Chinese Automakers Follow Tesla’s Bet: Robots are the Next Big Profit Machine

What happened

• Xpeng’s robotics unit raised over $900 million at a post-money valuation of more than $6.3 billion, marking the largest single-round private financing in China’s “embodied AI” industry.
• AiMOGA, the robotics unit of Chery Automobile, is reportedly preparing for an IPO.
• BYD unveiled a humanoid robot named Xiao Di.
• Other Chinese automakers like Changan, GAC, Li Auto, SAIC, and Seres are also developing their own humanoid robots.
• Xpeng founder He Xiaopeng and co-president Brian Gu have invested their own funds into the robotics unit.

Why it matters for me

The progress in AI techniques, especially large language models, is enabling complex robots to learn nearly any task. This progress has encouraged Chinese automakers to focus on humanoid robots, seeing them as a more promising source of profit than near-horizon car profits. Companies like Xpeng are focusing heavily on autonomy and robotics.

What to remember

• Chinese automakers bring manufacturing expertise, possessing the necessary hardware to execute tasks.
• Other global players like Hyundai (Boston Dynamics) and suppliers like Mobileye are also advancing humanoid robot technology.
• The goal for many companies is commercial deployment of these robots at scale.

Source: Original article

Source: techcrunch.com