Ant Group's Humanoid Robot Strategy — 12 Investments, One Vision
In 18 months, Ant Group — the fintech giant behind Alipay — has invested in 12 humanoid robotics companies, launched its own robot subsidiary RobbyAnt, and rolled out an AI-friendly version of Alipay for machines. This isn't a venture portfolio. It's an industry thesis: that humanoid robots will follow the same convergence path as smartphones and EVs, and the window to stake positions across the supply chain is open now.
The 12 Investments
Ant's deals span every layer of the humanoid stack — from whole-body machines to dexterous hands to spatial intelligence software. CNBC first reported six of these companies; the remaining six surfaced through Chinese financial media.
| Company | Layer | Ant's Role | Key Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zeroth (JoyIn) | Whole robot | Lead investor | ¥500M Pre-A, 30K+ orders, revenue +600% |
| Galaxea | Whole robot | Co-investor | ¥20B valuation, joint venture with Tianqi for auto manufacturing |
| Unitree | Whole robot | Co-lead (C round) | 2025 revenue ¥1.7B, net profit ¥591M, 73-day STAR Market review |
| Taihu Robotics | Whole robot | Via wholly-owned subsidiary | Invested through Ant's Yunya Management Consulting |
| Stardust Intelligence | Whole robot | Lead (A round) | Hundreds of millions RMB |
| Lexiang Tech | Home robot | Lead (Pre-A) | ~¥500M, ex-Dreame president founding team |
| Lingxin Clever Hand | Dexterous hand | Follow-on | 7 rounds in one year, target valuation $6B |
| Linkerbot | Components | Not disclosed | Parts and middleware |
| Hypershell | Components | Not disclosed | Parts and middleware |
| Genrobot AI | Software / model | Not disclosed | Valuation exceeds ¥10B |
| Xinghai Tu (Star Sea Map) | Spatial AI | Lead both rounds | Pre-A ¥200M+ (Nov 2024), A ¥300M (Feb 2025) |
RobbyAnt and the R1
Alongside the investments, Ant founded RobbyAnt (Shanghai Ant Lingbo Technology) in late 2024 to build its own humanoid — the R1. The R1 isn't trying to beat Tesla's Optimus on general-purpose dexterity. It's built for service environments where the floor is flat and the tasks are structured.
| Parameter | R1 Specification |
|---|---|
| Height / Weight | 175 cm / 110 kg |
| Mobility | Wheeled底盘 — upper body humanoid, lower body wheeled (1.5 m/s) |
| Freedom | 34 DOF (head 2, arm 7×2, dexterous hand 6×2, waist 4) |
| AI driver | Ant's proprietary embodied intelligence large model |
| Interaction | Multi-modal perception — see, hear, speak, act in one loop |
| Battery | 4–6 hours continuous operation |
| Learning | Reinforcement-learned grasp, autonomous long-sequence task planning |
The wheeled base is a deliberate trade-off. CEO Zhu Xing has acknowledged that the model algorithms are still at an early stage. By choosing wheels over bipedal legs, Ant prioritized deployment speed and stability over aspirational locomotion. The R1 has already run live demonstrations: guiding visitors at the 2025 Cultural Tourism Expo in Hubei, dispensing health advice at a Hangzhou community center, sorting pharmaceuticals in a pharmacy, and cooking four dishes on stage at the Bund Conference "Robot Town." It also debuted at IFA Berlin in September 2025.
Alipay for Robots
Ant also released an AI and robot-friendly version of Alipay — enabling machines to initiate and complete transactions autonomously through Ant's payment infrastructure. Zeroth has already indicated interest in integrating this capability into its consumer robots.
This closes a loop that most robotics companies can't close on their own: hardware (investments + R1) → payment (Alipay AI edition) → service deployment (health, dining, retail). Ant is not just funding robots. It's giving them a wallet.
What Else Is Moving
The same week CNBC reported Ant's 12th deal, NVIDIA posted robotics job openings in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. Unitree — one of Ant's portfolio companies — cleared the STAR Market in just 73 days, posting 2025 revenue of ¥1.7 billion and net profit of ¥591 million. Laifu Harmonics, another key humanoid supply chain player, listed in Hong Kong at a market cap exceeding HK$9 billion. And X² Robotics (not on Ant's list) has accumulated over ¥4 billion in funding with a ¥10B+ valuation — the only embodied intelligence company backed by ByteDance, Meituan, Alibaba Cloud, and Xiaomi simultaneously.
Global context: China accounted for over 90% of humanoid robot shipments in 2025, with more than 330 product models. Q1 2026 exports grew 210% year-on-year. The supply chain is dense, the manufacturing capacity exists, and the export pipeline is scaling.
Key Milestones
- Late 2024 — Ant establishes RobbyAnt subsidiary; first investments begin
- Feb 2025 — Ant leads Star Sea Map A round (¥300M, sole investor)
- Apr 2025 — Ant leads Stardust Intelligence A round
- Sep 2025 — R1 debuts at IFA Berlin; Bund Conference live demos
- Early 2026 — Galaxea raises ¥2.5B round, valuation hits ¥20B
- Jul 2026 — Ant leads Zeroth ¥500M Pre-A — the 12th deal, reported by CNBC
Why This Matters for Buyers and Distributors
Ant's thesis validates something the market has been uncertain about: humanoid robots are not a vertical niche. They are a platform category — like smartphones were in 2008 and EVs were in 2016. The convergence hasn't happened yet (there are still dozens of viable architectures), but the capital commitment tells you the direction is locked in.
For distributors and B2B platforms, the implication is straightforward. The component ecosystem (dexterous hands, actuators, spatial AI modules) is now investment-grade and scaling. The whole-system makers have live revenue — Unitree at ¥1.7B, Zeroth at 600% growth. The payment and service layer is being built in parallel. The window to position yourself as the go-to channel between Chinese manufacturing capacity and global demand is open right now, and it won't stay open indefinitely.
Published by robotmall.com · Global B2B Robotics Hardware Platform · Warehouses: US, Germany, Japan, Australia, US HQ
Sources: CNBC, Tencent News, Sohu, PitchBook, Unitree STAR Market filing, Ant Group press releases