The Race for the First Embodied AI Public Listing Sparks New Capital Strategies

On the evening of July 8, the STAR Market company Shangwei New Materials announced that entities related to Zhiyuan Robotics plan to acquire a 66.99% stake in the company. Upon completion of the transaction, the actual controlling person will change to Deng Taihua, Chairman and CEO of Zhiyuan. This move was quickly interpreted by the market as Zhiyuan potentially planning a backdoor listing to compete for the title of the “first embodied AI stock,” which drove Shangwei New Materials’ share price to hit the 20% daily limit on July 9. However, Zhiyuan clarified on the evening of July 9, explicitly stating that there are no plans within the next 12 months to change Shangwei New Materials’ main business or carry out any major restructuring.

Zhiyuan Robotics, co-founded in February 2023 by former Huawei “prodigy” Zhi Huijun (Peng Zhihui), has emerged in recent years as one of the standout companies riding the wave of embodied intelligence. In August 2024, Zhiyuan launched two major product families, “YuanZheng” and “LingXi,” with a total of five commercial models. In January this year, Zhiyuan announced the mass production rollout of its 1,000th general-purpose embodied robot, and company executives revealed plans for 2025 to sell approximately 4,500 units of the YuanZheng A2 and around 2,000 units of the LingXi series, signaling a promising revenue outlook.

Notably, in April this year, Zhiyuan completed a corporate registration change, updating its legal representative from Shu Yuanchun to Deng Taihua, who simultaneously serves as Chairman and CEO of Zhiyuan Robotics. Public records show that Zhi Huijun and Deng Taihua were not only superior and subordinate at Huawei but also alumni of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.With breakthroughs in large AI model technologies, humanoid robots—as key carriers of embodied intelligence—are experiencing a global surge in R&D and industrialization, seen as the next trillion-dollar market. While the sudden announcement from Shangwei New Materials revealed Zhiyuan’s “unconventional approach,” another star player in the embodied intelligence field, Unitree Technology, is rapidly advancing its IPO on the STAR Market. The two post-90s leaders—Wang Xingxing of Unitree and Zhi Huijun of Zhiyuan—may be vying for the title of the “first embodied AI stock,” reflecting the dual-track competition of hard-tech unicorns between technological deployment and capital innovation.

The soaring enthusiasm of capital for the embodied intelligence sector is vividly reflected in Zhiyuan’s financing journey. To date, Zhiyuan has completed no fewer than nine rounds of financing. In its early stages, the company secured angel investments from Hillhouse Ventures and Qiji Chuangtan. Its Series A investors included Sequoia China, M31 Capital, SAIC Ventures, BYD, iSoftStone, Zhongke Chuangxing, and CDH Investments, among others.Prior to the recent acquisition announcement, Zhiyuan’s most recent two financing rounds were as follows: in March of this year, Tencent led the round, with follow-on investments from multiple industrial players and existing shareholders, including Longqi Technology, Wolong Electric, Huafa Group, and BlueRun Ventures; in May, JD.com and the Shanghai Embodied Intelligence Fund participated in a new round of financing, with existing shareholders such as SAIC increasing their stakes.Zhiyuan’s acquisition plan for Shangwei New Materials is remarkably strategic and well-timed with policy windows.

The acquisition is structured in two steps: first, through an agreement transfer, Zhiyuan will acquire 29.99% of shares at 7.78 yuan per share—precisely below the threshold that would trigger a mandatory tender offer—costing 941 million yuan; next, it will initiate a partial tender offer to acquire an additional 37%, expected to cost another 1.159 billion yuan. A key point in the transaction terms is that the remaining shareholders of the listed company waive their voting rights, allowing Zhiyuan to gain absolute control of the company with a total investment of approximately 2.1 billion yuan.

Although Zhiyuan denied that this acquisition was a backdoor listing, on July 10, Shangwei New Materials’ stock price again hit the 20% daily limit at market open. This previously obscure company, founded in 1992, primarily operates in fields such as environmentally friendly high-performance corrosion-resistant materials, wind turbine blade materials, new composite materials, and circular economy materials, with almost no connection to robotics.Before the acquisition announcement, the company’s market capitalization was approximately 3 billion yuan; its latest market value has already surpassed 4.5 billion yuan. Meanwhile, Zhiyuan’s valuation in the primary market is estimated at 10–15 billion yuan, which undoubtedly provides support for Shangwei New Materials to further unlock valuation potential after already hitting two consecutive daily limit-ups.Market analysts suggest that after the acquisition is completed, Zhiyuan may first cultivate its robotics business within the listed company’s framework, and inject core assets when the timing is right (e.g., 36 months later).

This approach both avoids strict backdoor listing approval processes and strategically leverages the policy window created by new capital market regulations. Following the release of the new “Nine National Measures” last September, which explicitly supported emerging productive enterprises in acquiring capital through M&A, the revised “Administrative Measures for Major Asset Restructuring of Listed Companies” issued in May further optimized review efficiency, simplified disclosure requirements, and lowered restructuring thresholds. These policies essentially encourage companies aligned with national strategic priorities to use M&A to gain a listed platform and accelerate expansion.

Currently, the embodied intelligence sector is experiencing an astonishing surge of capital, rapidly accelerating industrialization. From July 7 to 8 alone, industry financing news exploded: on the morning of July 7, Xingdong Era announced nearly 500 million yuan in Series A financing, co-led by CDH VGC and Haier Capital, with over 200 units delivered this year and more than 50% of orders coming from overseas. That afternoon, Yunshenchu disclosed a new financing round worth hundreds of millions of yuan. On the morning of July 8, Xiaoyu Zhizao announced an A+ round financing of hundreds of millions of yuan. Later that afternoon, ItStone Zhihang completed a $122 million angel+ round led by Meituan, setting a record for angel round financing in China’s embodied intelligence sector.

Clearly, embodied intelligence, which is currently at the critical uphill stage of transitioning from the laboratory to large-scale commercial deployment, requires massive and sustained capital investment. Zhiyuan’s rapid move, following favorable policies such as the “Nine National Measures” and the “Six M&A Measures,” could become a landmark case of industrial capital operation encouraged by policy, while also opening new avenues for high-growth tech companies to access capital markets.At the same time, Zhiyuan’s innovative capital approach not only provides more exit opportunities for the primary market but also offers a second growth curve for some listed companies struggling with transformation.

Under the trend of supporting emerging productive forces, the competition for embodied intelligence concepts in the capital market has intensified. Although the original shareholders of Shangwei New Materials have lost control of the listed company, they can leverage this opportunity to accelerate the company’s transformation and rebirth.However, despite Zhiyuan’s “blitzkrieg” approach rewriting the rules of capitalization for embodied intelligence enterprises, commercialization remains a shared bottleneck in the industry. Whether it is Yushu’s shipment of 100,000 consumer-grade robots or Zhiyuan’s milestone of 1,000 mass-produced units, the profitability puzzle remains unsolved. Beyond capitalization, the greater challenge still lies ahead.