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Astribot (星尘智能) announced on Oct 13 the completion of a roughly RMB 1B (~USD 140M) round at a RMB 15B (~USD 2.1B) post-money valuation, led by Shenzhen state-backed Toukong Donghai, with Hongtai Fund, Guanghua Sunshine's Ninghai vehicle and Shanheng Capital participating and existing shareholder Xianmu following on. It is the company's fourth round since March 2026 and lifts its valuation from ~RMB 10B three months ago. The Shenzhen startup — founded in 2022 by ex-Tencent Robotics X staff — builds cable-driven wheeled dual-arm robots on a "Lumo foundation model + Astribot OS + cable-drive body" stack; its T1 humanoid starts at RMB 89,900. Share reform is complete, and the company is viewed locally as an IPO candidate.
Why it matters: Shenzhen state capital leading signals local-government backing for a distinct technical route (cable drive vs. harmonic reducers). The pace — four rounds in six months, +50% valuation in three — shows embodied-AI capital still concentrating at the head of the market.
Sources: chinaventure.com.cn i.gasgoo.com
Xinjian Transmission, a planetary roller screw maker widely seen as a Tesla Optimus tier-1 supplier, stated in its ChiNext IPO inquiry response published the evening of Oct 12 that Tesla's humanoid hardware design is "basically frozen" and entering the mass-production cycle, that its lead customer ("Company A") has placed volume orders for humanoid screw products that scale with ramp-up, and that heavy-load linear actuators will rely on planetary roller screws for the foreseeable future. The filing discloses embodied-robot screw/actuator revenue of RMB 6.97M (2024), RMB 31.1M (2025) and RMB 16.2M (H1 2026), and repeats Tesla targets: Fremont's converted Model S/X line for V3 production with 1M/yr long-term capacity, and a Texas plant planned from 2027 for 10M/yr.
Why it matters: IPO inquiry responses carry legal liability, making this the hardest evidence yet that Optimus V3 is past design freeze and that suppliers hold real volume orders. It also puts audited-style revenue numbers on the Tesla supply chain for the first time.
Sources: cj.sina.cn news.mydrivers.com
Tags: tesla supply-chain us confirmed
Zhejiang Sankai Mechatronics, a precision planetary and harmonic reducer maker founded in 2007, announced a Series B of "several hundred million RMB" (~USD 30M+) co-led by the Industrial Mother Machine Industry Investment Fund and Wuchan Zhongda Investment, with Caitong Capital and others following, per 36Kr and PE Daily on Oct 13. Funds go to humanoid joint reducer and integrated drive R&D plus capacity. Sankai supplies reducers into the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center's chain — its joints powered the Tiangong robots that won 45 medals at the Aug 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games — and broke ground earlier in 2026 on a second plant for 1M precision reducers per year.
Why it matters: State industrial funds are now writing checks directly into reducer capacity — the component layer Beijing treats as choke-point. Sankai's design wins with Tiangong give it a reference position as humanoid volumes scale.
Sources: 36kr.com news.pedaily.cn
Inovance, China's largest industrial-automation supplier, publicly demonstrated its first full humanoid robot at the 26th China International Industry Fair in Shanghai on Oct 12, per Economic Observer and Shanghai Securities News. The robot uses a wheeled mobile base with a 7-axis bionic arm, high-precision force control, full-body liquid cooling, IP54 protection and hot-swappable batteries. In an automotive welding demonstration cell it worked with a vision system and an arc-welding robot to autonomously load/unload and reset workpieces. The debut follows Inovance's Sept 2025 move into humanoid core components and the creation of a dedicated intelligent-robot business unit.
Why it matters: China's top motion-control incumbent crossing from components into a full robot signals the industrial-automation establishment now sees humanoids as a product line, not a sideshow — with automotive welding as the entry scene.
Sources: eeo.com.cn k.sina.com.cn
German police are investigating two suspects, aged 16 and 19, after a remotely operated robot was allegedly used to sexually harass a 16-year-old girl in Cologne, touching her on the buttocks while she was out with friends, according to police statements reported Oct 12–13 by the Straits Times, CTV News and others. The roughly 1.2m robot was seized by police. Authorities are treating the teleoperator's actions as the subject of the assault investigation — a novel legal framing in Germany.
Why it matters: A first-of-its-kind case establishing that teleoperators, not machines, carry liability for a robot's physical actions. As teleoperation becomes a standard data-collection and deployment mode for humanoids, expect operator-identity and conduct rules to follow.
Sources: straitstimes.com ctvnews.ca
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