The robotics company holding 1 billion yuan worth of orders is about to grind to a halt.

In 2026, the embodied intelligence track is also witnessing a stark "extreme contrast between fire and ice".

On one hand, unicorns valued at tens of billions are emerging intensively, and large-scale financing deals are being closed frequently; on the other hand, a brutal industry reshuffle is quietly taking place.

The latest and most dramatic protagonist is a rising star in the embodied intelligence sector — Infinite Dynamics, which was founded only 8 months ago.

It once carried the label of "top-achiever CEO + elite team from Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University", publicly disclosed that it had completed 110 million yuan in financing and held orders worth nearly 1 billion yuan, and once became a dark horse in the track that received key support from local governments and was sought after by capital.

No one expected that the turning point of the story would come so quickly.

According to the report of National Business Daily, recently, some self-claimed employees of Infinite Dynamics reported that the company has defaulted on wages since August this year, stopped paying housing provident fund in September, and stopped paying social security in October; the wage arrears involve 30 to 40 employees, with a total amount of nearly 8 million yuan. Now the company has suspended operations, and its actual controller has lost contact.

It makes people can't help wondering: in just two months, what on earth happened to Infinite Dynamics?

From high-profile popularity to complete shutdown, it only took 8 months

The opening chapter of Infinite Dynamics follows the "textbook-level script" in the embodied intelligence industry.

The actual controller of the company is Cui Xiaofei, who owns the medical optics enterprise Super Light Micro, which was also the initial wholly-owned shareholder of Infinite Dynamics.

Yuan Haihui, the CEO who stood in the foreground and was responsible for public presentations, came with natural topical labels: he was admitted to Shanghai Jiao Tong University at the age of 16, became famous at a young age, and has experience in consecutive entrepreneurship.

Under this personal setting, the company's team was called the "top-achiever elite group".

Core members come from top universities, scientific research platforms and technology innovation enterprises such as Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Zhejiang Lab, Agibot, and Unitree, mastering key technologies including high torque density joint modules, motion control algorithms, and large model training frameworks.

The company also made very precise positioning, anchored a differentiated track, took the integrated inspection-and-operation industrial robot as its core competitiveness, focused on the R&D of industrial-grade quadruped robots and industry solutions, and mainly targeted scenarios such as power inspection, petrochemical industry, energy and mining.

With the three elements of talents, technology and scenarios all in place, it naturally met the expectations of capital and the local market.

According to the disclosure of local Nanjing media in June, Infinite Dynamics signed framework order contracts worth nearly 500 million yuan with a number of central SOEs, and entered the delivery stage; the reserved orders in the local market were close to 500 million yuan; it publicly disclosed that 110 million yuan of financing had been in place, and obtained key support from Nanjing City and Jiangning District.

The report at that time mentioned that Huarui Embodied Intelligence Industrial Park, relying on its market-oriented investment platform Huarui Venture Capital, took the lead in investing with the concept of patient capital and introduced Infinite Dynamics to settle in Jiangning Development Zone.

In response, Yuan Haihui said at that time: this order reserve far exceeds expectations, which also shows the recognition of investors and the market for the company's team strength and strategic positioning.

In the same month, JunChuang Tech, a listed company on the Beijing Stock Exchange, issued an announcement, proposing to jointly set up a private equity fund with institutions, which would eventually invest in Infinite Dynamics. The transaction plan was to first invest in Super Light Micro under Cui Xiaofei, and then complete the injection through equity swap.

In July, the official website of the Jiangning District Government of Nanjing also disclosed that the power inspection quadruped robot independently developed by Infinite Dynamics was expected to be delivered and put into use in October.

For a time, "hardcore technology, top team, large orders, industrial endorsement" became the labels of Infinite Dynamics, which was regarded as the most potential emerging force in the industrial embodied intelligence track.

However, behind the glamorous official announced data, hidden operational risks had long been planted.

Up to now, the industrial fund that JunChuang Tech participated in seems not to have completed the investment delivery to Infinite Dynamics.

On August 24, the shareholders of Infinite Dynamics changed, from Super Light Micro to Infinite Future Holdings, with Cui Xiaofei holding 62.51% of the shares, and the fund did not appear in the register of shareholders.

The risks broke out almost simultaneously.

According to employees' feedback to National Business Daily, the company stopped paying wages since August, stopped paying provident fund in September, and stopped paying social security in October. This wage arrears turmoil affected 30 to 40 employees, with a total amount of nearly 8 million yuan. At present, the company has been in a shutdown state, and the head of the R&D department also participated in labor arbitration together with other employees.

What is more thought-provoking is that Cui Xiaofei no longer goes to the company for work and has completely lost contact.

During this period, a person named Yuan Jie came forward to communicate with employees, who was reportedly entrusted by Cui Xiaofei to coordinate the aftermath; although Yuan Haihui was willing to assist employees in finding Cui Xiaofei and promoting the settlement of wage arrears, he also admitted that he could not contact the actual controller.

The once-star startup has fallen into a situation where no one is responsible for the aftermath.

