Independent Variable Robotics
自变量机器人
Independent Variable Robotics (自变量机器人 / X Square Robot) is a Chinese embodied-intelligence startup founded in December 2023 by CEO Qian Wang, a Tsinghua University electronics department alumnus . The company builds "general-purpose embodied large models" on a fully end-to-end architecture, aiming for unified perception, planning, and control . Its flagship Great Wall (WALL) model series includes WALL-A, which integrates multimodal perception, natural-language commands, and motion control into a single end-to-end system, and WALL-WM, billed as the world's first "event-level" world model—training on semantic action segments like "reach, grasp, place" rather than frame-by-frame prediction .
The team includes researchers who helped originate the attention mechanism underlying Transformer architectures, alongside robotics hardware veterans and leaders from China's first trillion-parameter models . Independent Variable Robotics has raised multiple funding rounds including a Pre-A+++ round in the hundreds of millions of RMB with participation from Yunqi Capital and Luminous Ventures, and a Series A led by Meituan . It positions itself as a peer to Astribot in the embodied-intelligence space, and Wang has explicitly rejected the framing of embodied intelligence as simply "putting DeepSeek into a Unitree robot" .
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Coverage
Deep Dive into Open-Source Commercialization: AI Is Rewriting the Value Logic | Yunqi Insights
Co-published the open source report for four consecutive years
Vol.17 48-Hour Xiaohongshu Hackathon Hit: How an AI-Native Product That Broke the "Retention Curse" Was Built --- Two weekends ago, I participated in a 48-hour hackathon hosted by Xiaohongshu. Our team of four built an AI-native product from scratch — no code, no design background between us — and ended up winning the "Most Popular" award. The product? A voice diary app called **"Echo"** that uses AI to turn fragmented daily moments into serialized, episodic "life podcasts." Think *This American Life*, but starring you. What surprised me wasn't that we won. It was that people kept using it *after* the demo. Here's the dirty secret of AI hackathons: most projects die the moment judges stop clapping. The "retention curse" is real — users try your GPT wrapper once, say "neat," and never return. We broke that pattern. Our daily active user rate among beta testers hit 34% in week one, which for a hackathon product is basically unheard of. How? Three deliberate choices we made against hackathon orthodoxy. **First, we refused to build a chatbot.** The default AI product in 2024 is still "talk to a large language model." We explicitly rejected this. Chat interfaces create *performance anxiety* — users feel pressure to ask the "right
"Independent Variable Robotics" Releases WALL-WM, the World's First "Event-Level" World Model: Teaching Robots to Ignore "Nonsense" | Yunqi Partners
Turning "Events" Into Units of Thought
Shenzhen's AI hardware scene is absolutely wild.
Shenzhen gave me social anxiety.
Vol.16 Tsinghua Entrepreneur-Scientist Huazhe Xu: From Intelligent "Hatching" to Home Embodiment, Stubbornly Chasing Originality in the AI Wave
Yunqi Capital Ranks Top 4 in ChinaVenture Honors: Grounded in AI's Core Narrative, Envisioning a New Era of Technology | Yunqi Bulletin
Building a Bright Future Through Technology and Innovation
35 Days Until Robots Enter Your Home: "Self-Variable Robotics" Unveils World's First Unified World Model | Yunqi Capital Portfolio
AI Goes Deep Into Real Life
Inside the Hype Tsunami of Embodied AI, He's Already Put Robots in 300 Homes | A Conversation with Zhang Yi: Founder/CEO of Weilai Buyuan
Yunqi Capital Quarterly Q1 | Keep Moving Forward, Answers Lie Ahead
A Quick Look at Yunqi Capital's Latest
Vol.15: The Post-'98 Founder Who Built a $20M Business in Two Years — On Building an AI That Talks Back | A Conversation with Kicker's Founder
Yunqi Capital x Tsinghua University | 5 Embodied AI "Heavyweights" on Physical AI and Commercialization
Finding the Decisive Factor in Embodied AI's Path to Market
Yunqi Capital Team | New Promotions and New Members: Rooted Downward, Growing Upward
Let's grow and get better together!
GTC Recap: When "Everything Can Be Tokenized," Who's Defining AI's Body and Memory | Yunqi Capital
Let's talk about something beyond tokens.
"Independent Variable Robotics" Raises 1 Billion Yuan in A++ Round | Yunqi Capital
Building Foundation Models for the Physical World
Yunqi Capital | Premier Li Qiang Inspects Guangdong, Astribot, X Variable Robotics, and Robotsquare Demo Their Tech
According to *Xinwen Lianbo*, on January 4, Li Qiang, member of the Politburo Standing Committee and Premier of the State Council, conducted research in Guangdong, engaging in in-depth exchanges with companies and relevant departments on topics including technological innovation, new quality productive forces, and high-quality development.
