A dual-arm robot performing a flexible production task, the scenario Oak Fruit targets with its instinct-driven model (Source: Zhidx) A two-round year for a non-consensus thesis Robot Forefront reported on 10 August that Oak Fruit Robotics closed an angel round led by China Merchants Venture and NIO Capital, with Tsinghua alumni seed fund following. Four … Read more
A robotic hand fitted with tactile sensing, the class of hardware Shutu’s SynaTac line targets (Source: Leiphone) Third round in a month Shutu Technology recently closed a Pre-A round of nearly RMB 100 million, co-led by CDH Investments’ BaiFu arm and the Kunpeng Fund, a national-level data fund, with Guangzhou Industrial Investment and Yihe Capital … Read more
Tesla’s Optimus humanoid. A fresh order of about 5,000 units signals the move from trial runs to mass production (Source: OFweek Robotics) From a plan to a number Tesla’s Optimus production schedule is shifting from planning to hard figures. Supply-chain sources say Tesla recently issued a fresh order of about 5,000 units to suppliers. This … Read more
A nineteenth-century pattern, rebuilt for silicon In July 2026 Nvidia announced a new line of business. It carried no fancy technical name, but its nature was clear: exchange compute for profit. AI startups no longer have to pay cash up front for GPUs. Nvidia will accept a share of their future revenue or profit in … Read more
Four moves in one day On 20 September, Zhishen Technology announced a Series B round of several hundred million renminbi. The round was led by the UAE’s Stone Venture, with industrial investors including Neusoft, Haopeng Technology and Riying Electronics joining. By June the company had passed 15,000 units in cumulative production, lifted its monthly capacity … Read more
An angel round led by a Xi’an state fund Lanchong Embodied, a full-stack embodied-intelligence company, has closed an angel round in the tens of millions of yuan. The round was led by Xi’an High-Tech Industry Venture Capital and will fund production line construction, product development, new deployment scenes and team expansion. The company was incorporated … Read more
A market that doubled in half a year Frost & Sullivan has published its 2026 global humanoid robot market study, and the headline numbers are striking. In 2025 the world sold 35,000 units for US$500 million of revenue. In the first half of 2026 alone it sold 36,000 units for US$540 million, passing the whole … Read more
What was a marketing asset became a liability After the Mid-Autumn holiday the humanoid robotics industry in China met something more consequential than another round of online argument. The data-collection dispute that had been building for weeks turned into hard remedial rules from regulators and the capital markets. IPO window guidance for humanoid robot companies … Read more
A spin-off where both sides of the table share one owner Faraday Future said after the close on 28 September that it will move its robotics business into AIxC at a valuation of about US$200 million. AIxC will be renamed FF EAI Robotics Ecosystem Inc. on 30 September, take the ticker FFR, and abandon its … Read more
A robot that plays real tennis On 22 August at the National Speed Skating Hall, the Ice Ribbon, in Beijing, the second World Humanoid Robot Games opened, and China Central Television cut to a real tennis court. A humanoid stood inside as incoming balls passed 50 km/h; within milliseconds it judged the landing, moved its … Read more