In April 2026, China’s embodied AI industry witnessed its largest single funding round to date: $455 million. The company receiving the investment is Shizhihang, founded less than two years ago. Its founder, Chen Yilun, previously spent four years at Huawei as CTO and Chief Scientist of autonomous driving systems.
According to incomplete statistics from IT Juzi, Huawei-affiliated entrepreneurs have founded or co-founded 26 embodied AI companies, ranking first among all large tech company backgrounds with a total funding amount of RMB 38.85 billion. Huawei-affiliated entrepreneurs are among the most fundraising-competitive groups in China’s embodied AI industry. For more information on entrepreneurs from other major tech companies, refer to the latest report, “Portrait of China’s Embodied AI Entrepreneur Ecosystem.”
Today, we focus on the 12 Huawei-affiliated companies that raised funding in 2026 to see where the hot money is flowing.
In 2026, 12 Huawei-affiliated embodied AI companies raised funding.
According to IT Juzi data, from January to August 14, 2026, 12 smart companies with Huawei-affiliated backgrounds completed 24 funding rounds, with an estimated total funding amount of approximately RMB 8.635 billion—more than three times the total for the entire previous year.
Funding events are heavily concentrated in the early stages: 9 angel rounds, 5 seed rounds, and 5 Pre-A rounds, with early-stage funding (angel/seed/Pre-A) accounting for over 80%. This means that most of the companies receiving funding in 2026 are newly established, typically less than two years old, with investors placing their bets primarily on the founders’ backgrounds and technical capabilities.
In terms of funding volume, 2026 saw a strong concentration of investment among leading companies. Shi Zhihang secured $455 million, and Kunlunxing Robotics raised billions of RMB; together, these two companies accounted for 70% of the total funding raised by Huawei-affiliated entities in 2026, while other smaller projects received relatively limited funding.
In addition, the fundraising pace of some startups has accelerated significantly, with companies like Oula Wanxiang, Kunlunxing Robotics, and Moushen Intelligence completing over three funding rounds within six months. Such a dense sequence of fundraising rounds is uncommon, but this year has seen a surge in funding for the embodied AI sector, with prominent entrepreneurs receiving continued investment—Huawei-affiliated entities are also a significant force in this trend.
The table below lists the latest financing round details for each company, ordered by total funding amount in 2026 in descending order:
Two: These five companies are the main recipients of major funding this year.
Shi Zhihang: $455 million Pre-A funding round sets a new record for embodied AI in China
It was co-founded in July 2024 by Chen Yilun and Li Zhenyu.
Chen Yilun earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Tsinghua University and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. In 2017, he joined DJI as Chief Engineer, and in 2018, he moved to Huawei, where he served as CTO and Chief Scientist of the Intelligent Automotive Solutions Division, leading the end-to-end development of Huawei’s first autonomous driving system. In mid-2022, he left Huawei’s Vehicle Business Unit to join the Institute for Intelligent Industry at Tsinghua University as Chief Expert in Intelligent Robotics.
Co-founder Li Zhenyu previously served as General Manager of Baidu’s intelligent driving business and is a seasoned veteran in the autonomous driving field. The company’s core team also includes Ding Wenchao, a prodigy from Huawei, among others. The team brings combined expertise in autonomous driving, AI, and robotics, cultivating a unique “automotive-grade” engineering mindset.
In April 2026, Yishi Zhihang completed a $455 million (approximately RMB 3.2 billion) Pre-A round, setting the record for the largest single financing in China's embodied AI industry. The investor lineup includes top-tier VCs such as Hillhouse, Sequoia, Meituan, Qiming, and BlueChilli, as well as state-backed funds including the Beijing Robotics Industry Development Investment Fund and Shanghai State Investment Leading Fund.
Its core technical architecture is built around the proprietary AWE (All-Scenario World Embodiment) general embodied large model. At the NVIDIA GTC conference in March 2026, Chen Yilun unveiled the AWE 3.0 technical architecture to the world for the first time, achieving three key technological innovations: Omnidirectional Sensory Decision-Making (OSD), High-Density Tactile Sensing (HTS), and Latent Space Smooth Motion (LAS).
Based on AWE 3.0, Shi Zhihang set the Guinness World Record for "most sub-millimeter wire harness assemblies by a robot in one hour" with 105 successful assemblies—the first Guinness World Record achieved by a Chinese embodied AI company in the field of industrial precision operations. The company has partnered with the Abu Dhabi Institute of Technology Innovation to co-develop the next-generation embodied AI large model for global deployment.
Kunlunxing Robotics: Achieves Three-Stage Leap from Angel to Pre-A Round in 4 Months
Kunlun Xing Robotics was founded by Ren Geng, who serves as CEO. Ren Geng has a professional background spanning Alibaba, Alibaba Cloud, and Huawei, with hands-on experience in cloud infrastructure, large model training, and hardware engineering.
