Physical AI development
Xpeng takes the next step with humanoid robots
The robotics division has secured more than $900 million in a recent investment round. The capital is intended to flow primarily into development, production facilities and commercialisation.
The Chinese electric carmaker Xpeng is pushing ahead with the industrialisation of its humanoid robots. The company’s robotics division has concluded financing agreements worth more than $900 million. Following the financing round, which according to Xpeng was the largest single private capital raising for Physical AI projects in China, the business is valued at more than $6.3 billion.
The round was led by IDG Capital, with Gaorong Ventures as well as Tencent and Alibaba also participating as strategic investors. However, the manufacturer wants to keep control of the division in its own hands.
Where the new money goes will be crucial to Iron's development. Alongside further hardware and software development and the training of AI models, Xpeng plans to build end-to-end manufacturing facilities and prepare the robot for international markets. The investment should help move Iron from the development and demonstration stage towards industrial production.
Series production planned for the end of 2026
Xpeng is sticking to its timetable. Iron is scheduled to enter series production by the end of 2026, initially for use in Xpeng's own stores and facilities. A wider commercial launch, with first deliveries in China and international markets, is planned for 2027. The new funding makes that timetable more credible. But Xpeng will still need to show that it can manufacture humanoid robots reliably and at scale.
In doing so, Xpeng wants to transfer experience and infrastructure from the automotive business to robotics. According to the company, existing expertise in development, supply chain and manufacturing, among other things, is to be used to transfer quality standards from automotive production to humanoid robots. According to its own statements, Xpeng develops core components such as chips, control units, movement modules and robot hands itself.
“Over the past twelve years, Xpeng has consistently devoted itself to the research and development of internal full-stack solutions, thereby creating a solid technological foundation for the era of physical AI."
The company has also recently further developed the Iron once again from a technical standpoint. The current 2.0 generation works with three Turing AI chips developed by Xpeng, which together are said to provide an effective computing performance of up to 2,250 TOPS. This is intended to allow AI models to run directly on the robot and enable more complex tasks without permanent remote control.
Despite the financing round, proof of scalable series production is still pending. So far, Xpeng has not provided any concrete details on planned unit numbers, production capacities or costs per robot. The additional funds do bring the planned start of series production a good deal closer - but whether humanoid robots can then also be manufactured and marketed economically in larger quantities remains to be seen.
