Hillhouse Sequoia Meituan jointly lead the investment, and Itshi Zhihang completes a record-breaking $455 million Pre-A round financing

ME News Report, April 16th (UTC+8), on April 16th, it Stone Zhihang announced the completion of over $450 million USD in Pre-A round financing, setting the record for the highest single-round funding in China’s embodied intelligence history, successfully leading the first tier of the embodied intelligence industry in just one year. It is worth noting that this is the second time it Stone Zhihang has broken industry financing records. In Q2 2025, it Stone Zhihang completed China’s largest angel round of financing in embodied intelligence—$242 million USD. After a year, it Stone Zhihang further broke the record for the largest Pre-A round in China’s embodied intelligence history and the industry’s largest single-round financing with $455 million USD.
This round of financing was oversubscribed, mainly because it Stone continued to receive the highest recognition and firm backing from top domestic and international investment institutions. The investors span four dimensions, forming a rare gathering of star capital:
On the financial investor level, Hillhouse Ventures, jointly leading with Sequoia China in this round, invested in it Stone Zhihang. Well-known financial funds such as Meituan Longzhu, China International Capital Corporation (CICC), KAILIAN Capital, Oriental Fortune Capital, and Junshan Investment followed with investments;
On the strategic investor level, Meituan’s strategic investment as a key cornerstone shareholder increased its stake and continued to co-lead, while Qiming Venture Partners, Linear Capital, BlueChili Venture Capital, Xianghe Capital, and Hongtai Fund, among other old shareholders, also made strategic investments;
On the industrial investor level, TCL Industrial Investment, Futeng Capital, Shoucheng Holdings (0697.HK), Jianfa Emerging Investment, Hengxu Capital, and Guoqi Investment further invested, which will strongly promote the company’s commercialization of diversified scenarios;
On the state-owned capital level, Beijing Robot Industry Development Investment Fund and Shanghai Guotou Pioneer jointly invested in the embodied intelligence company for the first time, empowering the company’s development in line with the national “14th Five-Year Plan” for the robotics industry, helping it Stone become a leading regional embodied intelligence chain enterprise, and driving industry cluster upgrades.
Since its establishment, it Stone Zhihang has always remained true to its original aspiration, achieving multiple key technological milestones, pioneering the solution to the complex flexible wiring harness assembly—known as the “Goldbach Conjecture” in industrial automation—and setting a Guinness World Record for “most sub-millimeter wiring harnesses assembled by a robot within one hour.”
Meituan stated, “We are long-term optimistic about embodied intelligence as a strategic tool for the next-generation productivity. We believe that the ultimate goal of embodied intelligence belongs to companies capable of connecting data, models, and the physical world. It Stone Zhihang has made forward-looking core technological breakthroughs in the field of large embodied models, as well as engineering capabilities to translate technology into real productivity. We look forward to it Stone Zhihang rapidly promoting large-scale applications of embodied intelligence.”
Hillhouse Ventures project leader said, “We have always focused on whether the team’s judgment on key technological routes in embodied intelligence is sufficiently forward-looking, and whether they have the ability to truly bring cutting-edge technology into real scenarios. What impresses us about it Stone Zhihang is that from early on, the team formed clear and firm judgments on end-to-end models, world models, reinforcement learning, etc., and these judgments are not just conceptual but continuously validated by product and scenario progress. Meanwhile, the team possesses advanced AI capabilities, industry understanding, and complex system engineering implementation ability, enabling them to connect data, models, entities, and scenarios well, steadily advancing toward the long-term goal of general robots, while also continuously accumulating capabilities and delivering value in real scenarios in the medium and short term. Hillhouse’s ongoing support reflects confidence in their ability to turn long-term technological directions into tangible industry results.”
It Stone Zhihang CEO Dr. Chen Yilun said, “The company has achieved intensive technological breakthroughs and implementation progress in full-stack AI layout, human-centric data paradigms, and the world’s first ‘work-capable’ general embodied large model AWE3.0, laying a solid foundation for future development. It Stone Zhihang will dedicate itself to building trustworthy physical AI and becoming the first to lead China’s manufacturing new quality productivity.”
It Stone Zhihang Chairman Li Zhenyu stated, “This round of financing will be used to accelerate the development of the general embodied large model AWE and continue attracting top industry talent. The next round of financing will focus on creating truly operational and mass-producible robots. The company will actively participate in global competition, enabling China’s embodied intelligence to stand on the world stage.”
(Source: Ifnar)