(Yicai) May 9 -- Huaxiang Electronic said the Chinese auto parts maker plans to set up a humanoid robot production base with AgiBot and a local government-backed investment company. After an initial surge, its shares ended lower.

Huaxiang will join hands with the well-known robotics startup and Xiangshan County Industrial Investment Group to build the base in that county of Zhejiang province, along with an embodied artificial intelligence industry chain, the Ningbo-based firm announced yesterday.

Huaxiang and the investment company will form a joint venture responsible for funding, building, and running the base. AgiBot will contribute technology and products to the JV, which will also conduct data collection, AI model training, research and development for embodied AI, and the purchase of general-purpose robotics from AgiBot.

Founded in February 2023, AgiBot is a Chinese pioneer in humanlike robots. The Shanghai-based company has already unveiled several models, including the Raise A1 and the Lingxi X1 series, with production exceeding 1,000 units.

Huaxiang’s shares [SHE: 002048] closed 0.4 percent lower at CNY16.98 (USD2.40) apiece in Shenzhen, after jumping by as much as 7.9 percent at the open. The stock is up 35 percent since the end of last year.

In addition, Huaxiang will make its auto parts factory and storage facilities available to the JV and AgiBot to enable various robotic usage scenarios. These resources will support product testing, scenario validation, performance optimization, and large-scale robot commercialization.

The partnership will allow Huaxiang to play a significant role in building the embodied AI ecosystem while boosting its core business through advanced automation, it added.

Editor: Emmi Laine