Ant Group Accelerates Humanoid Robot Push With 12th Deal, Leads $73M Zeroth Round
- Ant Group, Alibaba's fintech affiliate, led a 500 million yuan ($73.6 million) funding round in humanoid-robot startup Zeroth (Suzhou JoyIn Intelligent Technology), its 12th robotics investment since early 2025 (CNBC, July 1).
- The deals are part of a strategic push into 'embodied AI' tied to Ant's Alipay ecosystem, including a new subsidiary Ant Lingbo Technology (Robbyant), underscoring how Chinese fintechs are diversifying beyond payments into physical AI.
- The move comes as U.S. and Asian tech stocks sold off sharply on AI capex doubts, putting Ant's robotics spree in sharp contrast with cooling sentiment toward the AI trade.