# 2025-11-09 10:16 Zhejiang
## Introduction
Over the past two days, you’ve likely been **flooded** with news about **Xpeng’s humanoid robot — IRON**.
Its gait is so realistic that netizens speculated there might be “a real person inside.” Eventually, Xpeng’s CEO **He Xiaopeng** posted a one-take video peeling back the robot’s “skin” to prove it’s genuine.
Meanwhile, **ByteDance** is gearing up for a strong entry into humanoid robotics — reportedly offering a **monthly salary of RMB 120,000** to hire specialists, and rumored to be investing **USD 12 billion (≈ RMB 85.45 billion)** this year in AI chips.
According to *21st Century Business Herald*:
- **H1 2025**: Global financing in humanoid robotics exceeded **RMB 14 billion**
- **China’s share**: 60% (≈ RMB 8.4 billion), surpassing the 2024 total
Players range from unicorns like **Unitree Technology** and **Zhiyuan Robotics**, to the tech giants **Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent (BAT)**.
*Caixin* further reports:
- **2025 humanoid robot orders in China**: RMB 3 billion
- Units: ≈ 20,000
This article reviews China’s **concrete progress** in humanoid robotics.
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## 1 What Skills Have Today’s Humanoid Robots Mastered?
### Xpeng IRON
- **Walking**: More natural and steady than previous generations, close to human gait.
- **Core technology**:
- **Physical World large model**
- **Three Turing chips** (multi-terminal universal AI chip developed in-house by Xpeng)
- Taped out **August 23, 2024**
- Integrated into AI cars, humanoid robots, flying cars
- Computing power: **2250 TOPS**
- **Physical specs**:
- 60 joints, 200° total freedom
- Hands: 15° freedom — fine object manipulation
### Unitree H2
- **Features**:
- T-pose runway walk, dance, martial arts
- **Bionic human face**
- **Specs**:
- Height: 180 cm
- 31 degrees of freedom
- **Design focus**: Balance between performance and reliability
### Galaxy Universal Galbot
- **Retail Assistant Role**: Operating in a Beijing convenience store.
- **Tech core**: End-to-end embodied-intelligence large model with **GraspVLA** — the world’s first embodied-grasp foundation model.
- **Specialization**: Vision–Language–Action (VLA) multimodal learning for handling tightly packed retail shelves.
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## Industrial Applications and Other Players
### Zhiyuan Elf G2
- **Industrial use**: Seatbelt lock-core pressing, material handling.
- **Technical capability**:
- High-precision force-controlled arm
- True-machine reinforcement learning
- Learns delicate tasks (e.g., inserting memory modules) in 1 hour
- **Logistics**:
- Grasp packages of varied size and shape
- Autonomous material delivery
- **Interactive use**:
- Museum guide functions
- Intelligent questioner tracking
**UBTECH**: “No. 1 humanoid robot stock” — market cap over HKD 60 billion
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## 2 Big Tech Joins the Race — New Wave of Investments?
### ByteDance
- **History**:
- 2020: Incubated embodied-intelligence team
- 2023: Team joined AI Lab under Li Hang
- **Milestones**:
- 2023: RoboFlamingo (image meaning interpretation)
- 2024: GR-2 (learned from 38M internet videos)
- 2025: Seed GR-3 launch; Robix model — “robot brain matrix”
- April 2025: Seed Robotics formed to pursue **general embodied intelligence**
- **Hardware**:
- ByteDexter dexterous hand: 20 DOF
- Investments in Unitree Robotics, Stardust Intelligence
### Alibaba
- **Deployment**: From multimodal large models to physical AI
- **Initiatives**:
- Tongyi Qianwen embodied intelligence task force
- Collaboration with NVIDIA on Physical AI (cloud + physical integration)
- **Ant Group’s Lingbo Technology**: Launched Robbyant-R1 (multimodal sensing, deployed in multiple scenarios)
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### JD.com
- **Investments**: Zhiyuan Robotics, Qianxun Intelligence, Zhuji Power, Zhongqing Robotics, RoboScience
- **Ecosystem**:
- JoyInside platform — high-EQ dialogue, multi-scenario use
- “Intelligent Robot Industry Acceleration Plan”: 10B RMB over 3 years, support 100 brands to reach 1B+ RMB sales
---
### Baidu
- **Key partnership**: UBTECH Walker S + Baidu Smart Cloud Qianfan AppBuilder + Wenxin large model
- **Strategy**: “Thinking center” for robots
- **Investment**: Zhiyuan Robotics (Lingxi platform)
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### Tencent
- **Early player**: Robotics X Lab (2018)
- **Tech outputs**: Quadruped Max, Ollie, TRX-Hand, TRX-Arm prototypes
- **Recent milestone**:
- 2024: Domestic Environment Robot “No. 5” (Xiao Wu)
- 2025: Invested in Zhiyuan Robotics; launched Tairos modular platform with Dobot
---
### Xiaomi
- **Products**:
- “Iron Egg” robot dog — cost breakthrough
- CyberOne humanoid robot — now preparing **third generation** (lightweight design, cost control)
- **Investments**:
- Beijing Xiaomi Robotics Technology Co., Ltd. — ¥2B over 5 years
- Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center (“Tiangong” robot)
- Integrated robotics manufacturing with Xiaomi Auto plant
- Invested in ~50 companies (~¥15B)
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### Automakers
- **Changan + Haier**: “Car–Home” ecosystem
- **SAIC + Staric Power**: Embodied intelligence lab for automotive manufacturing
- **BYD + HKUST**: Embodied intelligence large models for factory/home autonomy
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## Outlook
- **Optimists** (e.g., Jensen Huang): Humanoid robots widespread **within 5 years**
- **Conservatives** (e.g., Yann LeCun): Current humanoids still far from true AGI
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## References
- [Weibo Link 1](https://weibo.com/2455476364/5229940624588942)
- [Weibo Link 2](https://weibo.com/7800251567/5222431576819562)
- [Reuters](https://www.reuters.com/technology/nvidia-ceo-humanoid-robot-revolution-is-closer-than-you-think-2025-03-19/)
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## Conference Preview
**AICon 2025 Year-End Edition**
**Dates**: December 19–20 **Location**: Beijing
**Topics**: Agents, Context Engineering, AI product innovation — insights from top companies and teams.
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