Today's Highlights

· R2 Robotaxi, jointly built by DiDi and GAC Aion, has opened driverless pilot operations in parts of Beijing and Guangzhou

· Autonomous driving supplier Momenta has confidentially filed for a Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing; sources say the expected IPO valuation exceeds RMB 100 billion

· A Shanghai Jiao Tong University team's LIFT post-trains a VLA using only 20-30 force-inclusive online demonstrations, raising the book-insertion score from 36.7 to 58.3

· Direct-drive module maker Benmo Technology (Chinese robotics hardware firm) listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on September 29, raising HK$1.08 billion at its offer price

· Orbbec (Chinese 3D vision sensor maker) has filed for a Hong Kong listing to pursue an A+H structure; net profit attributable to shareholders fell 30.82% year-on-year in the first half

· A new UK warehouse in Northampton has activated a four-way shuttle robot system previously used only in China

LIFT: Teaching VLAs to Use Force in Post-Training, Without Redoing Pretraining · vla

Accepted at CoRL 2026. Vision-only pretrained VLAs lack a sense of force, and force-inclusive data is expensive and hard to collect at scale using approaches like UMI. LIFT reproduces a "reactive action expert" that uses causal cross-attention to read recent force signals, making high-frequency corrections within action chunks and raising the control frequency from 1Hz to 10Hz. Using only 20-30 force-inclusive online correction demonstrations per task, the book-insertion score rose from 36.7 to 58.3, and Tower of Hanoi ring placement rose from 26.7 to 56.7. Code is open-sourced.

Lu Cewu, Wenchuan team (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, AgiBot (Chinese embodied AI startup)) · arXiv 2607.14236 source · Coverage: Sina Technology source

Momenta | Hong Kong IPO | Confidential Filing | Valuation Expected to Exceed RMB 100 Billion · autonomy ⚠️ Unconfirmed reports

According to LatePost, Momenta (Chinese autonomous driving supplier) has confidentially filed a prospectus with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Multiple sources say its expected IPO valuation exceeds RMB 100 billion, with plans to list within 2026, pending a filing notice from the China Securities Regulatory Commission before the hearing. Founder and CEO Cao Xudong disclosed in March that Momenta's cumulative vehicle deployments had reached nearly 700,000, with design wins on more than 170 vehicle models and its systems now deployed in over a dozen countries and regions overseas. LatePost notes that no Chinese company listed in Hong Kong or the US currently has a comparable core business and scale to Momenta; WeRide (listed in Hong Kong) and Pony.ai (listed in the US) are viewed more as Robotaxi-concept plays.Source: LatePost source

Benmo Technology | Hong Kong IPO | Raised HK$1.08 Billion | Offer Price HK$21.60 · hardware

Listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Main Board under code 6731 on September 29, issuing 50 million H shares at HK$21.60 each to raise HK$1.08 billion (before over-allotment). Hong Kong Science and Technology and JSC International, two state-backed investors, served as cornerstone investors, jointly subscribing for HK$472 million. Benmo makes "reducer-free" direct-drive power modules for robots. Citing Frost & Sullivan data, IPO Early Bird reported that the company shipped about 5.8 million units in the first half of 2026, used in more than 2.8 million robots. Revenue was RMB 282 million in 2025, and the adjusted net loss margin narrowed to 13.7% in the first half of this year.Source: IPO Early Bird source; The Paper source

Orbbec | Hong Kong Filing | A+H Structure | Net Profit Down 30.82% in H1 · hardware

Following its early-September announcement of plans to issue H shares, Orbbec (Chinese 3D vision sensor maker) has now filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Beijing Business Today, citing the filing, reported first-half revenue of about RMB 437 million, up just 0.49% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders of about RMB 41.64 million, down 30.82% year-on-year; and net operating cash flow down 83.51% year-on-year. Sensor revenue was about RMB 207 million, up 50.0% year-on-year, which the company attributed to growth in robotics customers. Its high growth in prior years relied mainly on complete-system and solutions business (large payment-terminal orders, 3D scanners), which generated about RMB 617 million in revenue in 2025. By Frost & Sullivan's measure, Orbbec held a 29.0% share of the global robotics 3D vision perception market in 2025, ranking first; second-place Cupertino-based company held 27.9%, a gap of only about 1.1 percentage points.Source: Beijing Business Today source

Chixin Semiconductor (Changsha) | Series A+ | Over RMB 200 Million · hardware

Led by Yanpu Precision Engineering, with participation from Quectel, Jinxia Shengshi Fund, and Lushan Investment Holdings. Chixin makes UWB (ultra-wideband) ranging and positioning chips; its automotive-grade CX500 series SoC has passed FiRa Core 3.0 certification, and current shipments are mainly for automotive digital keys and smart radar. The company said the funds will push UWB into spatial-sensing applications in automobiles and robotics, and that this round set a new single-round high for the segment.Source: Changsha Evening News source

