9 "Genius Youths" of Huawei, with financing exceeding 7.7 billion yuan
Huawei's "Genius Youths" and senior executives have emerged as a pivotal force in the embodied intelligence startup landscape.
Reported by Zhidongxi on July 7, according to incomplete statistics from Zhidongxi, as of July 6, at least 15 former Huawei executives have left the company to join or found embodied intelligence startups. Among these enterprises, the highest valuation ranges from HK$40 billion to HK$50 billion (approximately RMB 34.7 billion to RMB 43.3 billion), and the largest single financing round reached US$455 million (about RMB 3.1 billion).
Just yesterday, Moqi Intelligence, an embodied intelligence company founded by former Huawei Genius Youth Huang Qingqiu and former senior Huawei executive Gao Wenli, announced it has completed a series of angel-round financings totaling over RMB 10 billion, with a post-investment valuation exceeding RMB 70 billion.
Among these departed Genius Youths and executives, 9 were once selected as "Huawei Genius Youths", while the remaining 6 are senior Huawei executives. Of the 15 individuals, 12 chose to launch their own startups, and 3 directly joined existing startups. The vast majority seamlessly transitioned into the robotics entrepreneurship wave after leaving Huawei, with these startups primarily established between 2024 and 2025. The maximum annual salary for these Huawei Genius Youths at the time reached RMB 2.01 million.
The publicly disclosed total financing amount for embodied intelligence enterprises founded or joined by these 9 "Huawei Genius Youths" has reached approximately RMB 7.7 billion.
In terms of technical layout, this group of Huawei-affiliated entrepreneurial teams has almost covered the entire industrial chain of embodied intelligence, with businesses spanning robot bodies, motion cerebellums, and decision-making brains, while also deploying robot operating systems, specialized large models, and data collection systems.
Currently, the product implementation progress varies significantly across companies: Unitree Robotics has produced over 15,000 mass-produced robots; enterprises such as Tushi Intelligent Navigation and Zhicheng AI have built a complete software and hardware product matrix; 6 other companies have not yet launched physical products due to their relatively short establishment history.
The market enthusiasm for these enterprises in the capital market continues to rise, with two unicorns — Unitree Robotics and Tushi Intelligent Navigation — already achieving valuations exceeding RMB 100 billion. They have also attracted large internet companies including Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, and Meituan to invest, making Huawei-affiliated embodied intelligence startups the darlings of capital in the current embodied intelligence track.
It is evident that Huawei is becoming a "Whampoa Military Academy" for talent in the domestic embodied intelligence field. Core talents from Huawei Ascend, the Automotive BU, the Noah's Ark Laboratory, and Huawei Cloud's Embodied Intelligence Team are spilling over in batches into the robotics track, forming a high-quality entrepreneurial boom.
▲ Statistics of embodied intelligence startups founded by Huawei-background executives (as of July 6) (Chart by Zhidongxi)
01.
2 Genius Youths + 2 Huawei Veterans
Building Two Unicorns with RMB 100 Billion Valuations
Entrepreneurs selected as "Huawei Genius Youths" in 2020 have become the main force in embodied intelligence entrepreneurship. Leveraging technologies accumulated at Huawei in computing power, intelligent driving, embodied intelligence, and perception algorithms, they have successively incubated multiple high-valued humanoid robot enterprises, including two industry unicorns targeting RMB 100 billion valuations.
1. Unitree Robotics
A widely recognized name here is Peng Zhihui (Zhihui Jun). Zhihui Jun passed 7 rounds of interviews for Huawei's "Genius Youth Program" in 2020, joined Huawei's Ascend department with the highest annual salary of RMB 2.01 million, left Huawei in 2022, and founded Unitree Robotics in 2023.
Unitree Robotics also has the deepest Huawei heritage among this wave of startups. Deng Taihua, Chairman and CEO of Unitree Robotics, Qiu Heng, COO of Unitree Robotics, and Jiang Qingsong, Vice President of Marketing of Unitree Robotics, are all former Huawei veterans.
▲ From left to right: Deng Taihua, Peng Zhihui, Jiang Qingsong, Qiu Heng (Source: Unitree Robotics)
Deng Taihua served at Huawei for 27 years, holding positions such as Vice President of Huawei, President of the Wireless Network Product Line, and President of the Computing Product Line. Qiu Heng previously served as CMO of Huawei's Chinese Enterprise Business, and Jiang Qingsong was Huawei's overseas enterprise country director and Vice President of Operator Solutions.
Unitree Robotics has publicly disclosed total financing of RMB 600 million. Last October, according to Reuters, Unitree Robotics planned to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with a target valuation of HK$40 billion to HK$50 billion (approximately RMB 34.7 billion to RMB 43.3 billion). Its industrial shareholder lineup is luxurious, including BYD, BAIC, TCL, Softcom Power, JD.com, Baidu, and Tencent.
Unitree Robotics has made deployments at the body, cerebellum, and brain levels. In terms of hardware, its products include five series of robots: Yuanzheng, Lingxi, Jingling, Kucuo, and Juechen, covering scenarios such as industry, logistics, cultural tourism, home companionship, scientific research education, and commercial cleaning. At the 2026 Shanghai MWC (Mobile World Congress) on June 24, Peng Zhihui revealed that the number of mass-produced robots from Unitree Robotics would exceed 15,000 this month.
2. Tushi Intelligent Navigation
Another RMB 100 billion unicorn in embodied intelligence is Tushi Intelligent Navigation.
Ding Wenchao, co-founder and chief scientist of Tushi Intelligent Navigation, was also selected as a "Genius Youth" with the highest annual salary of RMB 2.01 million, and led the development of the first-generation intelligent driving solution in the true sense of the word at Huawei.
