"Spring Festival Gala robots" intensively raising funds
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China's embodied intelligence sector is experiencing an unprecedented capital frenzy.
On March 2nd, embodied intelligence company Galaxy General completed a new round of financing of 2.5 billion yuan, with investors including National Big Fund Phase III, Sinopec, CITIC Group Investment Holdings, among others. This marks the first time the National Big Fund has invested in an embodied intelligence enterprise.
On the same day, another robot company, Songyan Power—which participated in the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala—announced the completion of nearly 1 billion yuan in cumulative Series B financing. So far, Songyan Power has completed nine rounds of financing and has undergone equity restructuring.
These latest rounds of financing occurred after four domestic robot companies formed a group appearance at the Year of the Horse Spring Festival Gala. Analysts note that the Spring Festival Gala effect has significantly boosted public awareness and expectations for the application of robot technology, which may drive an investment frenzy in related supply chain stocks in the short term and accelerate capital concentration in the primary market toward a few leading companies with mass production potential.
However, behind the influx of capital, the industry is facing a severe test of commercial delivery. With 2026 regarded as the "IPO inaugural year" for embodied intelligence, startups must, facing intense external capacity expansion pressures from companies like Tesla and their own high R&D costs, seize funds within a limited window and prove their deployment capabilities on real production lines to investors.
Capital Accelerates Toward Leading Companies
Currently, financing in the embodied intelligence track shows a pronounced head-focused trend.
Galaxy General's latest 2.5 billion yuan financing comes only two months after its previous round of over $300 million. After this round, Galaxy General remains the financing leader in China's embodied intelligence sector, with valuation exceeding $3 billion, continuing to lead among unlisted companies. Meanwhile, the valuation of Unitree Robotics has reached 12 billion yuan, Magic Atom and Songyan Power are valued at 3.5 billion yuan and over 2 billion yuan respectively.
During this capital boom, large-scale industrial capital has provided critical commercialization scenarios for enterprises. Investments from Sinopec, CITIC Group, SAIC Motor, and other state-owned and industrial groups not only provide financial barriers but also clear order expectations for applications in smart energy, intelligent manufacturing, and smart retail. Additionally, Variable Robot completed a 1 billion yuan A++ round at the beginning of the year, gathering internet giants like ByteDance, Meituan, and Alibaba Cloud.
The industry is experiencing a valuation adjustment period triggered by overconsensus. Market analysis suggests that funds are flowing ever more toward a handful of leading companies, while those at the base unable to achieve commercial delivery face the risk of being excluded.
Sprint for Mass Production & Intensive IPO Planning
Beyond intensive primary market financing, seeking IPOs has become the core strategy for robot companies fighting the financial consumption war in 2026.
On January 23rd this year, Xinghaitu and Zhongqing Robot both announced equity restructuring on the same day, indicating clear pre-IPO signals. Additionally, Magic Atom is accelerating its IPO process, while industry leader Unitree Robotics officially began its IPO in July 2025.
The underlying logic driving this IPO frenzy is the high industrial cycle costs and external competition pressure. The industry is transitioning from validation to a scaling stage in 2026, with heavy asset expansion requiring massive funds for supply chain and production line support. Meanwhile, Musk's Tesla Optimus plans to launch a million-unit production line by the end of 2026, driving costs extremely low. If domestic startups don't stockpile ammunition through IPOs at this juncture, they may not survive the upcoming price and cost war.
Shipments Expected to Rise, Short-Term Supply Chain Under Pressure
Regarding the market attention sparked by Spring Festival Gala robots, Goldman Sachs released a research report forecasting global humanoid robot shipments at 51,000 in 2026, and 76,000 in 2027—a several-fold increase from the 15,000-20,000 units expected in 2025. This growth will mainly be driven by specific commercial deployments, such as security patrols and customer service in public places.
Goldman Sachs analyst Jacqueline Du noted that the performance of companies like Unitree Robotics, Noterly, Magic Lab, and Galaxy General demonstrates rapid improvement in actuator technology, sensor integration, and advanced control algorithms in Chinese robots. In the short term, related supply chain stocks may benefit.
However, Goldman Sachs also warns investors about short-term fundamental pressures. Due to heavy dependence on China's electric vehicle market, robot industry chain stocks may face performance challenges in the first quarter of 2026. In addition, rising costs of raw materials such as copper, silver, gold, and storage chips also pose potential risks to profit margin trends in the near term.
Business Closed Loop Depends on Real Factory Entry & Foundational AI
Despite hardware capabilities being showcased, the real industry test is about actual operational ability outside controlled environments. Demonstration applications like those at the Spring Festival Gala usually involve presetting and rehearsals, while real applications require robots to enter core business processes and meet industrial standards in stability, yield, and failure rate.
Currently, the industry is striving to move from “demonstration” to “real work.” For example, Galaxy General’s industrial heavy-load robot Galbot S1 has achieved fully autonomous operation in complex industrial scenarios at CATL’s battery factory and has been integrated into the official production rhythm system. Moreover, on the consumer side, its “Galaxy Space Capsule” convenience stores and intelligent pharmacies have reached large-scale implementation.
In terms of technical paths, Goldman Sachs emphasized that industry breakthroughs in the long run depend on the development speed of AI "world models," which will determine the potential upward space for the 1.38 million-unit benchmark forecast in 2035. Galaxy General founder Wang Heshan, mentored by Professor Leonidas J. Guibas, is leading the launch of the world's first end-to-end large model AstraBrain integrating "brain-cerebellum-neural control," aiming to solve high-precision physical simulation and generalized grasping challenges using datasets of tens of billions of synthetic samples.
As capital logic shifts from blueprint storytelling to pragmatism, the core of embodied intelligence track competition has moved from financing scale to delivery capability. Whether companies can be the first to achieve a leap from “burning cash” to “self-generating,” will decide their ultimate fate during the industry reshuffle period.
Risk Warning and DisclaimerThe market carries risks, investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account individual users' specific investment objectives, financial situation, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions in this article suit their particular situation. Investing based on this, responsibility rests with oneself. ```