Chinese embodied AI companies raised 93.5 billion yuan (about $13 billion) across 322 deals in the first half of 2026, about five times the year-earlier total, according to research firm ITjuzi, as cited in a Reuters report published November 2.
The money is chasing software. Walking and dancing demos are no longer the hard part; a useful robot has to handle tasks it was never programmed for. UBTech advertised a chief scientist role overseeing AI model development with pay of up to 124 million yuan (about $18 million), Reuters reported, and X Square, Galaxea and Spirit AI have each reached valuations of roughly $3 billion, according to company disclosures.
Training data is the other bottleneck. Spirit AI hired about 1,000 people to record everyday activities, and Ant Group’s Robbyant cited 160,000 hours of training material, including 50,000 hours of human-guided robot movement, the report said.
There are headwinds. Chinese firms face shortages of advanced Nvidia chips because of US export controls, and Reuters reported a squeeze on IPO funding linked to regulatory concerns about inflated valuations and overcrowding.
The stakes reach beyond robotics. The companies whose software generalizes first could be the ones that automate factories and logistics first.
Source: Reuters, via BusinessWorld