Puxi Guangjing (Hangzhou) | Series C | Several Hundred Million RMB · hardware

Ten new state-backed and industrial investors joined this round, including Chengdu Science & Technology Innovation Investment and the Shanghai Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Industry Investment Fund. The company makes power chips for extreme environments, with 2025 revenue of RMB 230 million. Part of this round's funding will go toward high-temperature robot joint R&D, with the rest for gallium oxide chip iteration and expansion of 230°C-class high-temperature modules.Source: Dimension Network source

DiDi's R2 Opens Driverless Pilot Operations in Beijing and Guangzhou · autonomy

Starting August 31, riders in parts of Beijing and Guangzhou can hail a driverless R2 through the DiDi app. The vehicle was developed by DiDi and GAC Aion from the ground up as a Robotaxi, with the autonomous driving kit installed on the production line. The vehicle carries 33 sensors in total, including lidar, cameras, 4D radar, an infrared camera, and sound sensors, feeding into a central computing unit with over 2,000 TOPS of compute. DiDi said this computing unit is 74% cheaper than the previous generation. Braking, steering, power, and communications all have redundancy. DiDi processes about 40 million rides a day in China, nearly all with a driver; Interesting Engineering says DiDi is playing catch-up with Baidu's Apollo Go, which reports it has entered 28 cities.Source: Interesting Engineering source

Yusen's New UK Warehouse Activates First Four-Way Shuttle Robot System Outside China · industrial

The UK unit of Japanese logistics firm Yusen Logistics has opened a new 1.1-million-square-foot (about 102,000 square meter) warehouse in Northampton, using robots paired with a four-way shuttle system for "goods-to-person" picking, letting a single worker pick more than 8 orders at once. Site general manager Brian Luck said this is the system's first deployment outside China, though the BBC report did not name the system's supplier. The warehouse currently employs 150 people, with plans to expand to 500-900 as business grows. Managing director David Evans said: "There are some jobs robots do better than people, but robots can't function without people." The new warehouse mainly serves B2B distribution for electronics manufacturers, with a quarter of its space dedicated to temperature-controlled pharmaceutical storage.Source: BBC source

Hengqin Chimelong Spaceship Park Opens, With Hundreds of Robots Across Six Job Categories · humanoid

AgiBot's 20,000th robot was delivered here (previously reported). On the same day, the Spaceship Park, jointly built by Chimelong Group and AgiBot, opened, with hundreds of embodied robots deployed across six scenarios: performances, science education, tour guiding, study tours, companionship, and hotel reception. The two companies also jointly established a tourism embodied-AI lab. Chimelong Group chairman Su Zhigang said Hengqin's real-world foot traffic is a "valuable commercialization testing ground" for Chinese-made robots.Source: China Youth Online source

PitPro Tire-Changing Robot Enters Kal Tire Stores in Canada · industrial ⚠️ Vendor claim

Two oven-sized gantry robots move along a track on either side of the car, simultaneously loosening lug nuts, removing wheels, and mounting tires. PitPro Automation claims it can change four tires in 15 minutes, about 90% faster than manual work, but that figure comes from a single store's first installation and shouldn't be taken as a benchmark for at-scale operations. Technicians still need to drive the car onto the platform and operate the lift; a second unit is planned for installation this fall. Kal Tire senior vice president of strategy and innovation Kenneth Chaun said the company views automation as a "force multiplier" for its teams.Source: RoboticsClass, citing TechCrunch source

Unitree's Market Cap Down About 56% From First-Day High; Mech-Mind Falls Below Offer Price · humanoid

Unitree Robotics listed on the STAR Market in August, with shares peaking at RMB 1,100 on the first day and market cap briefly exceeding RMB 440 billion; by September 24 it closed at RMB 488, a total market cap of about RMB 197.4 billion, down about 55.6% from the first-day high. Mech-Mind (Chinese robotics vision company) closed at HK$83.3 on September 25, down about 18.1% from its HK$101.7 offer price. Prospectuses from companies in the listing queue also revealed some underlying figures: DEEP Robotics (Chinese quadruped robot maker) had 2025 revenue of RMB 337 million, but sold only one unit of its DR-series humanoid robot for the entire year; at LimX Dynamics (Chinese humanoid robot startup), revenue from data collection applications rose to 44.94% of the total, becoming its largest revenue source, with the company projecting profitability at the earliest in 2028. Mech-Mind founder Shao Tianlan wrote on social media this month that a batch of "opportunistic" embodied AI companies are generating "false, unsustainable revenue" through data collection centers and related-party transactions.Source: The Paper source; 36Kr source

Shangwei New Materials Posts RMB 167 Million Loss in H1, With Over 90% of R&D Spend on Robotics · humanoid