Kunlunxing Robotics had an extremely密集 funding schedule in 2026: it announced its angel round on March 4, secured additional angel funding on May 25, and completed a RMB billions-level Pre-A round on June 23—achieving a "three-step leap" from angel to Pre-A in just four months.
Kunlun Robotics' rapid fundraising reflects a trend in the embodied intelligence sector for 2026: the "body + brain" dual-drive approach to general embodied intelligence is attracting significant capital interest, and entrepreneurs with multidisciplinary industry backgrounds will be the primary beneficiaries of this funding surge.
Euler Wanxiang: Huawei's Incremental Evolution as Its "First Employee" in Embodied AI
Zhou Shunbo holds a Ph.D. in Robotics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2021, he joined Huawei’s “Genius Young Talent” program, focusing on intelligent robotics, and subsequently became Huawei’s first employee in the field of embodied intelligence, building from scratch Huawei’s largest embodied intelligence team.
Oula Wanxiang was established in March 2026 and completed three consecutive funding rounds within just two months: in April, it raised a seed round of tens of millions of RMB, led by Hillhouse Capital and 5Y Capital; in May, it secured a Series A round of hundreds of millions of RMB, led by China Merchants Venture Capital, with follow-on investments from SAIF Partners, Jiuhé Capital, and BV (Baidu Ventures); in June, it raised an additional hundreds of millions of RMB in a follow-on Series A round, setting a record for fundraising efficiency in the early-stage embodied AI sector.
Euler万象's product strategy follows a "gradual evolution" approach. The first product features a "mobile base with dual robotic arms," targeting makers and developers, enabling early users to help the robot learn new skills and complete deployments through data collection, interaction, and demonstration.
Neuron Intelligence: A Generative Embodied Large Model Emerging from the Ark
Li Yinchuan, founder of Nuoin Intelligence, is a post-95s and the youngest member of Huawei’s embodied startup teams.
Li Yinchuan joined Huawei's Noah's Ark Lab in 2020, where over five years he served as Head of Generative Large Models, the youngest project manager at Noah's Ark Lab, and Chief Researcher in AIGC. He left in 2025 to found his own company. Co-founder Wang Yunjie comes from DJI, and partner Zhou Kaiwen is also a former Noah's Ark Lab researcher, a Huawei Genius Young Talent, and former head of Huawei’s Agent team.
On August 10, 2026, Neuron Intelligence completed a RMB 500 million Angel++ round led by Matrix Partners China, with participation from Redpoint Ventures, SenseTime Guoxiang Capital, Walden International, and L2F Light Source Entrepreneur Fund, post-money valuation exceeding RMB 2 billion.
Neun Intelligence Knowin-X1 robot image source: Internet
Knowin has independently developed the GLOW generative embodied large model system. At this year's WAIC exhibition, the company unveiled its first consumer-grade home robot, the Knowin-X1, featuring a foldable dual-arm design with a wheeled chassis. The robot can compress and fold its entire body, then unfold to perform household tasks such as organizing desktop items, retrieving and folding clothes, and operating washing machines. The Knowin-X1 is expected to be released in 2027.
BrainRock: The Minority Path of Brain-Inspired Intelligence
Compared to other entrepreneurs in the Huawei ecosystem, Zhu Senhua, founder of Ju Nao Pan Shi, has a more profound academic background. He conducted research in computer science and AI at Sun Yat-sen University, earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his postdoctoral research at the State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. After joining Huawei, he served as Director of the Huawei Cloud AI Algorithm Innovation Lab, was one of the interviewers for Huawei’s “Genius Youth” program, and is widely regarded in the industry as “Huawei’s No. 1 Person for Embodied Intelligence.”
In January 2026, Ju Nao Pan Shi completed a seed round of tens of millions of RMB, and in May, it completed a series A round of 100 million RMB.
Amid today’s market-wide race toward the VLA (Vision-Language-Action) approach, BrainRock has, since its founding, adopted a brain-inspired intelligence paradigm as its foundational framework, modeling its Cognitive World Model after the JEPA architecture proposed by Turing Award winner Yann LeCun. In April, their humanoid robot, developed in collaboration with AIBO Robotics, completed a PoC validation in an industrial setting in Japan.
Three, these companies also have good qualifications.
Beta Infinity was founded by Liu Wulong, who serves as Founder and CEO and has prior experience working at Huawei. The company focuses on research and development of intelligent robotics technology. In March 2026, it completed a nearly RMB 100 million seed round of financing (investors include Hongtai Fund, Zhengjing Capital, and Ginkgo Capital), followed by an additional RMB hundreds of millions in seed funding in May.
Notably, Beta Infinity secured hundreds of millions in funding at the seed stage, a rare occurrence even within Huawei’s ecosystem and the entire embodied AI sector—reflecting the high trust premium investors place on Huawei-affiliated entrepreneurs at such an early stage.
