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China robot firms shift spending from hardware to embodied AI
Reuters reports Chinese embodied-AI firms raised 93.5 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, five times a year earlier, as makers chase software after cheaper humanoid hardware.
Based on reporting by Reuters
Chinese robotics companies are putting more money into artificial intelligence for humanoid machines after years of hardware that can run, dance and do backflips, Reuters reported from Beijing, dated Nov. 21.
The news agency said the focus is embodied AI, software meant to let robots read their surroundings, pick up new tasks and adapt without being programmed for each job1.
Data firm ITjuzi, cited by Reuters, said Chinese embodied-AI companies raised 93.5 billion yuan ($13 billion) in 322 deals in the first half of 2026, five times the amount a year earlier, with more money going to specialist robot-intelligence developers as well as manufacturers1.
Reuters said falling hardware prices have pushed makers toward software as the source of margin, and described the field as a new front in U.S.-China technology competition1. It said U.S. firms lead some advanced robot AI systems, while Chinese developers interviewed by the agency pointed to manufacturing scale and real-world training data1.
The report named U.S. startups including Physical Intelligence, Skild AI and Generalist as working on software that teaches robots skills with less retraining, and said Generalist reported its GEN-1.5 model finishing about 60 percent of simple tasks after a 3-to-12-second demonstration1. It also said China's X Square published research on robots learning handling skills from a single human video without retraining for each task1.