Citing the 2026 half-year report, 36Kr reported that Shangwei New Materials, controlled by AgiBot, posted a net loss attributable to shareholders of RMB 167 million, mainly due to RMB 164 million in robotics R&D spending. AgiBot's Qiyuan personal robot has not yet generated mass-production revenue, but has already received RMB 210 million in advance payments. Equity incentive targets require new business to account for at least 25% of revenue by 2026. Regarding AgiBot's planned Hong Kong listing, cornerstone investors have set a target valuation of HK$40-50 billion. Based on AgiBot's 2025 revenue of RMB 1.05 billion, 36Kr calculates this implies a price-to-sales ratio of about 32 to 41 times, compared to about 24 times for Unitree at its IPO.Source: 36Kr source

Unitree's RMB 3.9 Million Manned Mech Appears at Digital Trade Fair, None Sold Yet · humanoid

The GD01 manned transforming mech launched in May, priced from RMB 3.9 million. At the China International Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou from September 23-27, staff on site said there had been considerable interest but no sales yet. Speaking at a forum, Wang Xingxing said: "We define the GD01 as the off-road vehicle of robots." He said the product is designed for complex outdoor terrain, that large-format robots are an inevitable trend, and that "even if Unitree didn't make one," a competitor would launch a similar product within a few years.Source: RoboticsClass source; Dahe Daily source

Skild AI Says Soccer Policy Learned Dribbling and Tackling Spontaneously From a "Goal-Scoring" Reward Alone · world-model ⚠️ Vendor claim

On September 23, Skild AI published a post stating that a policy based on its S1 foundation model, trained by playing against recent versions of itself in Isaac Sim, was transferred to a real humanoid robot after the equivalent of 140 years of cumulative simulated matches, with dribbling, ball protection, and tackling emerging without any dedicated reward terms. The post did not specify which robot was used, and gave no win rates, goal counts, or baseline comparisons; there is no paper, and neither code nor weights have been released.Source: mixed-news source

Noyin Intelligence (Chinese embodied AI startup) Unveils GLOW, Claiming Task Transfer Across Objects From a Single Human Demonstration · embodied ⚠️ Vendor claim

A technical report from Shenzhen-based Noyin Intelligence states that GLOW uses a unified multimodal autoregressive model to handle visual understanding, spatial reasoning, planning, and action generation, so new tasks don't require re-collecting data or updating parameters. The report claims an average success rate of 62.2% across 18 RoboDojo simulation tasks, and 86.7% average success across six LIBERO-Pro perturbation tests. All figures above are from the company's own testing. The company was founded in August 2025, and its first consumer product, the Knowin-X1, is preparing for mass production.Source: China News Guangdong source

South Korean Policy Banks Prepare Funds and Low-Interest Loans for Physical AI · adjacent

Following this month's five-year physical AI roadmap, IBK (Industrial Bank of Korea) will expand its Innovation Fund directed at strategic industries including physical AI to KRW 300 billion starting in November, with KRW 150 billion coming from the bank itself. The Korea Development Bank (KDB) said on September 22 that it will offer loans of up to 15 years, at rates close to government bond yields, for major physical AI-related facility investments, and plans to establish an AI and semiconductor investment vehicle worth KRW 500 billion to fund related small and medium enterprises.Source: Maeil Business Newspaper source

Itochu and Aioi Nissay Dowa Develop Dedicated Robotaxi Insurance · autonomy

The two companies plan to begin selling the product in the US as early as fiscal year 2027. Itochu has already invested in Aioi's US subsidiary Moter Technologies and will take on part of the reinsurance. Robotaxi accident claims currently rely on patching together existing insurance categories, with no dedicated products for risks like system failures or software malfunctions. Waymo partnered with Allianz this month to develop Robotaxi insurance for Europe.Source: Nikkei Asia source

Wayve Hires Former Waymo CFO as Chief Financial Officer · autonomy ⚠️ Single-source claim

Elisa de Martel served as Waymo's CFO from 2022 to January 2026, and previously spent 11 years as a manufacturing finance director at Apple. Wayve's current CFO, Max Warburton, will move into a strategic advisor role.Source: vocal.media source

Fedorov Forms a "Robot Army," Sets Six-Month Target for Humanoid Robots in Combat · adjacent ⚠️ Planning-stage claim

Fedorov, Ukraine's former Minister of Digital Transformation, unveiled a plan in Lviv on September 26: humanoid robots are to kill Russian soldiers on the battlefield within 6 months, and carry out a position assault without any infantry involvement within 12 months. The Kyiv Independent noted that the machines shown in the promotional video were entirely AI-generated renderings. What has actually been deployed so far are wheeled and tracked platforms; Ukraine's Ministry of Defense reported over 9,000 armed ground robot missions in a single month this spring, up from 2,900 in November 2025.Source: DroneXL source