Gasgoo Munich- Spirit AI announced on April 7 that it has closed a new 1 billion yuan funding round, according to Gasgoo.
Prior to this, Spirit AI revealed in late February that it had secured nearly 2 billion yuan across two consecutive rounds. That means Spirit AI has now amassed nearly 3 billion yuan in total funding. This occurred over just three rounds in a single month.
Image Credit: Spirit AI
Such rapid, high-value fundraising underscores strong confidence from capital markets in the company's future. It also provides a robust financial war chest for R&D. This supports market expansion in the field of embodied intelligence.
Founded in February 2024, Spirit AI is dedicated to building general models for embodied intelligence. It aims to drive breakthroughs in robotics. To that end, the company developed a proprietary VLA model and open-sourced Spirit v1.5 in January. This was the first Chinese open-source model to outperform Pi0.5. The model boasts powerful zero-shot generalization capabilities. It handles complex tasks like wiping surfaces, manipulating hinges, and handling flexible objects without additional training. This demonstrates efficient execution across different scenarios.
Meanwhile, Spirit AI is aggressively building its data infrastructure around "diversity." The company has already accumulated over 200,000 hours of multi-type real-world interaction data. This is sourced from internet videos, teleoperation, and wearable devices. It expects total data volume to surpass 1 million hours by 2026.
As part of this effort, Spirit AI developed its own data collection hardware. Its proprietary wearable device has now reached its fifth generation. This reportedly slashes acquisition costs to one-tenth of traditional methods.
By April 2026, Spirit AI plans to expand its data team to 1,000 people. This ensures a steady stream of high-quality physical interaction data to fuel model iteration.
Spirit AI is currently moving to deploy its high-performance whole-body force-control humanoid robots in real-world scenarios. Notably, its humanoid robot "Xiao Mo" is already operational at CATL's Zhongzhou base. It serves as core equipment on the production line. This helps achieve zero-defect mass production of nearly 1,000 battery units.
On March 19, Spirit AI signed a strategic partnership agreement with JD.com, integrating its self-developed Moz robot into JD MALL's smart retail environment. During high-precision coffee-making tasks, the Moz robot not only demonstrated stable operation. It also successfully executed a "data collection and model iteration" flywheel loop within a live commercial setting.
About "Seeds":
Gasgoo's "Seeds" column aims to build a service platform connecting startups, ecosystem partners, investors, and local governments. It seeks to deeply empower the automotive supply chain. Since its launch, the column has been dedicated to uncovering standout companies, technologies, and business models. These offer inspiration and leadership amid the wave of intelligent transformation. This drives the growth of innovative forces in the auto industry. According to Gasgoo statistics, nearly all startups featured in "Seeds" have successfully connected with resources across the industrial ecosystem.
