(Yicai) March 25 -- Siemens' China arm has teamed up with the cloud computing unit of Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group Holding to build an industrial artificial intelligence ecosystem, while also exploring potential tie-ups with local humanoid robot makers.

Siemens China and Alibaba Cloud linked arms to advance cloud-based industrial simulation capabilities, the German industrial giant's subsidiary announced at the inaugural Real Meets Digital summit, while also unveiling 26 new locally developed products for the Chinese market.

In addition, Siemens China noted it is actively exploring partnership opportunities with Chinese robotics startups, including Unitree Technology and Galbot, it pointed out.

"Siemens has been an indispensable part of China's industrial ecosystem for a long time," Xiao Song, country chairman, president, and chief executive of the Munich-based firm, said in an interview with Yicai. "In the industrial AI era, only a robust ecosystem can truly unlock AI's boundless potential."

Siemens must deepen cooperation with cloud infrastructure providers such as Alibaba Cloud to organically integrate its global technological advantages with local Chinese innovation, empowering industrial infrastructure and AI applications, Xiao stressed.

The cooperation between Siemens and Alibaba Cloud will integrate the former's simulation product portfolio with the latter's computing power and infrastructure to bring computer-aided engineering capabilities to Chinese customers on an Infrastructure-as-a-Service basis, Xiao said, adding that these could be of interest to android makers like Unitree.

Embodied intelligence still lacks sufficient data across the industry due to being an emerging technology, Xiao pointed out. "Siemens covers a very wide range of industries with its data, which holds significant value for emerging sectors."

Unitree is advancing robot training in various simulated environments, aiming to one day deploy its robots in actual production scenarios, founder, Chairman, and CEO Wang Xingxing said at the summit.

"Training in simulated environments will definitely become a future trend," Wang noted. "Over the next six months, Unitree will focus on improving the richness of robot movements, a key factor determining whether they can be applied in real industrial scenarios."

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev