(Yicai) Nov. 13 -- Despite a cooling in embodied intelligence investment in the primary market, AgiBot, Unitree Robotics, and other leading Chinese robot manufacturers are ramping up industrial investment to drive growth across the industry and its supply chain by backing ecosystem partners.

AgiBot launched its Venture A Program for global early-stage entrepreneurs in August last year, aiming to incubate more than 50 projects in three years. The Shanghai-based company has since invested in more than 20 firms spanning sensors, chips, dexterous hands, biomimetic robots, data collection, and embodied artificial intelligence models.

AgiBot has expanded the program beyond the embodied intelligence supply chain to next-generation AI infrastructure, next-gen models, and the space, life sciences, and other areas. It also unveiled the "Yuansheng Fertile Soil Program," opening up its accumulated hardware platforms, application scenarios, and data capabilities to innovators across the industry.

Unitree recently teamed up with HongShan Capital Group to launch the Shanyu·Create Initiative, which will identify and invest in early-stage ventures in embodied intelligence, robot applications, critical upstream and downstream technologies, and other frontier hard-tech sectors. In addition, its earlier Yuchuang Program aims to incubate more than 200 ecosystem companies as a long-term strategic investment, with likely cooperation worth several billion yuan (hundreds of millions of US dollars) over the next five years.

Galaxea AI, an embodied intelligent robot developer, partnered with existing investor Cathay Capital to launch the Xingtu Program, planning to invest CNY1 billion (USD149.9 million) over the next five years to provide capital, technology, and industry resources to early-stage embodied intelligence startups.

Embodied intelligence remains in its early stages, and leading companies' investments in upstream and downstream players help strengthen supply chains and connect industry resources, while also serving as a strategic move for future competition, multiple industry insiders told Yicai. However, whether such investments can build a lasting competitive edge still depends on whether these industrial partnerships form healthy commercial relationships, they pointed out.

Embodied intelligence is still in its early stages, Cai Bingzhen, head of the High-Tech Robotics Industry Research Institute, said to Yicai, adding that supporting ecosystem partners helps advance the industry and its supply chain.

As the sector matures, ecosystem-building will become an important competitive strategy, according to a person who previously worked at an investment institution. Equity investment can be used to forge ties with dexterous hand makers, data analytics, and other key links, better serving a company's core business, the person pointed out.

A reasonable boundary must be maintained between investment and industrial cooperation, said Wang Han, a partner at Yaolin Capital. As the primary market cools and initial public offering reviews slow, some companies' pre-IPO shares have become cheaper, giving leading firms a price advantage when they invest, while also helping them build industrial partnerships, he stressed.

Some investments may be tied to product procurement commitments, Wang noted. Buying at market prices is a relatively healthy form of cooperation, but if a procurement amount is agreed before the investment, the deal is more likely aimed at using the investment to drive sales, he said.

Whether such investments can build an industry moat ultimately depends on whether a healthy supply-chain relationship can be established, Wang added.

Editor: Martin Kadiev