A number of star robot enterprises are exiting in batches

The shutdown of Infinite Dynamics is not an isolated case.

Before it, a number of once-glamorous star robot enterprises have gradually fallen from grace, and the trend of the industry being screened out by the market has become increasingly obvious.

Just on October 19, the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court held the first creditor's meeting of Yinhe Robotics.

This company was also a industry star, founded in 2020, invested and incubated by Yingfeng Group, which is controlled by He Jianfeng, the son of He Xiangjian, the founder of Midea Group. Its founder Shen Gang once served as a senior executive in enterprises such as FANUC and Country Garden, with an extraordinary starting point.

Only 10 months after its establishment, its valuation reached 500 million US dollars. After that, it successively completed several rounds of financing, with a total financing of more than 600 million yuan. ByteDance, Meituan Strategic Investment, and GSR Ventures are all on the shareholder list.

However, according to the bankruptcy liquidation documents cited by media, Yinhe Robotics' revenue in 2025 was only 4.33 million yuan, while its net loss in the same period was as high as 67 million yuan. Around 2024, there were successive signs of tight capital chain such as wage arrears and default on payment to suppliers, and it has been listed as a dishonest person subject to enforcement.

In August this year, the bankruptcy review application was filed by the court.

Another enterprise that fell with star aura is DeepBlue Robotics.

Backed by DeepBlue Technology, a unicorn valued at tens of billions, it once disclosed LG's procurement intention of tens of thousands of disinfection robots in three years, and also announced the plan of exporting 25,000 units in two years, and planned an industrial park with an annual output of 20,000 units and an annual output value of 1 billion yuan in Shangqiu.

But then, facing the rapid shrinkage of disinfection demand, the products were difficult to adapt to real scenarios, and the orders failed to be implemented on a large scale.

In May this year, the court ruled to accept the bankruptcy liquidation, and publicized employee claims in September, with the total amount of claims exceeding 23 million yuan.

At the same time, Zhicheng Dynamics, which focuses on pool cleaning robots, also fell into crisis.

This company has been established for 5 years, with investors including Qingshuiwan Fund and Ecovacs, and was once favored by capital.

The company has been listed as a person subject to enforcement for many times since May this year. In September, creditors and itself successively submitted bankruptcy review applications; on September 22, Zhicheng Dynamics issued a statement saying that it was in the "pre-reorganization" stage, taking the initiative to save itself, and its operation was still ongoing.

Earlier, CloudMinds Robot, a veteran humanoid robot player, had long suffered from large-scale money burning and losses, its commercial implementation failed to meet expectations, and its financing channels continued to narrow.

In October 2025, its Beijing subsidiary, CloudMinds Robot (Beijing) Co., Ltd., was ruled by the court to accept bankruptcy liquidation.

The bursting of the bubble behind these enterprises is the reversal of the underlying logic of the embodied intelligence industry.

In the past two years, the embodied intelligence industry was in an absolute frenzy period.

As long as the market saw "humanoid robots, quadruped robots, top teams, framework orders", it was willing to give high valuations. The industry prevailed the strategy of "emphasizing R&D and demonstration, while ignoring implementation and revenue". A large number of enterprises maintained their valuations by relying on prototype demonstrations, intentional framework agreements, and capital blood transfusion, forming a typical "demonstration economy" bubble.

As Miao Tianyi, executive partner of Puzhuo Capital, once told the media, the embodied intelligence track was overheated before, and the progress of technology and commercialization obviously lagged behind the valuation level.

Even Shao Tianlan, the founder of Mech-Mind, once publicly spoke out, pointing directly at the chaos in the track that relies on associated data collection projects to package revenue.

But in the second half of 2026, the capital market has obviously entered the "correction" stage.

An industry insider once frankly stated to the media that the valuation logic of the robot industry is switching: in the past, more stories were told based on the long-term market space, but now capital pays more attention to stable revenue, payment collection ability and delivery implementation.

In other words, the financing channels for small and medium-sized projects lacking continuous hematopoietic capacity are narrowing, the difficulty of surviving independently is increasing, and the stage of simply burning money through financing has passed.

Miao Tianyi even gave a prediction: in the next two or three years, the industry will most likely usher in a large-scale clearance of production capacity and market entities, and a large number of enterprises that lack real scenario orders, only rely on financing to operate, and whose products stay in the demonstration stage will be gradually eliminated by the market.

It can be seen that the investment logic of capital has been completely rewritten: from "looking at the team, the story and the vision" to "looking at delivery, real revenue, cash flow and profit model".

At the same time, the Matthew effect in the industry is further intensifying.

According to the shipment statistics of Counterpoint, Agibot and Unitree account for about 43% and 31% of the global humanoid robot market respectively; leading enterprises continue to take the lead with real implementation scenarios, mass production capacity and continuous financing capacity, while the waist and tail enterprises that lack core technology, have no implementation capacity and only rely on story packaging are being cleared in batches.

After the market is screened out by the tide, the commercial era that truly belongs to embodied intelligence may have just begun.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Lieyun Select", written by Sun Yuan, and published with authorization from 36Kr.