Image source: Internet
Alibaba Group has deepened its foray into the emerging field of embodied intelligence, leading a new funding round for Beijing-based startup Noematrix, which aims to create next-generation “robot brains” capable of autonomous perception, reasoning, and task execution.
The financing round, which included participation from several existing investors, marks the startup’s sixth round since its founding two years ago and pushes its total funding past 1 billion RMB ($137 million). Proceeds will be used to advance large embodied intelligence models, deploy them in real-world scenarios, and expand the ecosystem.
This latest move reflects Alibaba’s broader strategy to integrate artificial intelligence with physical systems. Over the past two years, the tech giant, alongside Alibaba Cloud and Ant Group, has invested in companies including UDEER.AI, LimX Dynamics, CoreNetic, Robotera, and X Square Robot, while also building internal R&D teams focused on the field. Ant Group’s wheeled bionic robot R1 has already debuted, and Alibaba Cloud is pushing the integration of large AI models with robotics platforms.
Industry insiders view Alibaba’s Noematrix investment as part of a systematic plan to develop an “embodied intelligence brain”, a step beyond conventional large language models toward physical intelligence that is actionable, interpretable, and capable of real-time feedback.
Noematrix was founded in late 2023 by Dr. Wang Shiquan, founder of Flexiv, Professor Lu Cewei of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and other robotics and AI experts. The team is among the few in China with experience in both robotics hardware and large-scale AI models.
Dr. Wang, a graduate of Zhejiang University and Stanford University, previously led Flexiv, a robotics firm applying force control and hierarchical intelligence to industrial, food processing, and medical scenarios. Professor Lu, a leading researcher in embodied intelligence, has published extensively in top international journals and led the development of the AnyGrasp grasping algorithm and Qionggu Embodied Intelligence Brain product, both of which have reached internationally advanced technical benchmarks and achieved commercialization.
The flagship product, Noematrix Brain 2.0, represents a departure from traditional trajectory-based robot control. It combines multimodal large models with force feedback data, forming a closed-loop system spanning data collection, pre-training, and deployment optimization. Its key innovations include a robot-independent data collection solution, a universal end-to-end modeling framework, and a large-scale human-robot collaboration deployment system, supporting diverse real-world applications.
At the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Noematrix Brain 2.0 demonstrated its capabilities in multiple scenarios. In a “Robot Skewer Station”, the system dynamically handled irregular food items, adjusting piercing force automatically. In home cleaning and organization, multiple robots collaborated in open environments, performing tasks from laundry to item sorting. In a handmade ice cream shop, a single robot executed complex, continuous operations independently, highlighting sophisticated task planning and manipulation skills.
Globally, startups in embodied intelligence typically focus on either large AI models, robot hardware, or both. Noematrix is among the relatively rare Chinese teams concentrating on large embodied intelligence models, akin to U.S. companies like Physical Intelligence, Skild AI, and Genesis AI, which have drawn significant investment. According to industry data, global financing for embodied intelligence has exceeded $4.2 billion since early 2024, up nearly 150% year-on-year, signaling strong market momentum.
Noematrix has already partnered with leading home appliance and retail firms, including Haier, co-developing home service robots for “unmanned housework.” The company aims to scale its data-model closed-loop advantage to broader applications, spanning homes, industry, logistics, and healthcare, establishing a new paradigm for embodied intelligent agents.
Analysts note that if the last decade was dominated by large AI models reshaping digital spaces, the coming decade will center on embodied intelligence transforming the physical world. Alibaba’s investment in Noematrix marks both a strategic bet on this new generation of intelligent architecture and the entrance of China’s tech giants into the “AI embodiment” era.
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