Just after spending 100 million on the Spring Festival Gala, Magic Atom lost its founder.

A "riddle" circulating in the humanoid robot circle has become the most talked - about gossip in the entire industry.

The senior self - media account "Non - Consensus Robots" in the robot industry dropped a bombshell:

"It is learned from multiple independent sources close to the enterprise that a leading domestic humanoid robot company that appeared on the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala had a fierce quarrel between the investor shareholders and the founding team at the core business meeting after the Spring Festival holiday because the effect of the 100 - million - yuan investment in the Spring Festival Gala fell short of expectations..."

The most eye - catching part of this revelation is that several things that are difficult to connect together appear in the same paragraph: appearing on the Spring Festival Gala, investing nearly 100 million yuan, the effect falling short of expectations, and finally the shareholders and the founding team having a falling - out on the spot.

You know, in most people's perception, being able to appear on the Spring Festival Gala is almost a "certified" peak moment. Not to mention the failure of the investment, many companies don't even have the qualification to get on this stage.

As a result, instead of becoming a celebration party, the Spring Festival Gala has become the fuse for the company's major changes.

No wonder as soon as this revelation came out, it was quickly reprinted by platforms such as Sina and Phoenix and spread rapidly. Coupled with the fact that the revealer didn't name names, the entire industry circle entered a state of "guess who I am".

Coincidentally, almost at the same time when this revelation came out, Magic Atom, which had just appeared on the Spring Festival Gala with Unitree, Galaxy Universal, and Songyan Power, was reported by the media on March 5th that its founder, Wu Changzheng, had left the company.

Although half a month has passed and no robot company has "claimed" this rumor, and Magic Atom has not made any relevant response, there is indeed a subtle echo between "the fierce quarrel between the investor shareholders and the founding team" and "Wu Changzheng's departure from Magic Atom".

From obscurity to appearing on the Spring Festival Gala, from a rising star in the industry to being highly anticipated, many people originally thought that Magic Atom had the opportunity to become another humanoid robot company that really gained national recognition after Unitree.

But no one expected that before the glory of the Spring Festival Gala had completely faded, the storm around it emerged first.

What exactly happened to this most talked - about AI robot company in 2026?

From Xiaomi, incubated by Dreame

Before appearing on the Spring Festival Gala, Magic Atom was still an unfamiliar name to most casual netizens.

But in the robot circle, it has quite a background. This company, founded in 2024, is connected to Dreame on one side and the Xiaomi "Tiedan" team on the other. And its story starts with its founder and former CEO, Wu Changzheng.

Wu Changzheng is one of the few in the domestic robot circle whose resume is enough to make investors and the media look at him with respect at first sight.

He graduated from the robot technology major of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and then worked in the robot industry for many years, having worked in companies such as Pudu and Xiaomi.

Especially during his time at Xiaomi, he was deeply involved in the bionic quadruped robot CyberDog, which is more commonly known as the "Tiedan" project. To some extent, Magic Atom's ability to gain far more attention than ordinary startups in its early days is inseparable from this experience.

After all, although Tiedan failed to really bring robot dogs into every household, it at least achieved one thing: it made more people realize for the first time that Chinese companies can also make robots so well. It accumulated a wave of technological aura for Xiaomi and also pushed a group of robot - makers to the forefront.

Wu Changzheng is one of them.

Therefore, Magic Atom has a natural flavor of being a "descendant of a famous family" from the beginning. When the outside world mentions it, it is almost impossible to avoid two layers of labels: one is "from the Xiaomi Tiedan team", and the other is "incubated by Dreame".

The former gives it technological imagination, and the latter gives it resources and capital stories.

In 2024, Magic Atom was officially established.

This time point doesn't seem early. It is even half a step later than many well - known humanoid robot companies. But its advantage is that it was "born with a silver spoon in its mouth".

With a Dreame - affiliated background, a mature robot R & D team, and the fact that embodied intelligence was at its hottest at that time, this company has never taken the route of being unknown and making small - scale trial - and - error from the beginning.

This can be seen from its subsequent financing rhythm.

The company was founded in January 2024 and secured 150 million yuan in angel - round financing by the end of the year. By May 2025, it received hundreds of millions of yuan in strategic financing. Later, a Series A financing of over 500 million yuan was also quickly on the table.

This speed is not something that an ordinary new player in the humanoid robot track can achieve.

More importantly, the imagination around it has expanded wildly with the success of the financing:

Gu Shitao, the co - founder of the company, clearly stated in multiple media interviews around January 23, 2026 (around the official announcement of the Spring Festival Gala) that the company is arranging its listing schedule at the "fastest speed" and may have new news in the secondary market as early as 2026.

This "expansion" is reasonable.

Compared with many startup companies that only show a few demos and tell a few stories, Magic Atom seems to be very good at creating "visible things" from the start.

It knows what kind of pictures are most likely to spread, what actions best demonstrate technology, and what scenarios are most likely to impress laypeople. Whether it's high - dynamic humanoid robots or the frequently talked - about group - control performances later, it is very good at making robots seem "really something".

