Yunqi Capital | Early Portfolio Company "Zhi Square" Raises Over 1 Billion RMB to Accelerate Embodied AI Models and Mass Production

Recently, Yunqi Capital portfolio company AI² Robotics announced the completion of its Series B financing round, raising over RMB 1 billion and achieving a valuation in the tens of billions.

Over the past year, AI² Robotics has completed 12 funding rounds. The continued backing from both industrial and financial investors signals strong market interest in foundational capabilities and commercial progress within the embodied intelligence sector. This edition of "Yunqi Portfolio" dives into the details.

The following is adapted from "AI² Robotics"

Proceeds from this round will primarily fund continued upgrades to the GOVLA embodied foundation model, iteration of the AlphaBot product line, and expansion of production capacity for scaled delivery.

Investors form a synergistic "capital + industry" structure, spanning internet and AI giants, leading state-owned enterprises, top Tesla supply chain players, strategic scenario partners, deep-pocketed PE funds, leading securities-affiliated funds, and local government funds, alongside continued commitment from existing shareholders.

On the industry side, the participation of CRRC Capital and scenario partners provides real-world testing and deployment conditions for robotics in advanced manufacturing. The introduction of strategic partners strengthens system-level integration capabilities and scenario coordination efficiency. Combined, these forces tighten the feedback loop between R&D, industrial validation, and scaling capacity.

Model Capabilities:

Iterating on the VLA Architecture

Since its founding, AI² Robotics has pursued a technical path centered on building foundation models for the physical world, focusing on original development of the VLA (Vision-Language-Action) architecture.

The company has successively launched GOVLA 0.0 (RoboMamba) and GOVLA 0.5 (FiS-VLA). Achieving significant performance gains while controlling model scale, GOVLA 0.0 was accepted at NeurIPS 2024 and posted strong results on public benchmarks.

GOVLA 0.5 introduces a dual-system architecture of "heterogeneous inputs + asynchronous frequencies," further optimizing control frequency and task generalization. The company has now developed GOVLA 1.0.

On data strategy, the team was an early industry proponent and practitioner of the "inverse pyramid" data philosophy, emphasizing reliance on simulation and hybrid data during cold-start phases, then shifting to real-world operational data at scale — creating a continuous "data-model-scenario" loop.

As a major contributor to the large-scale dual-arm robotics dataset RoboCOIN, the company accounts for over 35% of industrial scenarios, covering more than 50 settings including industrial, public service, and home environments.

Production & Delivery:

Building Scaled Capacity

AI² Robotics has established a complete closed loop from hardware mass production to commercial deployment.

On hardware, the company adheres to a production-oriented forward-design philosophy. The AlphaBot series has completed three iterations in under two years. The latest version adopts a wheeled dual-arm structure with industrial-grade stability in core components.

The company's self-built production line has completed its ramp-up phase, with current annual capacity reaching thousands of units and plans for further expansion. Complete in-house execution of R&D, key component customization, machining and assembly, and validation ensures delivery pace and quality control.

Scenario Deployment:

From Pilots to Scaled Rollout

On the application side, AI² Robotics products are already operating in multiple real-world scenarios:

In industrial manufacturing, covering automotive, biotech, and display panel settings, performing sorting, transfer, and labeling tasks — including a three-year, 1,000-unit order with HKC, the world's third-largest display panel manufacturer.**

In public services, deployed in core transportation hubs of tier-one cities, supporting human-robot collaboration and task execution in dynamic, open environments.**

In new retail, the company launched "AI² Cube," the world's first modular service space, enabling long-duration operation and autonomous service, with plans to scale to 1,000 units over the next three years.**

As real-world deployment expands, data accumulation and model iteration form a reinforcing loop, providing support for the next phase of capability upgrades.

We look forward to AI² Robotics continuing to deliver in more real-world scenarios, deepening capabilities, and further accelerating embodied model development and scaled production!