As the race for household robots heats up, Chinese humanoid startup X Square Robot announced Monday it had secured around $100 million in a funding round led by Alibaba Cloud. It’s the Shenzhen-based startup’s eighth round of financing since the company launched less than two years ago in December 2023, according to Chief Operating Officer Yang Qian. She told CNBC the latest deal brings total investment in X Square Robot to around 2 billion yuan ($280 million). HongShan, formerly Sequoia Capital China, also participated in the latest funding round, along with Meituan , Legend Star, Legend Capital and INCE Capital. The startup declined to comment on its valuation. Venture capitalists have rushed to pour money into humanoid robots on expectations that their integration with generative artificial intelligence will transform how machines interact with human beings. “Right now we need robots to operate and complete complex tasks autonomously,” Yang said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC. She pointed out that after decades of trying to develop robots that have largely been able to perform limited tasks such as grasping objects, the industry has realized that AI is required to enable these machines to expand their capabilities.

Full report : Chinese humanoid startup X Square Robot announced Monday it has secured around $100 million in a funding round led by Alibaba Cloud.