As price competition continues in China’s EV market, XPeng announced funding for its pre-mass-production humanoid robotics business alongside its earnings release. Attention is focused on moves valuing the company at around ¥1 trillion as it promotes a new revenue model combining vehicle sales with recurring fees for AI models.
Alongside its earnings release, XPeng announced the initial funding round for its pre-mass-production humanoid robotics business. In addition to hardware sales, the robotics business is being developed around a revenue model that incorporates recurring fees for AI models.
Co-founder, Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng said that developing general-purpose humanoid robots is more difficult than developing EVs, but outlined a plan to apply to the robotics business assets developed through the automotive business, including chips, AI models, the supply chain and mass-production quality.
At the earnings briefing, management and analysts engaged in a back-and-forth discussion of the current state of the EV business and the future potential of the robotics business, considering both where EVs stand today and the robotics business’s potential for growth.