Ant Group is stepping up its push to expand investment in humanoid robots.

CNBC reported on July 2 that Ant Group led a 500 million yuan investment round in humanoid robot company Zeroth.

With the investment, Ant Group has made its 12th investment in the humanoid robot sector since early 2025. Targets range from humanoid robot companies such as Galaxia and Unitree to components and software startups including Linkerbot, Hypershell and GenRobot AI. The moves are seen as an effort to secure both finished robots and core enabling technologies.

Zeroth said the pre-Series A fundraising brought its cumulative funding to 1 billion yuan. Monolith, Geely Capital, 37 Interactive Entertainment and Hua Capital also joined the round. Zeroth’s Chinese name is Suzhou JoyIn Intelligent Technology, and it was founded in late 2024.

Ant Group’s robotics push aligns with a recent trend of business diversification over the past few years. Ant Group, the operator of Alipay, launched a healthcare services app and unveiled its own artificial intelligence model after its large initial public offering was halted in 2020. In late 2024, it also set up humanoid robot unit Robbyant and began developing its own robots.

Ant Group also unveiled an AI and robot-friendly version of Alipay’s mobile payment service. Zeroth said it wants to cooperate in this area. It is drawing attention whether efforts to link payment infrastructure with robot services will lead to actual business cooperation.

Zeroth is also laying out a phased commercialization strategy. Founder Renjie Guo (궈런제) said in an interview early this year that it would pursue a staged rollout toward household humanoid robots, starting with companion robots for elderly care and pet care before expanding to robots for children’s education.

Its components and supply-chain strategy is also relatively clear. Guo said the company focused on securing firms with industrial experience such as smartphone chips, and explained it is currently using Horizon Robotics chips in its robots. With humanoid robots still an early-stage market, the plan is seen as building semiconductor and components capabilities first, which will shape mass production and cost structures.

It also presented early business results. Zeroth said it has secured more than 30,000 orders and that operating revenue in the first half of this year jumped 600 percent from a year earlier. It said the figures were the company’s claims.

It also outlined plans to enter overseas markets. Guo said the company plans to start sales in North America and Europe this autumn as soon as it meets local regulatory compliance requirements.

Investment enthusiasm for humanoid robots in China is also growing. Against this backdrop, Nvidia announced on June 30 it is recruiting for robotics-related roles based in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. As Ant Group’s string of investments coincides with expanded hiring by a global semiconductor company, competition in China’s humanoid robot market is expected to intensify further.