Ant Lingbo and the Arab Digital Economy Alliance Sign MoU to Accelerate the Localization of Embodied Intelligence

ME AI recently, at the “China-Arab Digital Economy Industry Matching Event,” one of the key side events of the Fifth Global Digital Trade Expo, the Arab Federation for Digital Economy (AFDE) and Ant Lingbo Technology, an embodied AI subsidiary of Ant Group, officially signed a framework memorandum of cooperation. (Dr. Ayman Ghoneim and Yu Liang signed the memorandum together) Dr. Ayman Ghoneim, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab Federation for Digital Economy, and Yu Liang, Head of Commercialization at Ant Lingbo Technology, signed on behalf of both parties. Under the memorandum, both sides will establish a regularized cooperation mechanism to jointly advance the deployment and localization of embodied AI and full-stack robotic solutions in the UAE, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and broader Middle Eastern markets, with comprehensive collaboration in scenario applications, data model optimization, and regional industrial ecosystem building. Focusing on diverse scenarios, the two parties have identified five core areas of cooperation: First, jointly promote the regional deployment and commercialization of Ant Lingbo’s embodied AI technologies, models, and robotic solutions in Middle Eastern markets such as the UAE. Second, conduct joint proof-of-concept projects and industry applications in suitable fields, covering hospitality and dining, retail, real estate, logistics, industrial operations, smart cities, healthcare, and entertainment guidance—scenes mutually recognized by both parties. Third, explore localization of embodied AI and robotic solutions tailored to Arabic language interaction, regional operational environments, local workflows, cultural needs, and customer demands. Fourth, subject to compliance with relevant laws and regulations and with customer consent, explore collaboration on embodied AI data collection and training in real-world Middle Eastern scenarios. Fifth, explore cooperation among government agencies, enterprises, research institutions, universities, investors, and industry partners in China and the Middle East to accelerate the deployment of embodied AI and the construction of its ecosystem. Ant Lingbo Technology is an embodied AI subsidiary of Ant Group dedicated to building a native general-purpose brain for robots, having developed a full-stack technology portfolio spanning spatial intelligence, dexterous manipulation, and dynamic environmental interaction. As of September, its open-source models have garnered 31,800 stars on GitHub—the world’s largest open-source community—securing a leading position among domestic embodied models and demonstrating high global developer recognition and academic influence. Additionally, Ant Lingbo is set to soon launch its “Cloud-Based Model Toolchain Platform.” The company’s leading model performance and comprehensive engineering toolchain system were key factors in AFDE’s decision to partner with Ant Lingbo. Regarding the industrialization pathway for embodied AI, Zhu Xing, CEO of Ant Lingbo Technology, previously noted: “Generalization capability is the core economic variable determining the success or failure of embodied AI commercialization. Ant Lingbo remains committed to training embodied foundational large models from scratch for the physical world, aiming to enable a ‘general-purpose brain’ to seamlessly adapt to robots of varying configurations and scenarios.” Built on this technological foundation, Ant Lingbo’s proprietary LingBot-VLA 2.0 foundational large model has already supported 17 brands and 20 robot configurations during pre-training, setting a pioneering industry benchmark for “one brain, multiple robots.” This solution has already been deployed in real-world scenarios such as pharmacies, logistics, and industrial material handling. For instance, in the “Robotic Smart Pharmacy” co-developed with Shanghai Guoda Pharmacy, robots equipped with Lingbo’s brain can perform precise drug picking throughout the day in narrow corridors as tight as 80 centimeters wide—effectively alleviating operational pressure during peak hours and nighttime. (Ant Lingbo robot performing drug-picking tasks at Shanghai Guoda Pharmacy) During this year’s Digital Trade Expo, the partnership between Ant Lingbo and the Arab Federation for Digital Economy not only signifies international recognition of China’s self-developed embodied AI “brain,” but also ushers in a new paradigm for international collaboration in embodied AI—evolving from hardware cooperation to high-quality collaboration rooted in core technology models, engineering toolchains, localized scenario adaptation, and deep industrial ecosystem integration—opening a new chapter in the global physical-scale deployment of the “one brain, multiple robots” vision. (Source: Ifnar)