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Huawei Cloud is adopting a collaborative strategy similar to its successful automotive partnership with Seres Group to the realm of embodied artificial intelligence. It has recently teamed up with humanoid robot developer Yijiahe Technology to co-develop and bring robotics products to market.
The “Seres Model” exemplifies a collaborative approach rooted in the open innovation philosophy of the intelligent automotive sector, according to Wu Xiaodong, director of Huawei Cloud’s Embodied AI Innovation Lab. He explained that the platform’s capabilities are continuously enhanced through joint research, development, and validation, rather than merely replicating a traditional automotive business model.
This approach mirrors Huawei’s collaboration with Seres, which began in 2021. Unlike conventional component supply arrangements or its “Huawei Inside” strategy, the partnership involves Huawei in defining product features, R&D, branding, and sales channels. Meanwhile, Seres handles vehicle manufacturing, quality assurance, and supply chain logistics. Their joint efforts resulted in the Aito brand, which sold 423,000 vehicles last year and 161,000 units in the first half of this year.
This same collaborative model is reflected in Huawei Cloud’s partnership with Yijiahe Technology, announced earlier this month. The alliance combines the Nanjing-based robotics firm’s expertise in sectors such as utilities and healthcare with Huawei Cloud’s CloudRobo embodied AI platform, along with its computing resources, AI models, data management, model optimization, and robotic operation systems. Rather than a straightforward supplier relationship, the firms are establishing a sustainable business model for one industry before expanding into others.
Fostering an Open Robotics Ecosystem
Wu emphasized that 2026 will be a pivotal year for the embodied AI industry, citing major hurdles that go beyond data scarcity and advanced models. These include gaps in development platforms, engineering infrastructure, and commercialization mechanisms.
He pointed out that high-quality, multimodal data remains limited, and current simulation environments are still quite different from real-world conditions. “Rapid deployment of large models onto robots after training, along with continuous optimization, data governance, model training, and motion control, are highly fragmented processes,” Wu noted. “Addressing these issues is crucial for the industry’s large-scale commercialization.”
Huawei Cloud envisions this sector evolving into an open ecosystem, rather than being dominated by a small number of firms with all-encompassing capabilities. It is expected to encompass AI model developers, robot manufacturers, and various companies focusing on industry-specific applications.
Wu also highlighted that the CloudRobo platform will stay accessible to partners with strong data generation abilities, AI models, or development tools. He stressed that embodied AI remains in the early stages, requiring ongoing investment and long-term collaboration to achieve meaningful progress, rather than quick breakthroughs.
Initial Focus on Power Sector for Commercialization
Huawei Cloud has prioritized practical industrial uses for embodied AI. Its first collaboration was chosen in the power industry, driven by the belief that initial deployment should be in hazardous environments—such as live electrical operations—where human safety is a concern, or in labor-intensive tasks that are hard to staff, rather than solely replacing workers.
Wu added that robotics commercialization has primarily advanced in highly standardized industries with clear economic benefits, including manufacturing, energy inspections, warehousing, and logistics, both domestically and internationally.
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