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Scott Shuey · · 5 min readMeet the unicorn building robots for nobody’s dream job
Eric Guo can’t build robots fast enough.
It’s certainly not for lack of trying or funding. AI² Robotics, the Shenzhen-based company Guo founded in 2023, announced in February that it would push production from 1,000 units in 2025 to 10,000 this year.
Eric Guo, founder and CEO of AI² Robotics / Photo credit: AI² Robotics
The firm, which specializes in robotic AI, also announced the completion of its series B funding that same month. The round attracted investors including tech giant Baidu and state-owned rail group CRRC.
It was AI² Robotics’ 12th fundraising in just 12 months. The latest round secured over US$140 million, pushing the company’s valuation into unicorn territory at approximately US$1.4 billion.
AI² Robotics also plans on getting fresh capital “very soon,” with an IPO to follow “in the near future,” Guo told Tech in Asia at the Beyond Expo in Macao last week.
The startup’s growth this year is “actually beyond my expectation,” he added, attributing it to a worldwide workforce shortage.
See also: Robots still struggle with touch. Sharpa wants to fix that
The robotics race today is focused on production speed, says Guo, who is also an adjunct professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou).
Competing in today’s robotics market “completely depends on how fast you can develop your product … and your algorithm,” not on your marketing strategy or customer relationship, he explains.
The jobs nobody wants
Guo, who holds a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University, is more than aware of the ongoing friction between AI builders and those who say AI – and by extension robots – will take jobs.
But he says the company is building robots for necessary jobs that “no one wants to do,” such as those that involve manual labor or dangerous working conditions.
Guo frames it as a matching problem: Some young people can’t find jobs, while some jobs can’t find workers.
The recent fundraising and IPO talk have made AI² Robotics one of China’s most closely watched robotics startups. It builds AlphaBot, a line of robots powered by a proprietary AI foundation model.
Betting on wheels
Next stops: home and space
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The robotics race is about production speed – it all depends on how fast players can develop their products and algorithms, says AI² Robotics founder Eric Guo.
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