China’s Midea pledges US$8.7 billion for AI and robotics in pivot to automation

Midea Group, the owner of industrial robot giant Kuka, is the latest Chinese company to pledge heavy investment in AI and robotics – another 60 billion yuan (US$8.7 billion) over the next three years – as traditional industries embrace futuristic technologies. The planned expenditure on research and development, with a focus on “AI, embodied intelligence and other cutting-edge areas”, matched its total spending over the past five years, the company announced in Shanghai on Tuesday. The strategic move followed the debut in December of an “ultra” humanoid robot, Miro U, which has six arms and runs on wheels. The robot had been deployed at one of the home appliance giant’s washing machine factories in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, where it had improved production-line changeover efficiency by 30 per cent, according to the company website. Midea has accelerated its foray into robotics since the 2017 acquisition of German robotic giant Kuka. Five years later, the Chinese firm established a lab to study high-end heavy-duty robots, the only “state key laboratory” in the robotics sector backed by a company. In 2024, Midea launched an innovation centre dedicated to humanoid robots. Midea is not alone among China’s traditional electric appliance makers in pivoting towards robotics and AI. Dong Mingzhu, chairwoman of Gree Electric Appliances, told the South China Morning Post that the company’s smart factory in Zhuhai, Guangdong province, had become fully digitalised, with more than 2,000 self-developed industrial robots deployed across its manufacturing operations. Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of TCL Technology Group, told the SCMP that the company has introduced a system powered by AI and digital-twin technologies to enable human-machine collaboration in the photovoltaic crystal production process, allowing a single human operator to remotely manage up to 384 furnaces. Skyworth, known for its televisions, began in January this year to push forward AI-powered home appliances, aiming to equip all its products with AI capabilities, company founder Huang Hongsheng told Chinese outlet Southern Metropolis Daily in January. The moves come as the global robotics industry is poised for several significant catalysts in the coming weeks. Nvidia’s GTC 2026 conference, scheduled next week, is expected to feature major announcements in the robotics and physical AI space, including new physical AI models and the Rubin architecture. At the same time, Tesla is expected to unveil its third-generation Optimus humanoid robot later this year. Company CEO Elon Musk said in January that the third-generation Optimus humanoid robot would be unveiled in the second quarter.