Embodied intelligence took center stage at the 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, where 36 companies showcased 208 humanoid robots performing real-world tasks, marking a significant leap from last year's prototypes.

Building on this momentum, Shanghai unveiled its embodied intelligence industry development implementation plan on Aug 6, targeting several key milestones by 2027. The plan outlines three goals: to attract 100 leading enterprises, to launch 100 application scenarios, and to promote 100 globally competitive products. The overall aim is to grow the industry's core output beyond 50 billion yuan ($6.96 billion).

Already hosting about one-third of China's robotics industry, Shanghai is adopting a structured and pragmatic approach. The plan focuses on three strategic pillars.

Model-driven R&D. Leveraging its robust AI foundation, including four major foundational models and 82 registered large models, Shanghai is prioritizing five research areas: perception and decision-making models, motion control, embodied system technologies, language corpora, and autonomous operating systems.

Public infrastructure support. The city will establish five public platforms for computing power, simulation training, pilot testing, investment, and equipment leasing. Projects may receive government funding covering up to 50 percent of costs, capped at 20 million yuan.

Real-world deployment. Robots developed in Shanghai are already operational in commercial, cultural, and industrial sectors. Application areas include customer service, public interaction, logistics, and manufacturing. The city will continue funding pilot programs with subsidies covering up to 20 percent of total investment, capped at 10 million yuan.

As part of its policy-driven focus, Shanghai has already made tangible progress in key areas, including AgiBot World — the world's first open-source dataset built on 1 million real-world humanoid robot samples; China's first enterprise to achieve mass production of over 1,000 general-purpose embodied robots; and world's first heterogeneous robot dataset with over 1 million entries.

This concentration of resources is most evident in the Pudong New Area, particularly in Zhangjiang, where over 70 companies operate along the embodied intelligence value chain. More than 50 specialize in full-system development across upstream and downstream processes, representing about 60 percent of the industrial chain.

Source: Jiefang Daily