Zero-Form Robotics closed a Series A on 29 September, its sixth round in nineteen months. Investors included Wuxi Guolian Xizhou Fund, Tsingke Industry Investment, Cowin Capital and Hefei Industry Investment. The company was registered in January 2025 in Baohe district, Hefei, and its founding team came out of Tsinghua’s AI and robotics laboratory. Zero-Form’s ZERITH … Read more
A company that is less than five months old has closed a seed round of several hundred million yuan, and the investors read like a roll call of Chinese automotive and AI capital: Chenway Capital, Xiaomi’s strategic investment arm, Baidu Ventures and Xinhe Capital. The founder is Zhang Ying, who ran core technology for Horizon … Read more
Schaeffler opened a plant in Taicang on 20 October where humanoid robots assemble the joint modules that other humanoid robots will use. The German drive-technology group calls it closed-loop manufacturing, and it is the first site in its network where robots build robot components at volume. Schaeffler’s Taicang site covers about 7,500 square metres. Source: … Read more
Astralive has closed a seed round and a seed-plus round, both in the tens of millions of RMB. The company is a spin-out of Tsinghua University’s computer science department, and what it sells is unusual: it does not build robots and it does not train foundation models. Astralive’s stack runs from first-person capture through processing … Read more
On 19 October the Ministry of Commerce published a joint opinion from nine ministries on accelerating technology-driven commerce. The document is dated 13 October, runs to eighteen measures, and carries the reference Shang Jian Han 2026 number 551. This is not a single-ministry circular. Commerce, the Cyberspace Administration, the National Development and Reform Commission, the … Read more
Tesla closed a $30 billion package of new loans and credit facilities on 29 September, earmarked for Full Self-Driving, the Cybercab robotaxi, Optimus humanoid production and AI compute infrastructure. Most coverage stopped at the number. The detail that matters sits in a single word: undrawn. Not a dollar has been pulled. Tesla has said it … Read more
Anyone who has put a window-cleaning robot on glass has thought the same thing. No manufacturer dares print the words never falls, because on a high-rise facade the liability behind those words is not survivable. What the product sells is not cleaning power. It is the promise that a risk has been transferred to a … Read more
Unitree Technology rose more than 20 per cent intraday on 23 October, reaching a high of RMB 624 per share, with the market value returning to RMB 250 billion. Over the previous six trading sessions the stock gained more than 54 per cent. The trigger was a demonstration the day before. On 22 October the … Read more
Chuguang Yueqian has disclosed a seed round of several hundred million yuan, with Chentao Capital, Xiaomi Strategic Investment, BV Baidu Ventures and Xinhe Capital all participating. The company is less than five months old. Its founder carries a specific reputation. Zhang Ying was the core technology lead for Horizon Robotics’ assisted-driving system and is known … Read more
Fanuc’s share of China’s industrial robot market has fallen from more than 20 per cent at its peak to 9 per cent, according to first-quarter 2026 figures. Over the same period Estun, KUKA and Inovance each held 10 per cent, and Yaskawa was down to 4 per cent. Domestic brands collectively passed 55 per cent … Read more