In JD.com's investment landscape, July 21, 2025, stands out as an unforgettable day.

On this pivotal day, JD.com demonstrated its formidable prowess by swiftly investing in three embodied intelligence enterprises: Qianxun Intelligence, Zhuji Power, and Zhongqing Robotics. This flurry of investments immediately ignited the embodied intelligence sector, captivating the attention of technology and investment circles alike, and sparking widespread speculation from various industries.

Specifically, Qianxun Intelligence secured a Pre-A+ round of financing totaling nearly 600 million yuan, led by JD.com, with additional investments from numerous renowned institutions. Existing shareholders also exceeded their investment quotas, underscoring its popularity among capital providers. Zhuji Power's new round of financing was strategically led by JD.com, heralding deeper collaborative explorations across multiple fields. Zhongqing Robotics, meanwhile, completed two rounds of financing, with the A1 round led by JD.com and participated in by numerous industrial and financial investors, alongside active participation from existing shareholders in continuous capital increases.

Each of these three enterprises boasts unique strengths in the realm of embodied intelligence. Is JD.com's current layout a mere whim or a well-considered strategic move?

'Locking In' on Embodied Intelligence

JD.com's 'triple investment' this time is no mere coincidence but rather the result of multiple deep-level considerations.

Firstly, with continuous breakthroughs in artificial intelligence technology, the market size of embodied intelligence has exhibited explosive growth. This rapid development momentum undoubtedly presents JD.com with vast development potential and business opportunities.

Amid the wave of technological advancements, embodied intelligence is gradually emerging and is widely regarded by experts as the key to achieving general artificial intelligence. Data reveals that the market size of embodied intelligence in China surged from 292.3 billion yuan in 2018 to 748.7 billion yuan in 2023, boasting a compound annual growth rate of 20.7%. By 2024, this figure is projected to exceed 863.4 billion yuan.

On the policy front, embodied intelligence has also received robust support. During this year's National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, 'embodied intelligence' was included in the government work report for the first time, marking its official entry into the national strategic plan. This development has undoubtedly injected a powerful impetus into the industry's growth. In such an environment, JD.com's decision to enter the market at this juncture aims to seize the initiative and capitalize on the initial wave of industry development.

Secondly, as a giant in the e-commerce and logistics fields, JD.com confronts prominent issues related to labor costs and efficiency. The advent of embodied intelligence presents JD.com with novel ideas and avenues to address these challenges.

In the logistics sector, warehousing, sorting, and delivery necessitate significant labor input, placing considerable cost pressure on JD.com. Concurrently, traditional logistics models are encountering efficiency bottlenecks, making it challenging to meet consumers' escalating demands for rapid delivery. Embodied intelligent robots can efficiently tackle tasks such as cargo handling and sorting in complex logistics environments, thereby significantly reducing labor costs and enhancing operational efficiency and accuracy.

Thirdly, JD.com's long-standing investments and accumulations in artificial intelligence technology, along with subsequent investments and layouts, provide a solid technical foundation for its development in embodied intelligence.

Over the years, JD.com has continuously delved into fields such as AI, cloud computing, big data, and the Internet of Things, achieving a series of technological breakthroughs. Simultaneously, JD.com can leverage its vast big data resources to furnish rich data support for the research and development, as well as the optimization, of embodied intelligence. By analyzing user behavior and logistics data, JD.com can continually improve the performance and application effects of embodied intelligence.

Crucially, JD.com boasts numerous partners and can achieve deep collaboration with these embodied intelligence-related enterprises. For instance, the robots developed by Qianxun Intelligence, Zhuji Power, and Zhongqing Robotics can be directly applied to JD.com's logistics and retail scenarios, continuously optimizing and refining technology through practical operations. JD.com can also offer these enterprises abundant application scenarios, data support, and market channels, fostering their rapid growth and achieving mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.

In essence, as an industry 'giant,' JD.com's entry serves as a 'powerful boost' to the embodied intelligence industry, poised to exert a profound impact on the sector's development.

Numerous Challenges: How to Break the Deadlock?

While JD.com is racing ahead in the promising track of embodied intelligence, it also confronts numerous challenges.

In terms of technological research and development, embodied intelligence remains in its nascent stage, and JD.com faces numerous pressing issues that require urgent resolution.

Achieving natural interaction between robots and their environment stands as one of the core goals of embodied intelligence. However, the current technological level still lags significantly behind this objective. In complex and ever-changing real-world environments, robots must accurately perceive surrounding objects, people, and environmental information, and make informed decisions and actions. This places exceedingly high demands on their perception, cognition, and decision-making capabilities.

Regarding cost control, the research and development, production, and deployment costs of embodied intelligent robots are substantial, to a certain extent limiting their large-scale application and promotion. Taking humanoid robots as an example, the costs of their core components, such as high-precision sensors, high-performance motors, and advanced controllers, remain high, causing the price of an entire humanoid robot to easily reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan.

For JD.com to widely implement embodied intelligence technology in logistics, e-commerce, and other business scenarios, it must reduce costs and enhance the cost-effectiveness of its products. However, cost reduction is no easy feat and necessitates concerted efforts in technological innovation, supply chain optimization, large-scale production, and other areas.

In terms of market competition, as the embodied intelligence market rapidly gains traction, more enterprises are flocking to this sector, intensifying competition and placing considerable pressure on JD.com.

Internationally, technology giants such as Tesla and Boston Dynamics have been deeply entrenched in the field of embodied intelligence for years, amassing profound technical expertise and rich market experience. Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus, showcases strong potential backed by artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technology. Boston Dynamics' robots are renowned for their exceptional motion performance and outstanding environmental adaptability.

Domestically, in addition to JD.com, internet giants like Meituan, Alibaba, and Tencent are also actively deploying in the embodied intelligence field, seizing market opportunities through investments, independent research, and development. Meituan has frequently invested in the robotics sector and collaborated deeply with multiple robotics enterprises, committed to advancing the application of robots in the local lifestyle service sector. Alibaba, leveraging its robust technological research and development capabilities and e-commerce ecosystem advantages, has made significant strides in logistics robots, intelligent customer service robots, and other areas.

In such a fiercely competitive environment, JD.com must continually enhance its core competitiveness to stand out in the market.

Accelerating Industry Integration and Reshuffling

JD.com's layout in the embodied intelligence field holds profound significance for both its own business expansion and the development of the entire industry.

From JD.com's perspective, the application of embodied intelligence technology will also unlock new business avenues and models, creating additional commercial value and development opportunities.

Moreover, this layout will aid in further consolidating JD.com's leading position in the e-commerce and logistics fields. By integrating embodied intelligence technology, JD.com can achieve intelligent upgrades in its logistics and e-commerce operations, enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and provide users with higher-quality and more efficient services, thereby boosting user loyalty and market competitiveness.

For the embodied intelligence industry, JD.com's layout may accelerate the integration and reshuffling of the sector.

In the fiercely competitive market, enterprises with weaker technical prowess and insufficient market competitiveness may be eliminated, whereas those closely collaborating with giants such as JD.com and possessing technological and product advantages are expected to secure more development opportunities. This will direct resources in the embodied intelligence industry towards advantageous enterprises, accelerating the integration and optimization of the industry and enhancing its overall competitiveness.

In summary, JD.com's layout in embodied intelligence constitutes a strategic choice in response to the general trend of industry development and based on its own business needs. While this layout faces numerous challenges, it also presents immense opportunities. From the perspective of industry competition, JD.com's entry into this field has injected new vitality and competitive pressure, anticipated to drive technological innovation and industrial upgrading throughout the sector.