--- title: "Ant Group Pushes Into Robots, Betting Fintech's Future Is Physical" description: "Ant Group, the Alibaba-affiliated Chinese fintech giant behind Alipay, has quietly become one of robotics' most active backers — investing in about a dozen robot companies since early 2025 and building its own humanoid, the R1. The push shows how China's tech giants are racing to turn AI from software into physical machines." category: "Companies" category_url: https://boursel.com/category/companies author: "Kenji Nakamura" published: 2026-07-02T01:44:00.000Z updated: 2026-07-02T01:44:00.000Z canonical: https://boursel.com/article/ant-group-pushes-into-humanoid-robots-betting-fintech-s-future-is-physical tags: ["ant-group", "robots", "china", "ai", "alibaba"] --- # Ant Group Pushes Into Robots, Betting Fintech's Future Is Physical Ant Group, the Alibaba-affiliated Chinese fintech giant behind Alipay, has quietly become one of robotics' most active backers — investing in about a dozen robot companies since early 2025 and building its own humanoid, the R1. The push shows how China's tech giants are racing to turn AI from software into physical machines. A company best known for letting hundreds of millions of people pay for lunch with their phones is now building robots — and backing many others. **Ant Group**, the Alibaba-affiliated fintech giant that runs China's **Alipay** payments network, has become one of the most active investors in China's robotics boom. Its latest move — leading a **500 million yuan (about $74 million)** funding round in the startup **Zeroth** — was its **12th** investment in the sector since the start of 2025, [CNBC reported](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/01/alibaba-affiliate-ant-group-enters-the-humanoid-robot-market-with-12-deals.html). ## A dozen bets, plus its own robot Ant's robotics portfolio spans the industry: humanoid-robot makers such as **Galaxea** and **Unitree**, alongside parts and software startups including **Linkerbot**, **Hypershell** and **Genrobot AI**, [per CNBC](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/01/alibaba-affiliate-ant-group-enters-the-humanoid-robot-market-with-12-deals.html). Zeroth, its newest bet, says it has taken more than **30,000 orders** and that operating revenue jumped about **600%** year over year in the first half of 2026 — though, as with any young startup's self-reported figures, those numbers are the company's own. Ant isn't only writing checks. In late 2024 it set up a robotics subsidiary, **RobbyAnt** (Ant Lingbo Technology), which has developed its own humanoid, the **R1** — a machine weighing about 110 kilograms, standing 1.6 to 1.75 meters tall, now in **mass production** and shipped to customers including the Shanghai History Museum, [the South China Morning Post reported](https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3325222/unit-chinas-ant-group-unveils-first-humanoid-robot-entering-segment-led-unitree). (A **humanoid robot** is one built in roughly human shape — a torso, arms and often legs — so it can operate in spaces and with tools designed for people.) ## Why a payments company wants robots At first glance, a fintech firm building robots looks like a stretch. Ant's logic is that **AI's next frontier is physical**: after transforming software and services, the same machine-learning advances are now being poured into machines that can move, grasp and work in the real world — what the industry calls **"embodied AI."** For a company already embedded in payments, lending and daily services, robots are a way to extend those services from screens into the physical world — and a new market to finance and supply. The strategy echoes Alibaba's own history of expanding from e-commerce into logistics, cloud computing and media. It also fits a pattern among China's tech giants, which increasingly treat robotics as a core AI battleground rather than a side project. ## Part of a national race Ant's spending is one strand of a much larger, state-encouraged push. China has made robots and automation a **strategic priority**, framing them as central to competing with the United States in AI — and channeling government support and private capital into the field. Analysts see a large market taking shape over the coming decade as aging populations and labor shortages create demand for machines that can do physical work, though today's humanoid-robot industry is still small and largely pre-profit. ## Why it matters For **investors and companies**, Ant's blitz is a signal of how fast the money behind AI is shifting from pure software toward **hardware and robotics**, and of how aggressively Chinese capital is moving into the space. For the **global tech contest**, it underlines that the race to build practical humanoid robots is now a genuine **US–China rivalry**, with Chinese firms backed by scale, manufacturing and state support. Boursel offers no view on any company or stock; the takeaway is that one of China's biggest fintech names has decided the future of AI won't just live in an app — it will **walk around** — and is spending accordingly. ## Sources - [Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group enters the humanoid robot market with 12 deals](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/01/alibaba-affiliate-ant-group-enters-the-humanoid-robot-market-with-12-deals.html) - [Unit of China's Ant Group unveils first humanoid robot, entering segment led by Unitree](https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3325222/unit-chinas-ant-group-unveils-first-humanoid-robot-entering-segment-led-unitree)