Investment in China’s embodied-artificial-intelligence sector reached 93.5 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, up five times year-on-year, while deal count soared 137% to 322 transactions, signaling sustained investor appetite. Monthly funding activity remained fairly steady, with March and June each recording over 60 deals. Three hubs – Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai – captured 71% of all transactions and 79% of total value. Beijing topped the list with 100 deals worth 35.5 billion yuan, followed by Shenzhen (61 deals, 23.8 billion) and Hangzhou (34 deals, 9.2 billion). Suzhou and Wuxi also drew significant hardware-production projects, reinforcing the strong cluster effect in the Yangtze River Delta.
A humanoid robot manufacturing facility built through cooperation between Serbia, AgiBot Innovation (Shanghai) Technology Co., Ltd. (AgiBot), and Minth Group has officially commenced mass production in Šabac, with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić attending the launch ceremony. Vučić toured production workshops and product exhibition halls, and interacted on‑site with humanoid robot units.
PsiBot has officially closed a new round of financing worth more than $100 million, according to an August 27 update. The round brings together industrial leaders and institutional investors including Tuopu Group, Ruicheng Fund under Chery Holdings, Lens Technology, Sanqi Interactive Entertainment, Wuhu Investment Holding Group and Fosun Chuangfu. Existing shareholder Zhuhai Science and Technology Industry Group made a further over‑subscribed follow‑on investment. Following previous backing from state‑affiliated investors, this financing round draws capital from multiple leading real‑economy enterprises. It marks dual authoritative recognition of PsiBot’s technical roadmap and commercial value from both state‑owned capital and industrial players. The firm has built a multi‑dimensional development framework featuring national policy guidance, real‑world industrial deployment and long‑term capital support. As China’s first...
Zhongjian Technology announced it and its holding subsidiary Shanghai Huazhijian have inked an investment agreement for an intelligent robot industrialization project with Yongkang Municipal People’s Government. A dedicated project entity will be established locally to roll out the project with an estimated total investment of RMB1.2 billion. It is designed to connect upstream‑downstream intelligent robot supply chains and boost industrial growth, aligning with the firm’s strategic goals.
Prestigious venture capital firm a16z is ramping up its bets on the hardware sector, having secured $1.1 billion for its first fund exclusively focused on hardware infrastructure. Dubbed “Machine Age”, the newly launched fund targets investments across core tech hardware tracks, including AI processors, storage chips, networking equipment, data infrastructure and robotics. The fund marks a major strategic shift for a16z, expanding its layout from software and AI models to underlying physical hardware that powers global tech and intelligent industries.
AI robotics firm Sharpa has completed financing totaling over 4.5 billion RMB, backed by a lineup of top industrial and financial investors. The investor consortium includes industrial giants Alibaba, Meituan, Tencent, JD.com and Transsion Holdings, as well as leading investment institutions such as Sequoia China, Qiming Venture Partners, Meituan Longzhu Capital and Photosynthesis Venture Capital. The raised funds will be dedicated to core technology R&D, global talent recruitment and cultivation, and advancing the real-world deployment of general-purpose robots from technical verification to large-scale commercial application. Marking a key milestone for real-scene robotic implementation, the world’s first fully autonomous, renovation-free, year-round robotic restaurant — jointly built by Sharpa and DQ — officially launched on August 29 at DQ’s Wujiang Road store...
DexTeleop, an embodied-AI infrastructure provider, has closed a nine-figure RMB (tens of millions USD) Pre-A round led by Zhuzhou Industrial Investment, Feitu Capital, Future Margin Ventures, and Xineng Ventures. Proceeds will scale production of its robot hardware, upgrade real-world data collection pipelines, and advance its cloud operation platform. Maple Pledge continues as exclusive PE advisor. This marks DexTeleop’s third funding round this year, following prior backers including InnoFund, CMC Capital, Galaxy Innovation, Futian Capital, Leaguer, and Tianying Capital—total financing now exceeds nine figures RMB. As embodied AI moves from demos to commercial deep water in 2026, investor focus shifts from pure growth to the viability of “real-scenario data driving model evolution.” Founded in early 2025, DexTeleop builds full-stack infrastructure—robot bodies, data acquisition,...
Local time August 29, Serbia’s first robot factory officially went into operation in Šabac, a city in western Serbia. Jointly built by China and Serbia, it is also Europe’s first mass‑production base for humanoid robots. The first‑phase investment of the facility stands at 20 million euros, covering an area of around 3,000 square meters. Its core operations include the assembly of humanoid robots and quadruped robot dogs, calibration of motion and vision systems, as well as performance testing. Multiple models of humanoid robots are now available from the plant. The robots will be initially deployed in industrial scenarios, with gradual expansion into education, public services and other sectors. Under future plans, a robotics industrial park will be constructed in Serbia...
The hype surrounding humanoid robots is hardly new, fueled largely by Tesla’s Optimus and viral demo clips from Boston Dynamics’s Atlas. Beneath the buzz lies tangible technical progress: robot physical performance keeps improving, and LLM‑derived AI enables complex robots to learn diverse real‑world tasks. Driven by these advances, a wave of new entrants — notably Chinese automakers — are betting big on commercial profits from humanoid robots. Xpeng’s robotics division secured over $900 million in fresh funding, hitting a $6.3‑billion post‑money valuation. Backed by IDG Capital, Gaorong Ventures, Tencent and Alibaba, it marks China’s largest‑ever single financing round for embodied AI. Xpeng’s founders He Xiaopeng and Brian Gu also personally invested roughly $100 million in this round to back Iron,...
AGIBOT made its debut at the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games, securing 18 gold, 16 silver and 12 bronze medals. With 46 medals in total, AGIBOT ranked first on both the gold medal table and the overall medal table. The World Humanoid Robot Games is an international competition designed to test humanoid robots across sports, dexterous manipulation and real-world scenario-based tasks. This year’s events ranged from athletics, martial arts and dance to hotel services, library operations, emergency response and industrial applications. AGIBOT’s medal wins spanned dexterous manipulation, scenario-based tasks and motion-control events, including titles in martial arts, dance and obstacle racing. Notably, AGIBOT’s competition lineup, including OmniHand, G2, A3 and X2, consists of robots already in mass production or deployed in...
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