AI Robotics Firm AI² Raises $144M Series B
AI² Robotics, a firm focused on robotics advancements, has raised a $144 million Series B funding round. The investment places the company's valuation at $1.45 billion. The funding highlights continued investor interest in scaling frontier technology companies.
- The company, founded in April 2023 by Dr. Yangdong Eric Guo, a former AI chief at XPeng Motors and Oppo, has had 12 funding rounds in the past year. - This Series B round included notable investors such as internet giant Baidu and state-owned high-speed train manufacturer CRRC, which will provide AI and manufacturing expertise respectively. - Funding is earmarked for the development of its "embodied intelligence model" known as GOVLA (Global and Omni-body vision-language-action), which is designed for complex task reasoning and whole-body coordination in its robots. - AI² Robotics' main product is the AlphaBot, a wheeled dual-arm humanoid robot already deployed in sectors like automotive manufacturing, public service, and biotechnology. - The company plans to increase its annual production capacity from 1,000 units in 2025 to 10,000 units in 2026 and has already secured an order for 1,000 robots from display maker HKC. - AI² Robotics is positioning itself as a developer of "general-purpose" robots for productivity, drawing comparisons to Tesla, and aims for a public listing within the next two years. - The investment comes amid a surge of large funding deals in China's "embodied AI" sector since mid-2025, with competitors like Galaxea AI and Galbot also raising significant rounds as companies race to commercialize their products. - Beyond industrial uses, the company launched "ZhiCube" in late 2025, a modular retail and service space operated by its AlphaBot robots, with plans to deploy 1,000 units in the next three years.