Moving Forward Together! Chen Yu Promoted to Managing Partner at Yunqi Capital | Yunqi Team
Marching forward side by side, continuing to rise.
Congratulations to JD Industrials on Its Successful Hong Kong Stock Exchange Listing | Yunqi Capital
Technology-enabled, with a promising future ahead.
Chen Yu in Conversation with Ziwang, DeepRoute: AI in the Physical World — How to Tackle the Toughest Nuts to Crack | Yunqi Capital Doers
Bridging the Chasm from Virtual to Reality
A 10,000-Word Deep Dive into Physical AI: Chinese Companies and the Global Arena at an Inflection Point | Yunqi Capital Pragmatists
Real Speed and Methodology from Entrepreneurs on the Front Lines
AI Getting Things Done | Cloud Summit · Chengdu: When Technology Lands in a City, Industries Are Being Redefined
In Sync with AI's Development
Yunqi Capital Quarterly | Upward, the Consistent Answer
New Growth, New Gains
Another VC Rebrands with a New Name
The twentieth year of local iteration.
Wang Qian, Invariant Robot: How Far Is Embodied Intelligence's Scaling Law? | Yunqi Capital Doers Series
Embodied Intelligence ≠ Stuffing DeepSeek into a Unitree Robot
Why Open-Source Embodied AI Models? Self-Variable Robotics CTO Wang Hao Explains | Yunqi Capital Doers
The GPT-3 Moment for Robotics Models
"Autonomous Variable Robotics" Closes 1 Billion Yuan Series A+ Round, Open-Sources End-to-End Embodied Foundation Model | Yunqi Capital
Models and hardware iterating at breakneck speed
The Globalization Path of Embodied Intelligence: A Deep Conversation on Value Creation, Innovation, and Organizational Capability
Hard-hitting, practical insights from the front lines of the industry
Tens of Thousands Tune In: Good News From Yunqi's Robot Friends | Yunqi x WRC 2025
Innovation never ends.
Livestream Registration | Yunqi Capital x SEE Fund: World Robot Congress Themed Event — See You Tomorrow
On August 8, the **2025 World Robot Conference (WRC)** opened in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. As one of the largest and most influential events in the global robotics sector, this year's WRC is themed "Making Robots Smarter, Making Embodied Intelligence More Intelligent," bringing together **over 1,500 exhibits from more than 200 domestic and international robotics companies**, including 100 new products making their debut.
Opening Today: A Complete Guide to Yunqi Capital's Embodied Intelligence Portfolio | Yunqi Capital x World Robot Conference
A User-Friendly Guide to Robot "Face Blindness"
Livestream Countdown | Yunqi Capital x SEE Fund: World Robot Congress Special Event — See You in 2 Days
From August 8 to 12, the **2025 World Robot Conference (WRC)** will be held at Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. As one of the largest and most influential events in the global robotics sector, this year's WRC will take "Making Robots Smarter, Making Embodied Intelligence More Intelligent" as its theme, bringing together **over 1,500 exhibits from more than 200 domestic and international robotics companies**, including 100 new products that will make their debut.
Coming Soon | Yunqi Capital X SEE Fund: World Robot Conference Special Event — You're Invited
Embodied Intelligence: The Future Is Already Here
Yunqi Family at WAIC: New Products, New Trends, New Connections — All in One Place | Yunqi Capital x World Artificial Intelligence Conference
Models Get Smarter, Agents Work Harder, Robots Stay Busier
WAIC Opens Today, Yunqi Capital Lineup Is Ready | Yunqi Capital x World Artificial Intelligence Conference
This schedule is worth bookmarking.
Walking Through the Heat, Gathering Along the Way | Yunqi Capital Quarterly
Yunqi Capital Q2 Good News
"Self-Variable Robotics" Explores a New Paradigm for Embodied Intelligence: From "Building Blocks" to "Native Integration" | Yunqi Capital
Getting AI to Put Down Heidegger's Hammer
Yunqi Capital x Tsinghua University E.E. | Exploring Embodied Intelligence in the Greater Bay Area
➤➤ On May 25, 2025, **"Tsinghua EEA · Industry Connect Afternoon Tea #012 — Exploring Embodied Intelligence in the Greater Bay Area"**, co-organized by Yunqi Capital, successfully concluded in Shenzhen. The event was hosted by the Tsinghua University Alumni Association Electronic Engineering Department Branch, the International Center for Advanced Technology Application Promotion (Shenzhen), and the Shenzhen Tsinghua University Alumni Association Electronic Engineering Department Branch. **Over 40 Tsinghua EEA alumni** deeply involved in embodied intelligence gathered in Shenzhen.
"Variable Robotics" Closes Two Consecutive Rounds Worth Hundreds of Millions of Yuan, Yunqi Capital Participates | Yunqi Capital
End-to-End Embodied Intelligence Accelerates Iteration
