As though the takeout business wasn’t enough, their rivalry now extends into embodied AI, with both companies making investments in robotics startups for an edge. JD.com has responded to earlier reports by 36Kr about Meituan’s investment in X Square Robot and Galaxea AI. Both are emerging players in the embodied-intelligence space. After supporting Agibot’s Series B funding round it has now placed bets on Spirit AI and Engine AI.
Spirit AI closed a recent pre-Series A+ funding round, raising almost RMB 600 million ($84 million), led primarily by JD. Other investors include China Internet Investment Fund (CIIF), Zhejiang Province Financial Holdings (ZPFH), Huatai Zijin Investment and Fosun RZ Capital.
Engine AI secured close to RMB a billion (USD 140 millions) in two rounds. JD led the Series A1 round. Other participants included CATL-affiliated Puquan Capital and Yintai Group. Fortune Capital, Tsinghua holdings Capital, Huangpu River Capital, as well as CATL’s CATL. Rockets Capital was founded by Xpeng and led the pre-Series ++ round.
Although Spirit AI and Engine AI operate in the same area, their focus areas are different. Spirit AI was founded by Han Fengtao (former CTO of Rokae) and Gao Yang (assistant professor and doctoral adviser at Tsinghua University’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences). The company’s primary focus is on embodied foundations, but it also develops physical robot hardware. Its proprietary vision-language-action (VLA) model, “Spirit v1,” was recently upgraded to enable robots to perform a range of office tasks, from tidying desks and repositioning chairs to taking out the trash. Engine AI, on the other hand, is more rooted in hardware development. It integrates traditional movement control with reinforcement learning in order to build full-stack embedded systems, including components such as motion, force and planning, vision-language guidance, and localization. The company has developed a product line that includes bipedal robots and humanoid robots. JD and Meituan have now charted distinct paths in this sector. JD has invested into Agibot Engine AI Spirit AI and Xianglu Technology. Meituan is pursuing a dual track approach to embodied Intelligence, backing companies that focus on robot “brains”, such as X Square Robot, Galaxea AI and Unitree Robotics, as well body-focused manufacturers, like Galbot and Unitree Robotics. Meituan has also recently joined the investor list for Tars, a startup that is gaining traction.
JD is interested in embodied AI because it aligns with its ecommerce and logistics operations. However, its ambitions go beyond external investments.
JD created a dedicated embodied-AI unit in March, bringing Shen Hui on board as the leader. Shen Hui was a former vice-president at SenseTime. The company has also mobilized its internal teams to pursue advanced R&D within this area.
JD launched its JoyInside platform in July to consolidate years of experience in intelligent interaction. This includes customer service, digital avatars and shopping assistance.
JD claims that the JoyInside platform has an emotionally intelligent dialogue, consistent behavior in speech and action, and flexibility for different robot types and uses cases. The company will co-develop “brains,” with human-like conversationsal abilities, in partnership with hardware makers, aiming to improve the human-machine interface.
JoyInside is already integrated into several robots. These include the MagicDog Pro quadruped, the NIA FO1 humanoid, the egg-shaped Xuanji, the Yuanluobo chess playing robot, and Engine AI PM01. KrASIA Connection is a collection of translated and adapted material originally published by 36Kr. This
Qiu Qiaofen wrote the article for 36Kr.
