What kind of sparks will be created when China's best university joins forces with a humanoid robot company that is a favorite of capital?

At the beginning of 2024, the robotics industry ushered in a strong alliance. On January 2, the Peking University News Network released a message that the unveiling ceremony of the "Peking University-Zhiyuan Robotics Joint Laboratory" (hereinafter referred to as the "Joint Laboratory") was held at the Peking University Frontier Computing Research Center.

The unveiling ceremony was hosted by Dong Hao, researcher at the Frontier Computing Research Center and director of the joint laboratory. Yao Weihao, director of the Science and Technology Development Department of Peking University, Zheng Ruqing, deputy director, Zhao Shuru, director of the Intellectual Property Office, Hu Zhenjiang, dean of the School of Computer Science, and Deng Xiaotie, executive director of the Frontier Computing Research Center, and other leaders attended the ceremony. They unveiled the plaque together with Zhiyuan co-founder Peng Zhihui, funding director Wei Yunlong, human resources director Zhang Yanhui, strategic development director Xie Siwei, and technical cooperation director Zhu Xing.

Zhiyuan Robot can be said to be a money-making beast in the robotics industry. Its founder is Peng Zhihui, who has a number of titles such as "Wild Iron Man" and "Huawei Genius Boy". At the end of 2022, Zhihui gave up Huawei's annual salary of one million and began planning his own robotics business.

Since its establishment in February 2023, Zhiyuan Robotics has completed four rounds of financing, with a total amount of billions of RMB, making it the most popular humanoid robot company in China. On August 18, Zhiyuan Robotics' first product was officially unveiled. At the first product launch conference of Zhiyuan Robotics, the Yuanzheng A1 humanoid robot took to the stage alone under the attention of the public.

As of today, Zhiyuan Robotics has received investments from 11 VCs including Baidu, BYD, and Hillhouse Capital. The most recent investment occurred in December 2023, from BlueRun Ventures, China Star Venture Capital, CDH Investments, Changfei Fund, C Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Lijing Innovation, Sanhua Holding Group, Cornerstone Capital, Lingang New Area Fund, and Ginkgo Valley Capital, with a financing amount of over RMB 600 million. The company is actively preparing for a new round of financing.

The development of cutting-edge technology is obviously not enough to rely solely on the power of companies. The success of major technological innovations since the information age is inseparable from the close cooperation between schools and companies. For example, Silicon Valley, a global model of technological innovation and entrepreneurship, has close cooperation between universities such as Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, and companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook to jointly promote technological innovation. This model of combining industry, academia, and research has provided a strong impetus for the prosperity and development of Silicon Valley.

Humanoid robots are emerging products that require a lot of interdisciplinary technologies. Strengthening cooperation with schools and research institutes is the best way to quickly promote product upgrades. As early as June 2023, when Beijing issued the "Beijing Robot Industry Innovation and Development Action Plan (2023-2025)", how to build an industry-education integration base and support enterprises and universities and research institutes to tackle key technologies of humanoid robots was already a key topic.

Peking University is one of the top universities in China located in Beijing. This time, it has jointly established a laboratory with the country's most profitable robot company in the highly-watched field of humanoid robots, which has given the public more expectations for the humanoid robot industry.

Although 2023 is hailed as the "first year of humanoid robots", the commercialization of humanoid robots still requires continuous efforts. Some key core technologies such as micro servo motors still have a lot of room for improvement. I believe that with the support of policies and the cooperation between enterprises and schools, the "first year of commercialization of humanoid robots" will come soon.