Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has co-led a $140 million (1 billion yuan) Series A+ funding round in X Square Robot, a Shenzhen-based robotics startup founded in 2023. The investment round was co-led by Alibaba Cloud and CAS Investment Management Co., with additional backing from HSG, Meituan, and Legend Star.

This move comes as Alibaba intensifies its $53 billion commitment to AI infrastructure over the next three years, underscoring its ambition to cement leadership in artificial intelligence and robotics. With Beijing prioritizing robotics as a national growth driver, the sector is attracting state-backed capital and growing global interest.

Unlike competitors such as Unitree Robotics, X Square Robot focuses on developing advanced algorithms rather than hardware. CEO Wang Qian highlighted this software-first approach as a differentiator. Recently, the startup unveiled Wall-OSS, its open-source foundation model designed to compete with OpenAI-backed Physical Intelligence, which is working on embedding intelligence into diverse machines.

X Square currently markets two wheeled robots and a robotic arm, diverging from humanoid prototypes many Chinese firms are showcasing. Analysts, including Citigroup, forecast the global robotics market to reach $7 trillion by 2050, positioning X Square and Alibaba at the forefront of this transformation.