Here are the major developments in embodied intelligence and driver assistance this week:
XPENG Robotics' Key Product Lead Reportedly Exits
Shi Xiaoxin, senior director of product planning at XPENG Robotics, officially resigned in early June, according to sources.
Shi served for 1,675 days, overseeing the integration of Pengxing Intelligent, the merger of the team into XPENG Group, and the full cycle of the IRON humanoid robot from prototype to mass production preparation. He was a pivotal figure in building XPENG's humanoid product portfolio from the ground up.
Image Source: XPENG Motors Weibo
XPENG Robotics has entered the final sprint for mass production. In late May, the group held a mobilization meeting attended by nearly 1,000 employees from its automotive, powertrain, manufacturing, testing, and general intelligence centers.
He Xiaopeng outlined a clear timeline: mass production by the end of 2026, with the robots arriving in XPENG retail stores as shopping guides in the first quarter of 2027. He emphasized that XPENG develops everything in-house—from chips and operating systems to joints and dexterous hands—making it the only fully full-stack robotics company in China.
Earlier this year, XPENG began construction of a full-chain humanoid robot manufacturing base in Guangzhou, marking its transition from technical verification to large-scale production.
Xiaozhi Take: The battle cry for mass production has just sounded, yet the standard-bearer has already turned to leave.
BYD Confirms It Is Developing Humanoid Robots
Stella Li, executive vice president of BYD, confirmed in a recent interview that the automaker is developing humanoid robots.
"Competition in robotics comes down to who has the strongest manufacturing, software, and hardware capabilities—and AI capabilities developed for cars can be transferred to robots," Li noted.
In fact, BYD's embodied intelligence research team began recruiting senior algorithm, structural, and simulation engineers in late 2024. The job postings indicated the team is focused on custom-developing robot bodies and systems to meet the company's large-scale application needs, enhancing robot perception and decision-making to accelerate the deployment of embodied intelligence in industrial settings.
Li revealed that BYD is currently prioritizing industrial robots, as the company itself is the largest customer. Humanoid robots are also in the works. "When we all get old, every household will have three robots: one to clean, one to cook, and one to chat and take walks with you," she said.
Xiaozhi Take: Being your own biggest customer and using your own factories as a training ground—that is a solid entry strategy.
Unitree Passes STAR Market IPO Review
On June 1, Unitree Robotics' application for an IPO on Shanghai's STAR Market was approved by the stock exchange's listing committee.
Image Source: Unitree Robotics
The Shanghai Stock Exchange accepted Unitree's application in March. Approval came just 73 days later, setting a record for the fastest review since the STAR Market's pre-review mechanism was implemented. It also means China's A-share market is poised to welcome its first "humanoid robot stock."
According to the prospectus, Unitree plans to issue at least 40.44 million shares to raise 4.20 billion yuan. Based on a minimum public float of 10%, this implies a valuation of roughly 42 billion yuan. Proceeds will fund four major projects: intelligent robot model R&D, robot body R&D, new product development, and manufacturing base construction. Nearly half the capital is earmarked for tackling core technologies in embodied intelligence models.
On the same day, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced a partnership with Unitree to launch the H2+, a new reference design for humanoid robots built on the Isaac GR00T system to accelerate industry innovation. Under the collaboration, Unitree supplies the 1.8-meter-tall H2 robot body, while NVIDIA provides the AI computing platform, foundational models, and simulation support. The robot also features a five-fingered mechanical hand developed by Singapore-based Sharpa.
Xiaozhi Take: Approval in 73 days—the capital markets clearly need the story of the "first humanoid robot stock."
OpenAI Announces Entry into Robotics
On June 1, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman announced on X that the "OpenAI Robotics" team is moving fast. The goal, he said, is to "build AI that helps in the physical world." The company is recruiting hardware, operations, systems, and machine learning engineers.
It marks OpenAI's clearest public statement on its robotics ambitions to date.
Earlier that same day, Sam Altman posted that OpenAI wants to "program and manufacture robots that are useful to society," identifying robotics as a near-term strategic priority.
In the short term, OpenAI is focusing on robots that can assist skilled workers in building future infrastructure. Long-term, the company envisions a future where everyone has a personal robot to handle a variety of tasks.
Xiaozhi Take: After conquering software, AI is turning to hardware—the physical world is the ultimate proving ground.
UBTech Launches Presale for Full-Size Humanoid Robot on JD.com
On June 2, UBTech's consumer brand UWORLD announced that the world's first full-size, ultra-bionic humanoid robot is available for presale on JD.com. Positioned for emotional companionship, the robot will be officially released on June 30.
Image Source: UBTech
The presale page lists two SKUs: a male model standing 183 cm tall and weighing 42 kg, and a female model at 168 cm and 35.2 kg. Both feature 88 degrees of freedom, Wi-Fi connectivity, and 2–4 hours of battery life per charge, and are noted as not supporting secondary development. Consumers can pay a 3,000 yuan deposit until July 15 to secure a spot from the first batch, with shipping expected by September 15 at the latest.
In 2025, revenue from UBTech's full-size embodied intelligence robots and solutions surged more than 22-fold year-on-year to 821 million yuan. Its share of total revenue jumped from 2.7% to 41.1%, making it the company's largest revenue driver, with cumulative deliveries reaching 1,079 units for the year.
Xiaozhi Take: Regardless of how the product ultimately performs, UBTech has certainly captured the spotlight with this move.
Schaeffler Partners with Spirit AI
Schaeffler recently signed a strategic partnership agreement with Spirit AI. The two will focus on embodied intelligence data collection, core humanoid robot components, and industrial applications to accelerate the industrial deployment of embodied large models and robotics in advanced manufacturing.
