The battle for AI leadership is rapidly moving from chatbots to robots, and China has just scored a major victory. Chinese startup Spirit AI announced that its Spirit v1.6 model ranked No.1 on the RoboArena benchmark, outperforming NVIDIA and other leading competitors. 

Spirit v1.6 achieved a score of 1,924, outperforming NVIDIA’s Cosmos3-Nano-Policy, which scored 1,881, and DreamZero, another NVIDIA-backed model, which scored 1,763. The achievement marks the first time a Chinese embodied AI model has reached the No.1 spot on the benchmark.

Why RoboArena Matters

RoboArena is designed to measure how effectively AI systems can translate decisions into real-world robotic actions. Unlike traditional AI benchmarks that focus on language or reasoning, RoboArena evaluates physical task execution, including object manipulation, navigation, tool usage, perception, planning, and adaptability in unfamiliar environments.

The benchmark is widely respected because it uses randomized environments, adversarial testing scenarios, and strict anti-overfitting measures, making it difficult for companies to optimize specifically for the test.

The Growing Physical AI Race

The result highlights how competition in artificial intelligence is increasingly shifting beyond chatbots and large language models toward physical AI. These systems serve as the “brains” behind humanoid robots, robotic arms, autonomous vehicles, and industrial automation platforms.

Spirit AI’s success is being viewed as evidence that efficient model design and high-quality training data can be just as important as massive computing power. The company’s model reportedly demonstrated strong performance in object handling, autonomous navigation, complex tool use, and adapting to new situations with minimal fine-tuning.

China’s Expanding Advantage

China has also been gaining ground across several other embodied AI benchmarks. Companies including Manifold AI, AgiBot, and DexForce currently lead categories related to world modeling, robotic perception, and robotics data generation.

At the same time, investment in the sector continues to surge. Spirit AI recently raised 1.5 billion yuan (about $222 million), while other Chinese robotics startups have secured large funding rounds over the past year.  China’s growing strength in robotics data, funding, and benchmark performance suggests the global race is becoming more competitive than ever.

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Huawei Habo has made a major move in the field of physical artificial intelligence by investing in GigaAI, a young but fast-growing startup focused on world-model-based general intelligence. The investment marks a key milestone in Huawei’s strategy to expand deeper into embodied intelligence and next-generation autonomous systems.

Funding Overview

GigaAI recently completed its hundred-million-yuan Series A1 funding round in early November. The round was jointly led by Huawei Habo Investment and Huakong Fund, showing strong backing from major industry players.

This comes just two months after GigaVision, part of GigaAI’s ecosystem, secured several hundred million yuan in its Pre-A and Pre-A+ rounds in August. Together, the rapid funding rounds signal rising confidence in GigaAI’s technology and potential.

About GigaAI

Founded in 2023, GigaAI is positioned as China’s first startup dedicated to world model research in physical AI. The company focuses on developing world-model-driven general intelligence that can operate effectively in real-world environments.

Its mission is to build the next generation of intelligent systems that understand, predict, and interact with the physical world, enabling breakthroughs in autonomous driving, robotics, and embodied AI.

GigaAI’s Product Ecosystem and Technology

GigaAI operates through a full-stack ecosystem that combines both software and hardware:

• GigaWorld Platform: Built for driving intelligence and advanced embodied intelligence.
  
• GigaBrain Foundational Model: A core model enabling adaptive, world-model-based AI decisions.
  
• Maker General Embodied Ontology: A structured knowledge layer for physical agents and developers.
  

By integrating these components, GigaAI provides end-to-end solutions for complex physical environments. Its technology is already being applied to areas such as autonomous driving, robotics, and general embodied AI systems.

Huawei’s Strategic Vision Behind the Investment

The investment reflects Huawei’s broader shift from traditional VLA (Vision-Language-Action) models, which rely heavily on language models, to a WA (World Action) strategy.

WA emphasizes using vision and physical signals directly to control vehicles and intelligent agents. This approach, supported by Huawei Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU CEO Jin Yuzhi, is now a central part of Huawei’s long-term AI roadmap.

By backing GigaAI, Huawei aims to accelerate developments in world models, physical AI, and embodied intelligence, strengthening its position in the next wave of autonomous and intelligent mobility technologies.

Impact on Everyday Consumers and Global Competition

For the general public, this development could translate into practical improvements such as safer autonomous vehicles, smarter home and service robots, and more reliable AI assistants that can understand and react to real-world situations, not just digital inputs.

Analysts believe this shift toward physical AI may trigger a technological transformation similar to the rise of smartphones, bringing intelligent machines into daily life in more meaningful ways.

On a global scale, Huawei’s move increases competitive pressure on the United States, particularly in fields like robotics, autonomous driving, and world-model research. As China strengthens its capabilities in physical AI, it could intensify the ongoing technology rivalry and prompt the US to accelerate its own advancements in next-generation autonomous systems.

