On 5 August, Bloomberg reported that AISquared, a Shenzhen embodied-AI startup, is weighing a Hong Kong IPO and has hired banks for early preparations, with a listing possibly opening as soon as 2027. The company has not commented officially, and the talks remain fluid.
The report lands as China’s humanoid and embodied-intelligence sector hits a concentrated capitalisation window. Unitree has begun initial price consultation for its STAR-market IPO, while AgiBot, Galaxy General and Dextrity have all signalled listing moves.
AISquared is no ordinary newcomer. Founded in 2023, it completed a joint-stock restructuring this April, renaming itself AISquared (Shenzhen) Technology Co, a standard step before capital markets work. Its funding pace has been striking even for this sector.
In the first half of 2025 it closed seven rounds of hundreds-of-millions financing. A Series B above 1 billion yuan in February 2026 pushed post-money value past 10 billion yuan and into unicorn territory. A roughly 5 billion yuan round in June took the valuation past 20 billion yuan, about 2.8 billion US dollars.
Backers span CICC Capital, Shenzhen Capital, China Merchants Capital, Fortune VC, Baidu, Charoen Pokphand and Pharmaron, a mix of financial and strategic money.
The technology base is real. Founder and CEO Guo Yandong, a former Microsoft AI researcher who later led AI at Xpeng and served as OPPO chief scientist, has built an in-house AlphaBrain embodied model and a GOVLA vision-language-action model. A Video2Act architecture with Peking University followed in November 2025, and NeuroVLA, a brain-like VLA model, was open-sourced in April 2026.
Hardware is the AlphaBot series of humanoids aimed at industrial and public-service settings. A self-built line started in September 2025 and reached 100-unit monthly deliveries by December. Current capacity is about 1,000 units a year, with a plan to reach 10,000 in 2026. A three-year, 1,000-unit order from HKC was called by Morgan Stanley the largest single productivity-robot order globally.
The caveats are equally real. An IPO is still a rumour, and even if it proceeds, product landing, scaled delivery and commercial proof remain open questions. Capital can lift a valuation, but it cannot by itself solve mass production or profitability.
AISquared’s move reflects the broader shift in China’s embodied-intelligence field. Private money keeps flowing, leaders close large rounds, and the public market is slowly opening to humanoid makers. The real test, for AISquared and the whole track, is whether lab technology becomes a product that ships in volume and earns steady revenue.
Editor’s note: This is a translated adaptation of a Chinese-language report from OFweek Robotics (robot.ofweek.com). Figures, dates and direct quotations are reproduced as published.