Meituan Doubles Down on Embodied AI With Major Xinghai Tu Investment

Chinese tech conglomerate Meituan has reinforced its position in the embodied intelligence sector by leading a $100 million+ financing round for Xinghai Tu, according to company disclosures. The Series A4/A5 funding was co-led by Meituan Longzhu and Today's Capital, with participation from existing investors Mihoyo and Wuxi Investment Group.

Strategic Financing Approach

Xinghai Tu adopted an unconventional labeling strategy for its 2025 funding rounds, consolidating all investments under the "Series A" designation. Company executives explained this reflects their assessment that the embodied intelligence sector remains in its infrastructure-building phase, requiring flexible capital deployment before reaching mass commercialization.

"This staged financing approach allows us to align resources with evolving market demands," an anonymous company source told Smart Emergence. Industry analysts note this mirrors broader trends in AI hardware development, where extended R&D cycles necessitate adaptable funding structures.

Meituan's Expanding AI Portfolio

The investment represents Meituan's latest move in an aggressive embodied intelligence acquisition strategy. In May 2025, the company led a separate nine-figure investment in Self-Variable Robotics. Its portfolio already includes stakes in Unitree Technology and Galaxy General - positioning Meituan as one of China's most active corporate investors in AI-driven robotics.

Financial disclosures reveal Xinghai Tu has raised ¥1.5 billion total since January 2025, with valuations tripling during this period. Funds will primarily support:

• Enhancement of "full machine + intelligence" self-research capabilities
• Development of Visual-Language-Action (VLA) end-to-end models
• Production scale expansion and modular component development

Technical Leadership & Innovation

The company's research team includes prominent AI and robotics scientists, led by CEO Gao Jiyang, a former Waymo senior engineer specializing in autonomous systems. Their work spans:

• Reinforcement learning algorithms
• Imitation learning frameworks
• Whole-body motion control systems

Xinghai Tu recently unveiled its proprietary EFM-1 architecture, combining visual language models with action models to create closed-loop perception-to-control decision making. The company plans to open-source foundational models to foster developer ecosystem growth.

Market Outlook

With global embodied intelligence investments projected to exceed $8 billion by 2026, analysts highlight growing corporate interest in:

• Smart manufacturing applications
• Service industry automation solutions
• Human-robot collaboration platforms

Key Points:

• Meituan leads $100M+ investment in embodied AI firm Xinghai Tu
• Total 2025 funding reaches ¥1.5B with 3x valuation growth
• Funds target VLA model development and production scaling
• EFM-1 architecture combines vision-language-action capabilities
• Sector remains in infrastructure phase before mass adoption