Huawei & Tencent Forge Industry-Changing Alliances in AI Robotics

Major Collaborations Shake Up the Intelligent Robotics Landscape

Two groundbreaking partnerships have just been announced in the technology sector, potentially revolutionizing the intelligent robotics industry. Huawei has officially partnered with UBTECH Robotics, China's leading humanoid robot company, while Tencent Cloud has joined forces with DOBOT, a premier collaborative robot manufacturer. These simultaneous announcements from industry titans are igniting innovation engines across the intelligent robotics sector, with implications spanning from research and development to practical applications in industrial manufacturing and home services.

Huawei Partners with UBTECH Robotics

On May 12, Huawei and UBTECH Robotics formally signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement. The partnership will focus on embodied intelligence and humanoid robotics, collaborating on product technology development, scenario applications, and industrial ecosystem advancement.

According to sources, the collaboration will leverage Huawei's Ascend and Kunpeng computing platforms, cloud services, and large model capabilities, combined with its extensive R&D and supply chain experience. These assets will complement UBTECH's full-stack humanoid robot technology to accelerate the transition of humanoid robots from laboratory innovations to practical applications in industrial and domestic settings.

Huawei will utilize its comprehensive AI infrastructure to support UBTECH in establishing an embodied intelligence innovation center. Based on specific use cases, they will jointly develop "humanoid robots + smart factory" demonstration solutions and develop home service humanoid robots, including both bipedal and wheeled designs.

Notably, Huawei had already established a foothold in the embodied intelligence sector. Last November, the Huawei (Shenzhen) Global Embodied Intelligence Industry Innovation Center officially began operations. Concurrently, Huawei signed memorandums of cooperation with 16 companies across the upstream, midstream, and downstream segments of the industry chain, including LeoRobotics, Zhaowei Electromechanical, Moyin Technology, Topstar, and Zero Variables Robotics.

Days ago, Huawei's Hubble invested in Qianxun Intelligence, a leading domestic embodied intelligence company founded by the former co-founder and CTO of Rokae Robotics. Qianxun Intelligence is dedicated to creating world-leading general-purpose embodied intelligence models to advance robotics technology and applications.

UBTECH has also been making significant moves recently. The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, initiated and managed by UBTECH, developed the Tiangong Ultra, which won the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon championship.

UBTECH plans to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary called Walker Tiangong Robotics in Beijing's Yizhuang area, responsible for the commercialization and global sales of its Walker series, Tiangong series, and Tiangong Walker humanoid robots.

In terms of technological applications, UBTECH has achieved remarkable results in industrial scenarios. On April 27, UBTECH disclosed that its embodied intelligence humanoid robot training projects with well-known automobile manufacturers including Geely Auto, FAW-Volkswagen Qingdao, and BYD had achieved substantial breakthroughs, successfully resolving technical challenges related to algorithm stability and software systems for humanoid robots in industrial settings.

This year, UBTECH is advancing humanoid robots from individual autonomy to swarm intelligence. In March, they implemented "swarm intelligence" technology with dozens of WalkerS1 humanoid robots, conducting the world's first multi-unit, multi-scenario, multi-task collaborative training exercise.

Prior to this positive development, on April 24, UBTECH formally signed a procurement contract for large bipedal humanoid robots. The products involved are primarily the industrial humanoid robot WalkerS1 and the commercial humanoid robot WalkerC, which will be used in automotive factory production and commercial reception scenarios.

This marks the first global small-batch procurement contract for humanoid robots in factory manufacturing scenarios.

Although UBTECH reported a net loss of 1.16 billion yuan in 2024, CEO Zhou Jian stated that the company expects to produce approximately 1,000 humanoid robots this year, including about 500 industrial humanoid robots and 500 anthropomorphic humanoid robots, not including the emotional companion robots still under development.

With Huawei and UBTECH joining forces, future developments in embodied intelligence and humanoid robotics may accelerate technological iteration and industry upgrading, bringing unlimited possibilities for the widespread application of humanoid robots across various scenarios.

Tencent Partners with DOBOT

On the same day as the Huawei-UBTECH announcement—May 12—Tencent Cloud and DOBOT formally signed an agreement to deepen their strategic cooperation. These two industry pioneers are combining their respective strengths to jointly accelerate embodied intelligence technology innovation and expand applications across industrial manufacturing, commercial, educational, and other scenarios, making intelligent robots beneficial to various industries and households.

Perhaps soon, robots will indeed become commonplace in ordinary households.

Specifically, the partnership will focus on intelligent computing power, technological ecosystem, and multi-scenario mass production applications across three major domains:

source: DOBOT

Tencent Cloud's infrastructure will accelerate DOBOT's implementation of embodied intelligence remote control, voice interaction, and other applications. The companies will jointly build integrated solutions combining "cloud-based large models + edge devices + robot terminals." They will co-create diverse scenario application solutions to expand intelligent innovation and upgrades in manufacturing, commercial, and educational settings.

As a leading global cloud computing service provider, Tencent Cloud possesses worldwide infrastructure, top-tier audio and video solution capabilities, self-developed multimodal large models spanning the entire chain, and a comprehensive cloud-native security system. Through this collaboration, both parties will jointly advance cutting-edge application scenarios such as embodied intelligence control, immersive remote interaction, and robot brain training. This will make robots "sharp-eyed, dexterous, and intelligent."

As the "first stock in collaborative robotics," DOBOT is equally formidable. Leveraging its pioneering customer resources and scenario accumulation advantages in the embodied intelligence field, DOBOT has achieved global cumulative shipments exceeding 80,000 units, with products widely applied across 15 major industries including automotive, 3C electronics, medical, commercial, and education.

In March this year, DOBOT launched Atom, the world's first full-size embodied intelligence humanoid robot featuring "dexterous operation + straight-knee walking." The robot impressed the industry with its high-level coordinated upper and lower limb movement control and industrial-grade dual-arm collaborative operation capabilities.

In the future, DOBOT and Tencent Cloud will continue to deeply cultivate embodied intelligence, accelerating technological innovation and multi-scenario mass production applications of embodied intelligence robots. This will inject strong momentum into the development of the intelligent robotics industry, leading the field into a new era of intelligence.