China's robot makers have mastered the moves. Now comes the race for brains
XLK•Chinese embodied-AI companies raised 93.5 billion yuan ($13 billion) across 322 deals in the first half of 2026, five times the amount a year earlier, as firms shift investment from robot hardware to AI. Developers are training systems with real-world data and simulations while facing advanced-chip shortages and uncertain paths to broad commercial use.
1. Funding shifts to AI
Chinese robot makers are investing in AI software intended to help robots understand their surroundings, learn unfamiliar tasks and adapt without job-by-job programming. Embodied-AI companies raised 93.5 billion yuan ($13 billion) across 322 deals in the first half of 2026, five times the amount a year earlier, with funding increasingly reaching specialist developers.
2. Training approaches vary
Companies are collecting physical-interaction data through human demonstrations, wearable sensors and computer simulations. Ant Group's robotics unit Robbyant said it trained a model with 160,000 hours of material, including 50,000 hours of human-guided robot movements. DexForce said some industrial tasks can be prepared for deployment within 6 to 8 hours, with success rates above 99.9% in specified precision operations; researchers cautioned that simulations cannot perfectly reproduce physical interactions.
3. Deployment and constraints
CATL said Spirit AI robots connect flexible wires during battery-pack testing at its Zhongzhou plant, with insertion success above 99%. Robbyant said its robots handle orders in two Shanghai pharmacies, where staff check medicines before dispatch. Chinese developers face shortages of advanced Nvidia chips due to US export controls, and it remains unclear how far more efficient models, synthetic data and domestic chip alternatives can offset the shortage.
