Alibaba invests $100 billion in startups making humanoid robots

As the race for humanoid robots is intensifying, some big tech companies have started betting on new skilled startups. The latest name in this list is Chinese tech company Alibaba, which has invested $100 million in a startup called X Square Robot. Yang Qian, COO of the Shenzhen-based startup, said this is the company’s 8th funding round. The company entered the market about two years ago. He told CNBC that this latest deal brings the total investment in X Square Robot to about 2 billion yuan ($28 million). Hongshan (formerly Sequoia Capital China) also participated in this funding round along with Meituan, Legend Star, Legend Capital and INCE Capital.

What can humanoid robots do?

Yang said that currently startups are trying to create robots that are capable of doing many tasks on their own. He said that at present AI will be needed to increase the capacity of such machines. Because efforts to create robots have been going on for decades, but at present they have been able to do only some limited work.

X Square Robot also recently released an “open-source foundation model for embodied AI” called Wall-OSS. Open source means that developers and the public can access the internal code for free. Embedded AI technology is mostly used in machines like robots or self-driving. The startup said that it is going to open source the first AI model of its kind in robotics. The startup hopes that the robot butler will become a reality within five years.

Also unveiled a special robot

Apart from open source software, X Square Robot also launched its Quanta X2 robot. Regarding this, the startup said that it can attach a mop head for 360 degree cleaning and it also has hands that can perform movements like humans. On the price front, X Square Robot said that the prices will be decided based on the work of the robots. According to research firm Humanoid Guide, the price of this humanoid robot is $ 80,000.