After leaving Huawei in 2023, he did not start a business immediately. Instead, he joined Fudan University, established a robot system laboratory at the Institute of Intelligent Robots and Advanced Manufacturing Innovation, and led the R&D of the university's first humanoid robot project. He then co-founded Tushi Intelligent Navigation in 2025.
Another founder, Chen Yilun, also worked in the autonomous driving department. He joined Huawei in 2018 as chief scientist of the autonomous driving department, led the full-stack algorithm design of the intelligent assisted driving system ADS 1.0, formed the core technical team, and promoted the commercial application of products.
▲ Ding Wenchao (Left), Chen Yilun (Right) (Source: Xinhuanet, WAIC)
Although Tushi Intelligent Navigation was established recently, its financing capacity should not be underestimated. In April this year, it secured over US$450 million (about RMB 3.069 billion) in its Pre-A round of financing, setting a record for the largest single-round financing in the history of China's embodied intelligence industry at that time. Data from Qichacha shows that the company's total disclosed financing has reached US$697 million (about RMB 4.7 billion), and its latest valuation exceeds RMB 13 billion. Its investors include industrial capital such as Meituan and TCL, as well as state-owned capital such as the Beijing Robot Industry Development Investment Fund and Shanghai Guotou Pilot Fund.
Currently, it has launched the A-series wheeled industrial robots and the T-series bipedal general-purpose robots, and has also developed the general-purpose embodied large model AWE3.0 and the SenseHub wearable embodied data collection system.
02.
Clustered Genius Youths Hired in 2020
Most Left Huawei to Start Businesses in 2025
Several other Huawei Genius Youths selected in 2020 include Li Yinchuan, who founded Nuoyin Intelligence, Huang Qingqiu and Gao Wenli, who founded Moqi Intelligence, and Li Yuanqing, who joined Lexiang Technology this year.
1. Nuoyin Intelligence
Both founders of Nuoyin Intelligence are Huawei Genius Youths: Li Yinchuan was selected in 2020, and Zhou Kaiwen was selected in 2022. Li Yinchuan and Zhou Kaiwen joined the Decision Reasoning Lab of Huawei's Noah's Ark Laboratory at Huawei.
At the end of 2022, Li Yinchuan established a new project team at Huawei focusing on research related to generative AI models. He left Huawei in 2025 and founded Nuoyin Intelligence last July. Zhou Kaiwen once served as the first research scientist in the Decision Reasoning Lab, and after leaving Huawei in 2025, he briefly joined the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
▲ Li Yinchuan (Source: GitHub Personal Homepage)
Nuoyin Intelligence focuses on consumer-grade home embodied intelligence bodies and systems. Just 8 months after its establishment, the startup secured three rounds of financing: seed round, angel round, and angel+ round, with a total financing amount of several hundred million RMB and a valuation exceeding RMB 2 billion. This July, its world's first size-disruptive embodied robot will be unveiled at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference.
2. Moqi Intelligence
The founders of Moqi Intelligence are Huang Qingqiu, who was selected as a Huawei Genius Youth in 2020, and Gao Wenli, who served at Huawei for 11 years.
At Huawei, Huang Qingqiu was responsible for LiDAR perception algorithms and participated in the R&D of the industry's first mass-produced vehicle model equipped with automotive-grade LiDAR and Huawei's intelligent driving system, the Arcfox vehicle. Gao Wenli served at Huawei for 11 years, holding positions in R&D, product management, and overseas regional president.
▲ Huang Qingqiu (Source: Zhihu Account of Huawei Cloud Developer Alliance)
Moqi Intelligence was established in August 2025. It is committed to the R&D of general-purpose robots and has completed over RMB 1 billion in angel-round financing, with both Alibaba and Tencent participating, resulting in a post-investment valuation of RMB 7 billion. However, the company has not yet released specific products. Just this month, multiple media outlets revealed that Moqi Intelligence also recruited Lin Tianwei, former head of the embodied intelligence operation direction at Horizon Robotics, to serve as the head of the embodied operation direction.
3. Lexiang Technology
The last Huawei Genius Youth selected in 2020, Li Yuanqing, did not choose to start a business after leaving Huawei. Instead, he joined Lexiang Technology, where he is mainly responsible for innovative business strategic planning and core technology R&D, serving as co-CTO and general manager of the affiliated enterprise Qiongming Intelligence.
▲ Li Yuanqing (Source: Qiongming Intelligence)
Li Yuanqing was once the main person in charge of Huawei Cloud's embodied intelligence and the head of ROBO_AGENT. He led the development of core solutions for multiple embodied intelligent robots and also led the successful implementation of the star embodied intelligence project at the 2024 Huawei HDC Conference.
Lexiang Technology, which he joined, was established in 2025 and focuses on the R&D of small general-purpose home embodied intelligent robots. Its founder, Guo Renjie, previously served as Executive President of Dreame Technology China. Last September, the company completed its angel++ round of financing, with total angel-round financing approaching RMB 500 million, and the cumulative financing amount to date is about RMB 1 billion.
03.
Huawei's Youngest Technical Executive
The Only Genius Youth in the Robotics Field Has Also Joined the Track
Several other Huawei Genius Youths selected in different years have also left Huawei one after another, choosing to join or found embodied intelligence startups.
1. Digital Huaxia
The first is Yeo Hui Shyong, who joined Digital Huaxia. Yeo Hui Shyong was selected as a Huawei Genius Youth in 2021, worked in Huawei's Terminal BG and 2012 Laboratory, and was responsible for human-computer interaction technology. This March, he left Huawei to join Digital Huaxia, where he continues to explore and implement interactive intelligence at H LAB, Digital Huaxia's cutting-edge technology laboratory.
