Preface:

The "Guiding Opinions on the Innovative Development of Humanoid Robots" was released last October, providing clear guidance for the practical application scenarios of humanoid robots.

On the one hand, the opinions emphasize strengthening the safety protection capabilities of humanoid robots in special environments such as civilian explosives and rescue, and enhancing their intelligent generation and high-precision operation capabilities for complex tasks to reduce the risk to operators.

On the other hand, the opinions also focus on key areas of the manufacturing industry such as 3C and automobiles, promoting the construction of demonstration production lines and factories for humanoid robots.

Multiple Investment Institutions Join, General Dynamics Completes Series A Funding

Recently, General Dynamics, a startup in the field of general-purpose humanoid robots, successfully completed its Series A funding.

This funding round was co-led by China Merchants Ventures and Shangqi Capital, a private equity investment platform under SAIC Motor, while existing shareholders Fengrui Capital, Oasis Capital, and Mingshi Capital also actively participated in the follow-on investment. The specific funding amount has not been disclosed.

General Dynamics recently announced that following the completion of its strategic funding in May, the company has once again secured strategic investments from China Merchants Ventures and Shangqi Capital, while renowned investment institutions such as Fengrui Capital, Oasis Capital, and Mingshi Capital have continued their support with follow-on investments.

Within just two months, General Dynamics successfully completed its Series A strategic funding round, with a total of six top-tier investment institutions participating.

The primary goal of this Series A funding round is to identify and match strategic industrial resources and application scenarios amidst the AI era of general-purpose humanoid robots.

Simultaneously, leveraging multi-modal large models, the company aims to accelerate breakthroughs in general-purpose humanoid robot technology and promote the verification and iteration of related technologies in real-world scenarios.

According to business registration information, Hangzhou Haoyue holds a 18.7797% stake in General Dynamics.

Hangzhou Haoyue, an investment platform under Alibaba, represents Alibaba's first investment in a humanoid robot company.

As a newly joined investor, Hangzhou Haoyue's evaluation of General Dynamics may be related to Alibaba's strategic layout in the AI field.

Alibaba Group's deep accumulations in cloud computing, big data, and AI technology coincide with the intelligent development of humanoid robots, which may be a significant reason for its investment in General Dynamics.

As one of the lead investors in this round, China Merchants Ventures values General Dynamics' breakthroughs in combining AI technology with robot hardware, as well as its potential applications in strategic scenarios such as transportation logistics, comprehensive finance, and urban and park integrated development.

China Merchants Group's rich application scenarios and resources in these areas will provide strong support for the commercialization process of humanoid robots.

Shangqi Capital's evaluation of General Dynamics focuses on its utilization of large model technology and the continuous reduction of hardware costs.

They believe that general-purpose humanoid robots are the next-generation AI-powered smart terminal hardware and have high expectations for General Dynamics' application advancements in fields such as intelligent manufacturing.

The continued follow-on investments from existing shareholders Fengrui Capital, Oasis Capital, and Mingshi Capital demonstrate their ongoing confidence in the company's long-term development and technical strength.

Their evaluations reflect recognition of General Dynamics' advancements in technical directions such as humanoid robot motion intelligence, multi-source data fusion, large-scale pre-training, and the Real2Sim2Real closed-loop.

Background Team, Core Products, and Updates

Founded in 2022, General Dynamics' founder Zhang Wei is currently a tenured professor at Southern University of Science and Technology.

Prior to founding General Dynamics, Zhang Wei served as a tenured professor at Ohio State University and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, holding a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University.

In November 2023, Zhang Li, the former COO of the autonomous driving startup WeRide, officially joined General Dynamics as co-founder and COO.

General Dynamics plans to first apply its products and technologies in B2B and B2C areas such as intelligent manufacturing, industrial inspection, logistics and delivery, special operations, and home services, providing efficient and intelligent solutions for various sectors of society.

As a company dedicated to robot technology research and development, General Dynamics' product lineup encompasses full-size humanoid robots, quadruped robots, bipedal robots, and related solutions.

These products are widely used in diverse fields such as intelligent manufacturing, industrial inspection, logistics and delivery, and home services.

At the end of 2023, the company officially launched its humanoid robot product named CL-1 and released a video in March this year showcasing the field development test of its bipedal robot P1 in the wild environment of Tanglang Mountain, Shenzhen, fully demonstrating its product's superior performance.

With continuous technological advancements, General Dynamics has achieved remarkable breakthroughs in robot research and development.

In December 2023, the company showcased its self-developed [CL-1] humanoid robot for the first time, attracting widespread attention for its outstanding performance.

