Hefei kicks off a "robot scramble" battle

A battle for robot startups is unfolding, with Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen on one side and Hefei on the other.

A government investment promotion official in the Yangtze River Delta region told China Entrepreneur, "Recently, Hefei's investment promotion officials have been very active in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. They mainly conduct visits in the name of 'fund investment' and try to attract high - tech companies to Hefei."

According to data from Shangqi Industry Connect, in the past two years, in the robot industry, 13, 10, and 8 robot enterprises have moved from Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen to Hefei respectively. The relocation includes four situations: change of registered address, wholly - owned subsidiary, equity - participating subsidiary, and holding subsidiary. In the artificial intelligence industry, in the past two years, 32, 22, 21, and 13 enterprises have moved from Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou to Hefei respectively.

Judging from the above data, in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, Hefei focuses on "poaching" from Shanghai and Beijing, followed by Shenzhen.

For example, Geek+ Technology, a global listed company in the field of warehouse mobile robots with its headquarters in Beijing, has established its largest production base in Lujiang, Hefei, which was put into operation in November 2024.

Hefei has also poached Youibot, a benchmark company in the field of embodied intelligence, from Shenzhen. In June 2024, Hefei Dongcheng Industrial Investment announced a total investment of about 1.4 billion yuan to help Youibot establish its headquarters in Hefei. In terms of revenue in 2024, the company ranked first in the global industrial mobile operation robot industry and first in the global market share in the semiconductor field. In September this year, Youibot submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to seek listing.

"On the one hand, Hefei has money. On the other hand, the investment promotion officials are relatively professional and stable. Most importantly, the industrial chain is well - equipped. Many enterprises investing in Hefei value industrial synergy more," said the above - mentioned investment promotion official.

Zhang Zhaohui, the founder of Youibot, said in an interview with China Entrepreneur: "Hefei has established a 'Scenario Office' to help companies like Youibot connect with industries such as panels and automobiles to create application scenarios." Zhang Zhaohui also said: "China currently does not lack technology. What it lacks is to open up (application scenarios) for (robot) products. After the robots are developed, their capabilities need to be output, and the government should play such a role."

Source: AI - generated

"Investment + Scenarios" is becoming the two major approaches for Hefei's layout in the field of robotics. In the field of embodied intelligence, can the "City with the Best Venture Capital" bet on the next BOE or NIO? At the end of October this year, reporters from China Entrepreneur visited institutions such as Hefei Lingdong Robot, Hefei Intelligent Robot Research Institute, and iFlytek Venture Capital to find the answer.

Scenarios Come First, Investment Second

Decades of rapid development in the past have created Hefei's industrial layout of "Chip, Display, Automobile, and AI Integration; IC, Smart Terminal, Biopharmaceutical, and AI". In these eight major industries, the robot industry was originally not included.

"Chip" represents the semiconductor industry; "Display" represents the new - display industry; "Automobile" represents the new - energy vehicle industry; "Integration" represents the integration of artificial intelligence and industries; "IC" refers to the integrated circuit industry; "Terminal" refers to the smart terminal industry; "Biopharmaceutical" refers to the biomedical industry; "AI" refers to the intelligent voice and artificial intelligence industry.

Behind almost every industry stands a leading company that has settled in Hefei, such as Changxin Memory Technologies, BOE, NIO, and iFlytek. According to a person familiar with the matter: "Originally, the character 'Qi' (meaning 'device', referring to robots) was intended to represent the 'Automobile' industry, but due to the small scale and low technological maturity of the robot industry, the new - energy vehicle industry took its place."

In the first three quarters of this year, Anhui produced 2.4 million vehicles, surpassing Guangdong to become the number one in the country. Seven complete - vehicle enterprises, including Chery, NIO, and BYD, are located here. In addition, Anhui ranks first in the country in the production of DRAM dynamic memory chips, and has the world's first market share in the wafer foundry of liquid - crystal panel display driver chips. Anhui manufactures nearly 10% of the world's display panels, 15% of the country's home appliances, 20% of the country's photovoltaic modules, and 30% of the country's photovoltaic inverters.

The rapid rise of industries such as automobiles, semiconductors, and photovoltaics has provided Hefei with the richest scenario foundation for the implementation of robots. The government, acting as a bridge by establishing the "Scenario Office", has also reduced the cost for startups to cooperate with leading companies and shortened the commercialization process from 0 to 1.

