Samsung and BYD both backed PaXini, and its tactile-sensor war chest just passed USD 560 million

Two of Asia’s most controlling manufacturers just bought the same bet on a robot’s sense of touch, and neither is known for impulse. On 16 September, PaXini, a Shenzhen firm building tactile sensors and perception for humanoid robots, completed a several-hundred-million RMB B++ round, with backing from Guangxin Fund, Sichuan Science-and-Technology Investment Group, Shandong Guohui Fund and CICC Capital.

Add the rounds that landed in March and August and PaXini has now raised more than RMB 4 billion (about USD 560 million) across three financings in six months. The firm says that total exceeds every other tactile-sensor company’s public raises worldwide in 2026 combined. Its valuation has crossed RMB 10 billion.

Samsung and BYD are both strategic shareholders, and their logic splits cleanly. BYD’s 2025 entry of over RMB 100 million was its single largest disclosed bet on embodied intelligence. This August the two signed a strategic pact extending from equity into production-line data and robot manufacturing. Samsung, which also backs Figure and Physical Intelligence, wanted the piece that completes a humanoid: not vision alone, but the perception of force, grip and weight that a body needs to act.

The why is concrete. A car is built on millimetre-level moves a skilled worker judges by feel: a harness seated, a connector square, a soft material not slipping. Hand that to a robot and the feel must become data. PaXini’s self-built HAPTA chip supports up to 717 tactile channels, survives more than 10 million cycles and has now shipped past 1 million units. Its customers top 1,000, with repeat buying above half and coverage of 70 to 80 per cent of humanoid OEMs.

Bloomberg reported in June that PaXini had sounded out banks about a Hong Kong IPO within months. The arc is clear: a startup that began by solving one hard problem, the hand that knows what it touches, is turning into a platform play the biggest manufacturers in electronics and cars both felt they had to own.

Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original OFweek report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience. The full original (in Chinese) is at https://robot.ofweek.com/2026-09/ART-898890-12003-30703544.html.

Translated and adapted from OFweek (link).