DeepSeek takes RMB 141M strategic stake in Unitree Robotics to deepen embodied AI push
On August 25, DeepSeek invested RMB 141M for a 2.31% stake in Unitree Robotics and signed an MoU for joint AGI R&D.
On August 25, DeepSeek took a strategic stake in Unitree Robotics for RMB 141 million, acquiring 2.31% of the company as one of Unitree's strategic investors. DeepSeek and Unitree signed a Memorandum of Strategic Cooperation covering joint AGI R&D, priority procurement of high-performance robots, and AI model adaptation and tuning.
Unitree focuses on robot hardware and motion control. In 2025 it shipped 5,511 humanoid robots, capturing 18.7% of global market share, with cumulative quadruped robot sales exceeding 100,000 units. The cooperation centers on hardware-software complementarity: Unitree provides high-performance robots as physical carriers for embodied intelligence; DeepSeek provides large models as the intelligent brain.
DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng has previously stated that AGI cannot exist only in the digital world and must interact with the physical world through embodied robots to gain real-world perception and action. DeepSeek's AGI roadmap explicitly lists embodied intelligence as the end goal. The investment is read as a key move to bind DeepSeek to a leading global robot hardware platform.