In October this year, the Hefei Development and Reform Commission launched the second - batch recruitment for Hefei's scenario laboratories. The aim is to take industrial chain enterprises and institutions as the main body, and through providing services such as joint development, testing and verification, and application procurement, to promote the application and popularization of new technologies and products of small and medium - sized science and technology innovation enterprises.

Ji Chao, the CEO of Hefei - based startup Lingdong Robot, told China Entrepreneur that the "Scenario Office" helps the company connect with various manufacturing scenarios, reducing the cost of individual connections. Through the government's platform, it can link scenario providers with robot companies.

Lingdong Robot, an incubatee of iFlytek, was established in December 2024, aiming for full - link self - control of "brain - cerebellum - body". In August this year, it completed an angel - round financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, with shareholders including Yuanhe Puhua, iFlytek Venture Capital, and other leading institutions.

There are numerous scenarios and demands. Ji Chao pointed out that Lingdong Robot focuses on labor - related scenarios combined with production scenarios. In September this year, Ji Chao proposed two standards for the implementation of embodied intelligence: First, to improve production efficiency under the existing paradigm, for example, robots in automobile assembly workshops can achieve a positive input - output cycle in 18 - 24 months and replace 1 - 2 workers; Second, to promote the reconstruction of the productivity system under a clear trend, for example, the next - generation automobile production line is redesigned around general robots, shifting from a "human - centered" to a "robot - centered" model.

Currently, Lingdong Robot has launched two types of robots: the LDT series of embodied intelligence training and inference all - in - one machines and the LDB series of industry - level embodied general robots. The former can effectively solve the problem of insufficient training data for robots. In November this year, Lingdong Robot also jointly released the iFlyBot - VLM visual - language foundation large model and the iFlyBot - VLA visual - language - action operation large model with iFlytek.

In addition to the "Scenario Office", Hefei has also established a humanoid robot working group at the municipal government level, and this methodology has now extended to the district level. For example, the Baohe District of Hefei established a humanoid robot working group in January 2024. In addition to industrial planning, it also assists enterprises in robot industry supporting. For example, a local startup named FlexiKotech is engaged in the research and development of robot bionic skin.

Attracting market capital through government investment is also Hefei's investment strategy in this robot wave. In December 2024, the Anhui Kexun Artificial Intelligence Venture Capital Fund was registered. The fund is jointly funded by iFlytek, Hefei Industrial Guidance Fund, Hefei High - tech Group, etc. as LPs, and iFlytek Venture Capital is the main operator.

Zhu Yong, a business partner of iFlytek Venture Capital, mentioned in an interview with China Entrepreneur that the main demand of LPs is to improve the local AI industrial ecosystem in Hefei. It is acceptable to invest in companies outside Hefei, but they need to meet the reinvestment requirements, such as establishing a headquarters, R & D center, or sales center in Hefei.

According to the Hefei Intelligent Robot Industry Development Action Plan (2024 - 2026) released by Hefei in September 2024, the plan aims to cultivate 30 demonstration application scenarios and achieve a core industry scale of over 10 billion yuan by 2026. To this end, Hefei has identified ten key tasks, including establishing a Hefei Intelligent Robot Working Office and a special fund system with a total scale of over 5 billion yuan.

Money Is Not the Most Important

The scale of 5 billion yuan is far less than Hefei's previous investment in projects such as BOE and NIO, which often reached tens of billions of yuan. One of the reasons is that money may be the least important factor in the current embodied intelligence industry.

There are many legends about Hefei's financial resources. Around 2008, the Hefei government promised to invest 9 billion yuan, about one - third of the annual fiscal revenue at that time, to jointly invest 17.5 billion yuan with BOE to finalize the first domestic 6 - generation liquid - crystal panel project.

Subsequently, BOE's 8.5 - generation liquid - crystal display panel production line and the world's highest - generation 10.5 - generation line were successively built and put into operation in Hefei, driving more than 70 supporting enterprises in the display field to develop in Hefei and forming one of the world's largest display production bases with an output value of over 100 billion yuan.

However, in the field of robots, especially humanoid robots, this approach of "large - scale investment + leading enterprises driving the industrial chain" does not work.

Yu Zhenzhong, the dean of the Hefei Intelligent Robot Research Institute, told China Entrepreneur that although humanoid robots are popular in the capital market, the current industry revenue scale is not large. The main reason is that the current development level of robots is still difficult to enter the household scenario, as they lack intelligence and flexibility.

Yu Zhenzhong, Dean of Hefei Intelligent Robot Research Institute. Source: Respondent

"Do we need to invest tens of billions of yuan in robots at once, like investing in Changxin Memory Technologies? If so, we don't even know who to invest in. It is not an industry where we can concentrate resources to achieve great things. In the field of robots, money is not the most important," said Yu Zhenzhong.

Currently, cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou have initially formed a pattern of "leading companies + ecosystem". Companies such as Xingdong Jiyuan and Yinhe Tongyong in Beijing have recently completed financings of 1 billion yuan. Shanghai's Zhiyuan Robot, Shenzhen's Leju, and Hangzhou's Unitree are all seeking listing, competing for the title of "the first humanoid robot stock".

It is difficult for Hefei to attract these top - tier humanoid robot star companies, and the investment cost is relatively high. Considering that the robot industrial chain is not yet mature, Yu Zhenzhong said: "It's better to plant a tree than to transplant one." He believes that the intelligent robot industry will be a competition lasting more than 10 years.

The Hefei Intelligent Robot Research Institute has taken the lead in "planting trees". It has closely cooperated with universities such as Harbin Institute of Technology to incubate startups. In the past nine years, the institute has "planted" more than 100 "trees", including many robot and component companies. These startups are characterized by "AI + robots + vertical fields", such as robots for underground health pipe networks and robots for underground mine operations.

In addition to local incubation, the Hefei Intelligent Robot Research Institute also conducts external investment promotion, focusing on vertical fields and upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. For example, it introduced a laser sensor startup from Zhangjiagang to Hefei. The institute not only invested 3 million yuan but also helped the company find a venue, recruit employees, handle accounting, establish a new equity structure, and even helped the company visit customers and expand the market.

Zhu Yong said that although the embodied intelligence industry has limited short - term employment and tax contributions, attention should be paid to the technological spill - over effect of embodied intelligence.

Zhu Yong gave an example that the embodied intelligence industrial chain is mainly based on high - end manufacturing, and its employment scale is smaller than that of the automobile industry. However, Unitree has proved that by achieving self - sufficiency in core components such as motors and reducers, it has driven the development of supporting industries such as precision manufacturing and AI algorithms in Hangzhou.

"Robots are expected to be first implemented in industries such as industry, agriculture, and medical care. Hefei has already opened up industrial scenarios," said Zhu Yong.

How Can Hefei Participate in the City Competition?

Yu Zhenzhong was invited to participate in a symposium of Hefei's government leaders. At the symposium, regarding whether to layout the humanoid robot industry and how to do it, Hefei's leaders unanimously agreed that they could not miss this round. Otherwise, they might miss an industrial opportunity like the new - energy vehicle industry. To this end, Hefei has identified ten key tasks, including establishing a Hefei Humanoid Robot Working Group and a special fund system with a total scale of over 5 billion yuan.

In addition to Hefei, domestic cities have also released industrial plans for embodied intelligence, presenting a situation of "a hundred sails competing".

In February this year, Beijing proposed that by 2027, it will cultivate no less than 50 core enterprises in the upstream and downstream of the embodied intelligence industrial chain, achieve no less than 100 large - scale applications in three major scenarios, and cultivate a trillion - level industrial cluster. Moreover, in terms of financial support, the maximum support amount for a single project can reach 100 million yuan.

In March this year, Shenzhen proposed that by 2027, it will newly cultivate more than 10 enterprises with a valuation of over 10 billion yuan and more than 20 enterprises with a revenue of over 1 billion yuan, achieve more than 50 billion - level application scenarios, reach an associated industrial scale of over 100 billion yuan, and have more than 1,200 enterprises related to the embodied intelligence robot industrial cluster.

In August this year, Shanghai proposed that by 2027, it will gather a hundred leading enterprises in the industry, implement a hundred innovative application scenarios, promote a hundred internationally leading products, and drive the core industrial scale to exceed 50 billion yuan.

Ji Chao mentioned that in developing the robot industry, Hefei should focus strategically, conduct targeted research, and provide key support, allocating limited resources to the most valuable directions.

Yu Zhenzhong suggested that the construction of the embodied intelligence industrial chain is also a weak point, such as the imperfect supply chain of high - precision machining and electronic appliances.

This article is from the WeChat official account "China Entrepreneur Magazine" (ID: iceo -