiaoshou has established a complete product spectrum for different application scenarios. Its latest model, Linker Hand O6, is known as the "world's lightest mass - produced dexterous hand", weighing only 370 grams, and can be seamlessly adapted to mainstream humanoid robots and robotic arms. The company has even purchased multiple robots, including those from Unitree, for scenario - based testing to verify the stability and compatibility of the products in practical applications.
Technically, Lingxin Qiaoshou's high - degree - of - freedom dexterous hands cover all drive design routes such as linkages, tendon ropes, and direct drives, and are suitable for a variety of segmented scenarios. The company starts from the most basic materials, widely uses new materials with light weight, good performance, and long service life, and fully self - develops key components such as micro - motors, electric cylinders, reducers, and knuckle modules to ensure the best balance among the mass - production efficiency, performance, and service life of high - degree - of - freedom dexterous hands. Lingxin Qiaoshou revealed that its products have passed multi - dimensional performance, life, and resistance tests, and the overall performance is leading in the industry. This round of financing will promote Lingxin Qiaoshou to further improve its mass - production capacity, accelerate the full - scenario technology research and development, and global layout. In the future, it will continue to invest in the research and development of new technologies, new materials, and new products, and continuously climb the technological peak of the embodied intelligence industry.
From the upstream dexterous hands, to the mid - stream full - scale robot manufacturers, and then to the downstream scenario applications, the embodied intelligence industry chain is gradually becoming clear. However, the industry is still in its early stage, and technological maturity, application scenario matching, and cost control are still key challenges. The business models and real orders of some projects still need time to be verified. It is certain that embodied intelligence is moving from concept to engineering, from the laboratory to industrialization, and its development speed and sustainability will become one of the most watched observation indicators in the coming year.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Touzhongwang", author: Wei Xianghui, published by 36Kr with authorization.