Xpeng’s Robotics Arm Raises More Than $900 Million at a $6.3 Billion Valuation
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Chinese EV maker Xpeng has put fresh capital behind its robotics business through a separate funding round of its own. The company, listed in New York and Hong Kong, said it has signed share purchase agreements with several investors and raised more than 900 million US dollars. The post-money valuation stands at more than 6.3 billion dollars, according to the company. Xpeng describes the deal as the largest single private round to date in China’s embodied AI sector, meaning AI systems that operate through a physical body.
IDG Capital led the round, with Gaorong Ventures also taking part. Tencent and Alibaba came in as strategic investors. Once the deal closes, Xpeng keeps a controlling stake in the robotics business, which will continue to be consolidated into the group’s financial statements. The round puts a market price on the robotics unit for the first time while leaving it inside the parent company.
Money for Mass Production and Model Training
The capital is earmarked primarily for hardware and software development, along with the training and iteration of the company’s in-house physical AI models, the generation of high-quality training data, the build-out of manufacturing facilities and international expansion. Xpeng also cites long-term equity programs meant to retain senior executives and key staff, a point that carries weight in a market where robotics and AI talent is fiercely contested.
At the center of it all sits IRON, the humanoid robot Xpeng unveiled in a new generation recently. According to the announcement, the machine has 76 degrees of freedom across the body and 21 in each hand, wrapped in a fully enclosed flexible lattice structure. Three proprietary Turing AI chips deliver what the company says is up to 2,250 TOPS of effective computing power. That allows the foundation model to run directly on the robot, so complex tasks can reportedly be carried out without remote operation. Xpeng says it develops the chips, controllers, motion modules and dexterous hands itself, applying automotive manufacturing standards to robotics.
The timeline is ambitious. Mass production is set to begin by the end of the year, starting with deployments in Xpeng’s own stores and on company campuses. An official market launch with deliveries in China and abroad is planned for 2027.
Investors See a Shift Toward Scale
IDG Capital argues in the announcement that the industry is at a turning point, moving from technical breakthroughs to manufacturing at scale and commercial deployment, and that Xpeng covers the full chain from edge chips to foundation models to complete robotic systems. Gaorong Ventures points to synergies with the carmaking business and to the data loop running from production through model training to deployment. Chief executive He Xiaopeng said the backing gives the company resources to grow faster and to recruit further specialists, with the goal of making IRON “a trusted partner for people and a meaningful part of everyday work and life.”
Xpeng has yet to disclose hard figures on revenue, unit costs or named customers. The question of how autonomously IRON performs outside controlled demonstrations also remains independently unverified.
Capital Keeps Flowing Into Humanoids
The round joins a string of large financings across the robotics sector. German unicorn Neura Robotics recently secured 1.4 billion dollars from Tether, Nvidia and Amazon, while US firm Apptronik raised 520 million dollars at a valuation of around five billion. Public markets show the same appetite: Chinese manufacturer Unitree jumped more than 500 percent in its IPO. Whether real sales volumes can support these valuations will become clear once the first mass-produced units reach customers.