Especially after the small - sized, high - dynamic humanoid robot MagicBot Z1 came out, Magic Atom's recognition increased significantly.

Thomas spins, flips, performing a whole set of choreography to music, and even cooperating with real people on stage. These things provide the most popular narrative at the level of mass communication: being eye - catching.

Magic Atom is just good at creating this kind of "eye - catching" effect.

Then came the Spring Festival Gala.

For any Chinese company, the Spring Festival Gala is not an ordinary stage. It means both exposure and recognition in an official context. Especially for robot companies, it is a rare opportunity to appear in such a national - level super - scene facing the whole country.

Magic Atom really seized this opportunity.

From the opening, the parade, the main venue to the sub - venues, robots took turns to appear. High - dynamic actions, group - control performances, and real service scenarios were all packed into this once - a - year national - level window of the Spring Festival Gala. Many people who had never heard of Magic Atom before remembered this name for the first time that night.

In terms of communication, this was a textbook - level breakthrough. But unexpectedly, the Spring Festival Gala also became the source of the storm.

The "Four Brothers" on the Spring Festival Gala, Different Fates

Looking back at the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Horse, its "product - promotion" ability is still as strong as ever.

Public data shows that two hours after the Spring Festival Gala started, the search volume of robots on the JD platform increased by more than 300% month - on - month, the customer service inquiry volume increased by 460%, the order volume increased by 150%, and the new orders covered more than 100 cities across the country. At least in terms of "letting more people see robots", the Spring Festival Gala is still one of the most powerful traffic amplifiers in the country.

Moreover, judging from the development of several companies after the Spring Festival Gala, this stage was not in vain.

Unitree continued to strive towards the top position. According to public reports, its humanoid robot shipments exceeded 5,500 units in 2025, and the mass - production offline of the main body exceeded 6,500 units. It is one of the companies in this industry that is closest to "turning popularity into business".

Galaxy Universal and Songyan Power also quickly received responses from the capital market. At the beginning of March, the former officially announced a new round of 2.5 billion yuan in financing, and the latter disclosed a Series B financing of nearly 1 billion yuan in total.

However, the reason why Magic Atom has a completely different subsequent trajectory from the other three companies even though they all appeared on the Spring Festival Gala may not lie in the stage itself.

First of all, the gap in scale is the biggest problem Magic Atom faces.

As early as March 2025, Wu Changzheng publicly mentioned that Magic Atom's mass - production plan for that year was 400 humanoid robots for industrial and commercial scenarios.

But at the beginning of 2026, according to the IDC's criteria, Magic Atom was still classified in the "shipments of over 100 units" category. On the other hand, Unitree's actual humanoid robot shipments in 2025 exceeded 5,500 units, and the overall shipments of Zhipu also exceeded 5,100 units.

In the humanoid robot track, mass - production and delivery capabilities are hard currency. While others are using thousands - level deliveries to reduce supply - chain costs, refine product quality control, and accumulate real - scenario data, Magic Atom is still hovering around the hundreds - level, far behind in terms of rhythm.

Looking further, the technological advantages and commercial scenarios of Magic Atom do not have a deep moat.

Some media mentioned that its self - developed dexterous hand MagicHand S01 has 11 degrees of freedom per hand, a load capacity of 5 kilograms for the whole hand, and a maximum load capacity of over 20 kilograms in operation scenarios. These parameters have certain advantages in scenarios such as industrial handling, assembly, and loading and unloading.

However, the technological high - point of humanoid robots depends not only on load capacity but also on fine - operation and generalization capabilities in complex environments. In contrast, Unitree's Dex5 has 20 degrees of freedom per hand and is equipped with 94 tactile sensors; Zhipu's OmniHand has 19 degrees of freedom and obviously has higher potential in terms of fine - operation and generalization capabilities.

There is also the most realistic aspect: Magic Atom has always been half a step behind in establishing a commercial closed - loop.

According to public statements, after Magic Atom started sales in May 2025, it received 500 million yuan in intended contracts and 130 million yuan in signed orders in half a year, covering 27 countries and regions overseas, and the overseas proportion in a single month once exceeded 60%. The results seem quite good.

But on the other hand, many media also mentioned that the company is still in the early stage of commercial verification, and the publicly disclosed annual sales volume is still in the tens of millions of yuan level, and a stable and large - scale revenue and profit closed - loop has not been formed.

Intended contracts do not equal confirmed revenue. Industrial customers have a long decision - making cycle, strict acceptance standards, and slow payment. This situation of "orders looking bustling but the actual payment coming in slowly" is the most difficult stage for robot companies.

Especially, the cost of appearing on the Spring Festival Gala is high.

Multiple media such as Caijing quoted industry insiders as saying that the cost range for robot companies to cooperate in the 2026 Spring Festival Gala was between 60 million and 100 million yuan. As a strategic partner, Magic Atom's investment is generally estimated to be close to 100 million yuan.

If the company had already stabilized its mass - production