XPENG’sphysical AIunit has secured over $900 million at a $6.3 billion valuation to scale its IRON humanoid robot platform.
He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO ofXPENG, said: “Over the past 12 years, XPENG has remained committed to full-stack in-house R&D, building a solid technological foundation for the physical AI era—across our physical world foundation model, Turing AI chips, and AI infrastructure.
“This has enabled us to pioneer a new phase of mass production and commercial deployment for advanced humanoid robots.”
IDG Capital led the financing round, with Gaorong Ventures also participating as an investor. Tencent andAlibabajoined as strategic investors. XPENG will keep controlling ownership of the robotics business once the round closes, and the unit will remain consolidated into the group’s financial statements.
XPENG said the capital will fund long-term investment in what it terms full-stack physical AI development. The company also plans to use the raise to strengthen incentive arrangements for senior executives and other staff working on robotics.
According to XPENG, the money will support software and hardware R&D for the unit, plus training and iteration of its physical AI models. Further funds are earmarked for high-quality data generation and for building end-to-end mass production facilities. XPENG also intends to put some of the capital toward commercial expansion outside China.
IRON is at the centre of XPENG’s physical AI strategy. The humanoid robot uses a fully-enclosed flexible lattice structure that XPENG designed in-house to balance appearance with safety. IRON has 76 degrees of freedom across its body and 21 in each hand, which XPENG presents as evidence of its robot’s high dexterity and mobility.
XPENG built the robot’s hardware platform itself, including the chips and controllers that drive the robot’s core movement systems. Separate motion modules and dexterous hand mechanisms handle finer manipulation tasks. The company is applying quality standards and production processes developed for its electric vehicles to robot manufacturing, aiming for automotive-scale output and delivery volumes.
On compute, XPENG puts IRON’s combined output at up to 2,250 TOPS of effective computing power, delivered across three in-house-designed Turing AI chips. That on-board processing lets XPENG run its physical AI foundationmodeldirectly on the robot. IRON can then carry out complex tasks with low inference latency and with data processed locally on the device.
XPENG argues that IRON’s human-like hardware gives it an advantage in collecting behavioural data from everyday human activity, and in adapting to environments and tools built for people. As IRON reaches mass production, the company expects what it calls a data-model-application flywheel to take hold, accelerating the robot’s ability to learn and take on new tasks.
IRON is expected to enter mass production by the end of 2026. Initial deployment will happen inside the company’s own stores and campuses before any wider rollout. XPENG plans to begin deliveries to customers in China and overseas markets during 2027.
IDG Capital said the physical AI industry is moving “from technical breakthroughs to scalable manufacturing and commercial deployment,” a shift it argues plays to XPENG’s strengths. The firm pointed to XPENG’s combination of edge AI processors, physical AI foundation models, and complete robotic systems, and to the technology links between the robotics unit and XPENG’s electric vehicle and autonomous driving businesses.