Embodied AI funding hits 93.4B yuan in half a year, VCs now demand real revenue
创业邦 · wechat · 2026-10-11
A deep-dive on China's embodied-AI investment cycle: deal count jumped from 105 (9.5B yuan) in 2024 to 333 (40.6B) in 2025; H1 2026 alone saw 322 deals with 93.4B+ yuan disclosed, up 350% YoY.
Catalysts: Unitree's Spring Festival Gala appearance lifted domestic revenue share to 56.35%; the half-marathon robots' stumbles paradoxically convinced VCs the tech was real and early; Figure 03's fluid demos fueled FOMO. Capital logic shifted from "judging" to "allocating" — with few investable sectors left, herding drove a dexterous-hand company to double its valuation in just two weeks between rounds.
Splits and cooling: Investors divide between "brain" bets (model/data flywheels; Xinghaitu's Gao Jiyang argues for selling robot labor, not robots) and "body" bets (engineering delivery). Money is rotating from OEMs toward actuators, force/tactile sensors, and data infrastructure. Unitree's IPO popped 629% (peak market cap 444.9B yuan) then fell 61%+, exposing a revenue base of 70% research procurement and weak repurchase.
Orders as the only passport: One investor exposes three fake-revenue patterns — shareholder purchases, government demo orders, and portfolio companies buying from each other — and says only companies passing two tests (non-related third-party revenue share plus year-two repurchase) count: "fewer than ten in the whole sector."
Outlook: A shakeout is expected in H2 2026–2027; of 300 companies, only 20–30 may survive. Most vulnerable: single-point tech firms, those lacking mass production, and those dependent on funding-driven business models.
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