Source: China Business Network (Yicai)
China Business Network (Yicai) August 25 report (Reporter Liu Yang): After “four rounds” of intelligent electrification, the next stage of industrial competition around robots is intensifying in the auto industry. On August 24 alone, three new-energy automakers, including XPeng, Leapmotor, and NIO, released in quick succession information related to their entry into the embodied intelligence robot track.
On August 24, XPeng Group's official announcement stated that its robotics business has completed its first round of financing exceeding $900 million, with a post-investment valuation of over $6.3 billion (about RMB 43 billion), setting a new record for single-round private equity financing in China's embodied intelligence industry.
“XPeng’s humanoid robot IRON is planned to enter mass production by the end of 2026. It will begin rolling out commercial application scenarios from XPeng’s stores and parks, and will be officially launched and delivered in 2027 for both the China and overseas markets.” XPeng Group said that through this round of financing, XPeng’s robotics business has gained a clear market-based valuation. It will also accelerate mass production of XPeng’s robots and the R&D iteration of XPeng’s physical AI models, pushing high-level general-purpose humanoid robots into a new stage of global commercial applications. “The funds raised in this round will mainly be used for R&D of software and hardware for XPeng’s robotics business, training and iterating physical AI models, high-quality data collection, building mass-production bases across the full chain, and expanding global commercialization.”
On the same day, at Leapmotor’s 2026 mid-year performance conference, management said that new-energy vehicle companies—especially those with full-scope in-house R&D capabilities—are among the best positioned to make embodied-intelligence robots. Regarding progress on the robotics business that the market has been关注, Leapmotor confirmed that “the company has already planned this. Relevant information about the robotics will be disclosed externally soon.”
Nio is also eager to get involved. Market reports on August 24 said that Ren Shaoqing, head of Nio’s intelligent driving, founded a embodied intelligence company, and Nio will make a strategic investment in it. In response, industry insiders close to Nio’s management told Caixin reporter Liu Yang that Nio has long focused on frontier AI technologies, building its industry layout with a balance of independent R&D and open collaboration. In recent years, Nio has continued to invest in key technology areas such as chips and operating systems and has made key progress. At the same time, through strategic partnerships and industrial synergies, it has continued to support the development of innovative companies around embodied intelligence, algorithm models, intelligent hardware, new energy, and computing infrastructure.
By now, four leading new-automaker companies—Li Auto, XPeng, Nio, and Leapmotor—have all gathered on the intelligent robotics track.
Compared with new startups, traditional automakers are moving faster. In mid-August, Guangdong Huilun Technology, a humanoid robotics company incubated by GAC Group, announced it had completed financing of over 100 million yuan (over one hundred million). The investment was led by the CRRC Guochuang Fund and joined by institutions including CMB International and Sichuan Kechuang. Around the same time, GAC Capital led an investment of several hundred million yuan (in the billions) in the D-round financing of BlueTouch, a robot force-sensing sensor company. In addition, on August 21, at the FAW Group 2026 Technology Conference, Qin Xiantong, Chairman and Party Secretary of China First Automobile (FAW), clearly stated that it will break through ten key technology tasks, including L4 autonomous driving technology and embodied-intelligence robot technology.
“We independently designed and developed the entire native hardware platform and software system. More than 85% of the companies in the robot supply chain overlap with the current XPeng (supply chain). So we’re very confident that ultimately XPeng’s robot cost competitiveness will be leading in the industry.” At XPeng Group’s 2026 mid-year performance conference, He Xiaopeng said: “Currently in China, the robot BOM cost is typically 2.5 to 3 times that of a car, while XPeng’s IRON is positioned as a general-type integration. I believe it has a very broad pricing space, and its hardware gross margin will be significantly higher than the gross margin of our current automobile business.”
“Car companies that deploy humanoid robots have three advantages: cost, efficiency, and technology.” In the view of industry insiders, the mature supply-chain system of the automotive industry—along with manufacturing processes and cost-control capabilities—is accelerating its shift into the robotics sector. This cross-industry synergy is expected to drive cost reduction and quality improvement for key components such as reducers and servo systems. While enhancing the reliability of the complete unit, it will further expand overall demand across the industrial chain. “Humanoid robots are being seen by car companies as the next testing ground for intelligent capabilities.”
Morgan Stanley research reports show that by 2036, the global stock of humanoid robots will reach 24.4 million units, rising to 1 billion units by 2050. This corresponds to an annual market revenue of $7.5 trillion. In China, the cumulative stock by 2050 is about 300 million units, accounting for roughly 30% of the global total. The humanoid robot industry is expected to gradually penetrate from B2B industrial scenarios into the C-end consumer market, becoming the next trillion-dollar emerging track.
“Most car companies that can continue to survive in the future will enter the robotics industry.” Zhang Guibing, Executive Vice President of Chery Automobile and General Manager of MoJia Robotics, said that car companies often have tens of thousands of R&D engineers, with a substantial portion being software engineers; talent and engineering capabilities naturally can be extended to robotics. “Embodied intelligence robots are currently matching industrial scenarios. In the first phase, the applications will be in the logistics field. Logistics scenarios are easier to match than the entire automotive assembly area.”
(Caixin reporter Liu Yang)