By April 2024, the company further demonstrated the latest application progress of [CL-1], which had already achieved complex movements such as climbing stairs step by step, starting and accelerating, and turning around based on real-time terrain perception.

After verifying its all-terrain mobility capabilities, General Dynamics will focus on tackling general mobile manipulation capabilities and gradually integrating multi-modal large model technology into humanoid robots.

On the one hand, the company will gradually introduce multi-modal large model technologies (including embodiment, force sensing, touch, joint information, and other modalities) into humanoid robots to enhance their intelligence level;

On the other hand, it will promote hardware versatility to ensure the robots' stable operation in various environments.

The company has chosen to pre-train humanoid robots using extensive human motion data to help them better accomplish tasks and adapt to human society.

Industrial Capital Dominates Humanoid Robot Investment and Financing in 2024

In recent years, financing activities in the field of humanoid robots have remained active.

Among them, Beijing Automotive Group's Beijing Automotive Industry Investment has been particularly active in this sector, successfully participating in financing rounds for startups such as Passini Perception Technology, Galaxy Robotics, and Zhiyuan Robotics this year.

Furthermore, investment institutions such as Meituan, Alibaba, Iflytek Venture Capital, Shunwei Capital, Shangqi Capital under SAIC Motor, and China Merchants Ventures have also made investments in this field within the year.

In January this year, Xingdong Jiyuan successfully completed an angel funding round exceeding RMB 100 million, led by Lenovo Capital and followed by Jinding Capital and Qingkong Tiancheng, with existing shareholder Century Jinyuan over-subscribing.

In February, Unitree Robotics announced the completion of its Series B2 funding round of RMB 1 billion, with investors including Meituan, Jinshi Investment, and Source Code Capital.

In April, Kepler Exploration Robotics completed its angel funding round, with investors including Shangshi Capital and Beiyang Haitang Fund.

In June, Galaxy General Robotics completed its angel funding round of RMB 700 million, with investors including Meituan Strategic Investment, Beijing Automotive Industry Investment, and Qiming Venture Partners.

Among internet technology giants, Tencent has invested in Hong Kong-listed [the first humanoid robot stock] UBTECH;

Baidu's Sanya Baichuan Zhixin Private Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) has invested in Zhiyuan Robotics;

Alibaba has invested in General Dynamics; and Meituan has invested in Galaxy General Robotics and Unitree Robotics.

Humanoid Robot Market Prospects and Development Trends

In 2024, the market prospects and development trends of humanoid robots demonstrate significant growth potential and diversified application areas.

According to forecasts, the Chinese humanoid robot market will reach approximately RMB 2.76 billion in 2024 and is expected to expand to RMB 75 billion by 2029, accounting for 32.7% of the global market.

This growth trend reflects the gradual expansion of humanoid robot applications in various fields, improved technological maturity, and increased market acceptance.

① Integration of AI Large Models and Humanoid Robots: The deep empowerment of AI technology, particularly the application of AI large models, will bring advanced cognitive and decision-making capabilities to humanoid robots.

② Non-structured Knowledge Recognition and Motion Control Technologies: These advancements will enable humanoid robots to better understand and adapt to complex environments.

③ Explosion of Humanoid Robot Sensory Systems: Progress in sensory systems will enhance humanoid robots' perception capabilities, making them more intelligent.

④ Tactile Dexterous Hands with Enhanced Sensing Capabilities: The development of tactile dexterous hands will improve humanoid robots' precision and safety in manipulating objects.

⑤ Lightweight Materials and Structural Design Optimization: The use of lightweight materials and optimized structural designs will significantly enhance humanoid robots' mobility and flexibility.

Conclusion:

In 2024, we can clearly see that the humanoid robot market is exhibiting robust growth momentum and broad development prospects.

From a development trend perspective, the application areas of humanoid robots are continuously expanding. In the future, the application areas of humanoid robots will become even more diversified.

With further technological advancements, humanoid robots will possess stronger autonomous learning, decision-making, and execution capabilities, enabling them to play a role in more complex scenarios.

Some reference materials: Robot Lecture Hall: "Industrial Capital Rushes In, Why is General Dynamics' Series A Funding Different?", Strategic Investor: "Alibaba Enters the Humanoid Robot Field for the First Time!", Securities Times: "Humanoid Robot Sector Receives Another Funding Round! Industrial Capital Enters En Masse", Shanghai Securities News: "Humanoid Robot Sector Attracts Top Institutions Again", Intelligence Emergence: "Humanoid Robot Company 'General Dynamics' Completes Hundreds of Millions in Series A Funding, Led by Multiple Giants"