Wedoany.com Report on Mar 17th, Recently, the fields of embodied AI and autonomous driving have witnessed several significant advancements. Multiple startups have secured substantial funding, accelerating the commercialization of humanoid robots and autonomous taxis. Elon Musk announced that Tesla's third-generation humanoid robot, Optimus 3, will enter production in the summer of 2026, stating, "We are in the final stages of completing Optimus 3, and it will undoubtedly become the world's most advanced robot, with no product able to match it. In fact, I have never seen any robot demonstration that can rival Optimus 3."
Regarding financing, Zhijian Dongli, founded by a former executive team from Li Auto, has been particularly active. The company is led by CEO Jia Peng, Chairman Wang Kai, and COO Wang Jiajia. Zhijian Dongli recently announced completing five rounds of financing within half a year, totaling 2 billion yuan, with funds allocated for base model training and hardware development. Simultaneously, another embodied AI company, Lingchu Intelligent, announced completing 2 billion yuan in financing, planning to build a large-scale dexterous hand dataset by 2026 to promote the deployment of humanoid robots in logistics scenarios.
In the data infrastructure sector, Guanglun Intelligent, founded by former NVIDIA simulation lead Xie Chen, completed 1 billion yuan in financing. The company focuses on simulation and data engines, with its Q1 2026 revenue expected to surpass the total for the entire year of 2025. On the application side, Jia Yueting stated that robots from his related business have completed a new batch of deliveries in Texas, expanding into scientific research, education, and performance scenarios.
The autonomous driving sector is also bustling with activity. WeRide and Geely's Yuan Cheng have deepened their cooperation, planning to deliver 2,000 Robotaxi GXRs in 2026 for the global market. In overseas markets, Nissan, Uber, and Wayve reached an agreement to launch an autonomous taxi pilot in Tokyo by the end of 2026. These collaborations and financing events collectively demonstrate that embodied AI technology is rapidly moving from laboratory research to large-scale application.