In July this year, Moqi Intelligence announced that it had completed a seed funding round totaling over RMB 1 billion (including the RMB 900 million disclosed at the end of last year). Founder Huang Qingqiu joined Huawei’s Intelligent Automotive Solutions Business Group in 2020 through Huawei’s “Genius Youth” program and previously served as head of the end-to-end autonomous driving team. The company focuses on developing multimodal, end-to-end general embodied intelligent robots.
In January 2026, Moub Shen Intelligence completed a RMB tens-of-millions angel round. In March, it secured additional funding in the angel round. In May, it completed a RMB 300 million Pre-A round (invested by Liou Group and Gengxin Capital), and in July, it raised an additional nearly RMB 100 million in the Pre-A round.
Co-founder Chen Tao previously worked at Huawei’s Singapore Central Research Institute, where he led the development of Huawei HiSilicon’s first-generation AI image algorithm engine, “Wukong.” He later served as a professor at Fudan University’s School of Future Information Innovation and director of the Deep Learning Laboratory, conducting long-term research in AI image algorithms, large model compression, and chip adaptation.
Yuan Sheng Intelligence was founded by Yang Sicheng, who serves as CEO and brings dual technical backgrounds from Huawei and Tencent. In April 2026, the company completed a RMB 100 million Pre-A funding round, with investors including Dacheng Capital, Spring Venture Capital, and Yingce Capital. The company focuses on embodied intelligence hardware systems.
Dong Daoguo, COO of New Intelligence Embodiment, was the chief architect of Huawei Honor Magic 1. The company specializes in the development of visuotactile sensors and completed a nearly RMB 100 million seed funding round in May 2026.
ZhiCheng AI was founded by Hu Luhui, who previously served as Chief Architect and CTO of Huawei’s U.S. Research Institute and has held positions at global tech leaders including Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and JD.com. In March 2026, ZhiCheng AI completed its Pre-A funding round, followed by its A round in June. The company is focused on research in large AI models and general-purpose artificial intelligence robots.
Qiwu Technology was founded by Pu Zhongzhu, a former Huawei employee. The company completed its seed round in January 2026 and received an angel investment from Jiqi Chuangtan in May. The amounts for both rounds have not been disclosed. The company is in an extremely early stage, with a currently small fundraising size.
IV. Analysis of Huawei Professional Background and Entrepreneurial Direction
In 2026, over a dozen entrepreneurs from Huawei’s ecosystem received funding, and their backgrounds at Huawei exhibited distinct tiered characteristics:
The first tier consists of core technology executives: Chen Yilun, CEO of Yishi Zhihang (former Chief Scientist of Huawei’s Vehicle Business Unit); Hu Luhui, founder of Zhicheng AI (former Chief Architect and CTO of Huawei’s U.S. Research Institute); and Ren Geng, founder of Kunlunxing Robotics (former President of Huawei). This group held chief-level technology management roles at Huawei, boasting strong backgrounds and significant technical credibility and capital appeal.
The second tier consists of the “Genius Youth” and lab leaders: Zhou Shunbo, founder of Euler Wanxiang (former head of Huawei Cloud’s Physical Intelligence Innovation Lab); Huang Qingqiu, founder of Moqi Intelligence (former head of Huawei’s End-to-End Intelligent Driving team); Li Yinchuan, founder of Nuoyin Intelligence (former Chief AI Researcher at Huawei Noah’s Ark Lab); and Zhu Senhua, founder of Ju Nao Pan Shi (former director of Huawei Cloud’s AI Algorithm Innovation Lab), representing the transition of Huawei’s most cutting-edge embodied intelligence research teams into the startup ecosystem.
The third tier consists of former Huawei technical leaders: such as Chen Tao, co-founder of Moushen Intelligence; Liu Wulong, founder of Beta Infinity; Yang Sicheng, CEO of Yuan Sheng Intelligence; and Pu Zhongzhu, CEO of Qiwu Technology. They have developed strong systems engineering and product engineering capabilities at Huawei.
Overall, their entrepreneurial directions can be categorized into two main types: first, the integration of embodied large models or embodied brains with complete systems, including companies such as Zhishizhihang, Kunlunxing Robotics, Nuoyin Intelligence, Jubao磐石, Zhicheng AI, and Qiwu Technology, some of which are still in the product definition phase; second, robot vision perception integrated with complete systems, such as Moushen Intelligence, Beta Infinity, Omega万象, Yuan Sheng Intelligence, and Xin Zhi Tishen, which either focus on specific technology layers or application scenarios, or emphasize complete system development.
Regardless, in the field of embodied intelligence, a Huawei background is undoubtedly a strong entry point, having opened the doors to capital even before these companies had a product demo—their future development is worth watching.
This article is from the WeChat public account "IT Juzi" (ID: itjuzi521), author: Wu Meimei.