Dexmal quietly wins Chinese researchers; RoboChallenge with HF and $3B+ raised
chris_j_paxton · x · 2026-08-29
Robotics researcher Clara Cheng, visiting Asia to find "the Pi0.5 in China", says the team that surprises her most is Dexmal. Together with Hugging Face, they launched RoboChallenge, a real-robot eval benchmark platform for testing VLA policies.
Dexmal has kept a low profile overseas, but its DM0.5 model has strong traction among Chinese researchers. At the World Robot Conference, DM0.5 demonstrated peeling a cucumber outside a controlled lab — under shifting lighting, unfamiliar surroundings and moving people — adjusting motion and contact force in real time. The CEO is from Yao Class, and the company is backed by top funds with over $3B raised.
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