Alibaba personally intervenes, Tongyi Qianwen leads the establishment of a robot AI team
Lin Junyang, the technical leader of Tongyi Qianwen, revealed that Alibaba has established a "Robotics and Embodied AI Group." He stated that multimodal foundational models are being transformed into foundational agents that can utilize tools and memory to perform long-term reasoning through reinforcement learning. These applications "should transition from the virtual world to the real world."
Alibaba Group has established an internal robotics team, officially joining the global race among tech giants to create AI physical products.
On Wednesday, October 8, Lin Junyang, the technical head of Alibaba Tongyi Qianwen, revealed on social media platform X that Alibaba has formed a "Robotics and Embodied AI Group." This marks Alibaba's strategic extension from AI software to hardware applications.
This move comes as global tech giants are increasingly investing in the robotics field. On the same day, Japan's SoftBank Group announced the acquisition of ABB's industrial robotics business, further strengthening its position in the "physical AI" sector.
Alibaba Cloud recently made its first foray into embodied intelligence, leading a $140 million financing round for Chinese robotics startup X Square Robot last month.
Two weeks ago, at the 2025 Yunqi Conference, Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu stated that global AI investment is expected to accelerate to $4 trillion over the next five years, and Alibaba must keep pace. In addition to the previously announced investment of 380 billion yuan in cloud and AI hardware infrastructure over the next three years, Alibaba plans to increase its investment.
Multimodal Foundation Models Transitioning to Basic Intelligent Agents Should Move Towards the Real World
In addition to announcing the establishment of the "Robotics and Embodied AI Group," Lin Junyang also stated in a post on X that "multimodal foundation models are now being transformed into basic intelligent agents, which can utilize tools and memory to perform long-sequence reasoning through reinforcement learning." He emphasized that these applications "should move from the virtual world to the real world."
As the technical head of Tongyi Qianwen, Lin Junyang previously participated in the development of multimodal models capable of processing audio, images, and text inputs.
The establishment of the robotics AI team indicates that Alibaba is extending its advantages in large models and AI technology to physical products like robots, seeking to secure a place in the rapidly growing embodied AI market.
Leading Investment in X Square Robot Accelerates Layout
A month ago, Wall Street Journal mentioned that Alibaba, through Alibaba Cloud, led a $140 million A+ round financing for Shenzhen robotics startup X Square Robot. This investment marks Alibaba Cloud's first foray into the embodied intelligence field.
X Square Robot's Chief Operating Officer Yang Qian revealed at the time that the company has completed eight rounds of financing in less than two years, with a total financing amount reaching approximately $280 million.
X Square Robot adopts a differentiated approach with a software and algorithm-first strategy, releasing an open-source embodied intelligence foundation model named "Wall-OSS" and a robot called Quanta X2 on September 8. The company stated that this robot can connect to a mop head for 360-degree cleaning and is equipped with a mechanical hand capable of sensing subtle pressure changes, making strides towards more human-like functionality The independent variable robot indicates that there are currently no products launched for the mass market, and specific prices will be determined based on the robot's usage scenarios. Research company Humanoid Guide shows that the price of this humanoid robot is $80,000.
The independent variable robot has currently sold products to institutions such as schools, hotels, and nursing homes to generate revenue, and plans to prepare for an IPO next year. The company expects that "robotic butlers" will become a reality within five years, but Yang Qian admits that the AI technology used for robots still lags behind fields such as chatbots or code generation.
Global Giants Compete in the Robotics Arena
Alibaba's robotics layout comes as global tech giants increase their investments in this area. Venture capital is pouring into the humanoid robot sector, with the market widely expecting that the combination of generative AI and robots will fundamentally change human-machine interaction. Alibaba's entry will add new variables to this fiercely competitive field.
At the company's annual shareholder meeting in June this year, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated that AI and robotics are NVIDIA's two major technological opportunities, which will bring the company "trillions of dollars" in long-term growth opportunities.
Huang mentioned that autonomous vehicles will become the first major commercial application of robotic technology, and NVIDIA's goal is that billions of robots, hundreds of millions of autonomous vehicles, and hundreds of thousands of robotic factories will all be powered by NVIDIA technology.
SoftBank Group announced on Wednesday that it will acquire the robotics business of Swiss industrial giant ABB for $5.4 billion in cash, marking a significant strategic move for SoftBank in the "physical AI" field.
SoftBank Chairman Masayoshi Son stated that this move aims to integrate "artificial superintelligence with robotic technology" to create SoftBank's "next frontier." ABB's robotics division is expected to generate $2.3 billion in revenue in 2024 and has approximately 7,000 employees worldwide.
Citi expects that by 2050, the global robotics market will reach $7 trillion, and the enormous market potential has attracted a large influx of capital, including government-backed funds