The agreement aims to build a "real data-embodied model-real world application" loop, connecting the entire chain from data collection to model iteration and production line deployment. The companies will also establish strategic procurement partnerships for core components like electric lift columns, sensors, and rotary joints, while collaborating on R&D to upgrade key technologies.
On the industrial application front, the partners have already seen initial results. Supported by Spirit AI's R&D team, Schaeffler successfully validated a box-folding application on a real production line using Spirit AI's humanoid robot body. The system can handle various packaging specifications, significantly boosting efficiency.
Xiaozhi Take: An established industrial giant and an emerging robotics upstart joining forces—each getting what they need.
Parsi Said to Be Considering Hong Kong IPO
Parsi, a humanoid robotics company backed by BYD and JD.com, is reportedly considering an IPO in Hong Kong, looking to join the wave of robotics firms seeking public listings.
Image Source: Parsi
Founded in 2021, Parsi's founding team traces its roots to the Sugano Laboratory at Waseda University in Japan, the birthplace of the world's first humanoid robot. From the start, Parsi focused on a challenging niche: tactile sensing technology. Its goal is to give robots human-like fine tactile perception, solving the bottleneck of robots lacking precise touch when interacting with the physical world.
Parsi has built a full-link product matrix for high-precision tactile hardware—from sensors and dexterous hands to humanoid robots. It has also established a full-stack technology system covering hardware packaging, data collection, algorithm integration, and OmniVTLA, its first VTLA embodied intelligence model.
Its TORA robot, powered by the proprietary OmniVTLA model, uses massive amounts of high-fidelity physical interaction data to continuously refine its algorithms. This allows it to handle flexible grasping, assembly, and loading of various workpieces in industrial settings, where pilot programs are already underway.
Xiaozhi Take: The scarcity of tactile sensors is clear, but whether that can sustain the growth required for an IPO remains to be seen.
Spirit AI Closes 1.5 Billion Yuan A+ Round
On June 3, Spirit AI announced the completion of a 1.50 billion yuan A+ funding round. The round was led by top-tier U.S. dollar funds, major industrial capital, and national state-owned funds, with existing investors doubling down. Spirit AI has now assembled a comprehensive capital base spanning top financial PEs, international sovereign wealth funds, industrial giants, and local state-owned assets.
Prior to this, Spirit AI raised nearly 2 billion yuan across two rounds in February, pushing its valuation past 10 billion yuan, followed by a 1 billion yuan round in April led by Shunwei Capital and Yunfeng Fund. With this latest 1.50 billion yuan A+ round just a month later, the company has secured four funding rounds in three months totaling nearly 5 billion yuan—a record pace for the embodied intelligence sector.
Spirit AI said proceeds will be directed toward three core areas: continuous R&D of next-generation embodied intelligence foundation models, building a global real-world data infrastructure, and scaling commercial deployments across multiple industries. Leveraging its full-stack technology and capital, the company aims to perfect its algorithm-hardware-data-scene-ecosystem loop to solidify its long-term competitive moat.
Xiaozhi Take: Raising nearly 5 billion yuan in three months suggests investors are driven less by belief in the story and more by fear of missing out.
Astribot Closes Over 1 Billion Yuan Series B Round
Astribot, a rope-driven AI robotics company, has closed a Series B round totaling more than 1 billion yuan, according to Gasgoo. Investors include the Liangxi Sci-Tech Innovation Phase II Fund (managed by Bohua Capital), Yangzhou Longtou Chip, Zhongbo Juli, Thundersoft, Kede Education, a major publicly traded company, and Guoke Investment.
The funding pushes Astribot's valuation past the 10 billion yuan mark.
Image Source: Astribot
Founded in 2022, Astribot focuses on complex physical interactions, aiming to build rope-driven AI robots with high versatility and generalization. Its "Design for AI" architecture and full-stack approach—spanning top-tier hardware, leading teleoperation for data collection, and efficient models—uses a unique rope-drive transmission that mimics human tendons. This gives the robots high dexterity, human-like movement, and safe interaction.
In 2025, Astribot also launched Lumo-1, a proprietary strong-reasoning foundation model, and DuoCore, a fast-slow system model deployed in real-world retail scenarios across China, as part of its effort to build an AI technology ecosystem centered on embodied models.
Its fully self-developed S1 robot is already in use across research, commercial services, entertainment, and industry. Building on this, Astribot recently launched the Astribot T1, a new series of rope-driven robots priced starting at 89,900 yuan, marking the first time a high-precision robot has dropped below the 90,000 yuan threshold.
Xiaozhi Take: Cutting prices is a strategy—and a stress test. The next challenge is maintaining margins while scaling up deliveries.
Xinghaitu Unveils Bipedal Humanoid Robot Kengo
On June 2, Xinghaitu officially released its first self-developed bipedal humanoid robot, Kengo, marking its expansion from wheeled robots to bipedal forms.
Kengo centers on a high-performance "motor cerebellum" and an "embodied brain" to enable real-world action, flexibly empowering diverse scenarios from industrial manufacturing and commercial services to home life.
Visually, Kengo comes in three colors and features a curved screen and lighting contours on its head for a human-like aesthetic that blends technology with recognizability. Performance-wise, it uses a high-dynamic, high-burst design with a lightweight body. With single-joint torque exceeding 130 N·m, it can perform complex tasks like dancing and interacting.
To facilitate mass production, Kengo uses a highly standardized design that covers all body joints with just two core modules. Its fully hollow module structure allows wiring to withstand more than 200,000 bends, ensuring greater stability over long-term operation.
However, Xinghaitu has not yet released specific specifications or pricing for Kengo.
Xiaozhi Take: Getting two feet on the ground is just the beginning; walking steadily is the real test.