Industry Significance and Future 

Industry experts view this investment as more than financial support. It represents a strategic partnership that could speed up the development of world-model-driven AI and expand Huawei’s capabilities in real-world automation.

GigaAI’s strong full-stack capabilities and rapid funding growth position it as a rising leader in physical AI. The collaboration is expected to drive new advances in autonomous driving, robotics, and large-scale embodied AI deployment, marking a significant step toward the future of intelligent systems in China.

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XPENG has taken a major step into the future of mobility and artificial intelligence with the unveiling of its latest technologies at the 2025 XPENG AI Day, themed “Emergence.” Held at XPENG Science Park in Guangzhou, the event showcased the company’s biggest achievements yet in Physical AI, including the launch of XPENG VLA 2.0, Robotaxi, Next-Gen IRON humanoid robot, and flying car systems under ARIDGE.

The event marked XPENG’s transformation from a “future mobility explorer” to a “global embodied intelligence company.”

A New Era of Physical AI

Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng opened the event by explaining XPENG’s vision for the coming decade. He said that just as AI revolutionized the digital world and electricity replaced oil in the physical world, the next revolution will come from the combination of both, Physical AI.

XPENG is now the only company in China to have built a full-stack self-developed Physical AI system, covering chips, large AI models, and intelligent hardware. This system will serve as the technological backbone for its AI cars, Robotaxis, humanoid robots, and flying vehicles.

He Xiaopeng announced XPENG’s upgraded identity as “a mobility explorer in the Physical AI world and a global embodied intelligence company.”

XPENG VLA 2.0: Redefining Large Models for the Real World

One of the biggest highlights of the event was the unveiling of the XPENG VLA 2.0 large model, described as the “operating system of the Physical AI world.”

Unlike traditional models that depend on language translation, VLA 2.0 follows a “Vision–Implicit Token–Action” structure. This allows the model to generate direct actions from visual signals, enabling true end-to-end intelligence.

The model can perform self-learning and understand the real world, making it adaptable across different platforms, from cars to robots to flying vehicles. With 72 billion parameters, trained on 100 million driving clips (equal to 65,000 years of human driving), it’s one of the largest and most advanced models ever created.

XPENG’s powerful 30,000-GPU cloud cluster and optimized software allow VLA 2.0 to run efficiently, even on vehicles. The model brings features like “Narrow Road NGP”, which improves performance in complex urban environments by 13 times, and gesture recognition for real-world interaction.

VLA 2.0 will begin user testing in December 2025 and roll out to XPENG Ultra models in early 2026. XPENG also announced that the model will be open-sourced globally, with Volkswagen as the first launch partner.

Robotaxi: China’s First Full-Stack Self-Developed Autonomous Taxi

XPENG also revealed its Robotaxi, China’s first fully self-developed, mass-producible autonomous taxi. The Robotaxi is powered by four Turing AI chips with a combined computing power of 3000 TOPS, the highest in the world.

It relies entirely on pure vision, removing the need for lidar or high-definition maps. Designed for driverless operation, it features a dual-redundancy system for safety and integrates XPENG’s VLA 2.0 and VLM models for real-time decision-making.

The Robotaxi includes the industry’s first sun visor external display, allowing it to “communicate” with pedestrians through visual signals.

XPENG also introduced a new intelligent trim called “Robo”, launching in 2026. It shares the same technology as the Robotaxi but is built for personal use. The company plans to open the Robotaxi SDK for global collaboration, with Amap (Alibaba’s mapping platform) as its first global ecosystem partner.

Next-Gen IRON: The Most Human-Like Robot Yet

Another major launch was XPENG’s Next-Gen IRON humanoid robot, featuring 82 degrees of freedom, bionic muscles, a flexible skin, and a humanoid spine. It even supports custom body designs and performs graceful, catwalk-style walking.

Powered by three Turing AI chips with 3000 TOPS, it combines three large models, VLT, VLA, and VLM,  to achieve high-order intelligences like conversation, movement, and interaction.

XPENG emphasized “extreme anthropomorphism” as its design philosophy, aiming to make robots more adaptable to real-world scenarios. The Next-Gen IRON also features all-solid-state batteries, offering lightweight and safe performance.

A new “Fourth Law of Robotics” was introduced: “Privacy data does not leave the robot.”

XPENG plans mass production by the end of 2026, starting with applications in industries such as retail, tourism, and factory inspection. Baosteel Stock will partner with XPENG to deploy the robots in industrial settings.

ARIDGE Flying Cars: Expanding into Low-Altitude Mobility

XPENG’s flying vehicle division, ARIDGE, showcased two parallel systems for low-altitude travel:

1. A868 Full Tiltrotor Hybrid Flying Car: a 6-seater business model capable of 360 km/h speeds and 500 km range.
   
2. Land Aircraft Carrier: a personal flying vehicle designed for short-range travel, already nearing mass production with 7,000 global orders.
   

The Land Aircraft Carrier includes an intelligent cockpit and a single-stick four-axis control system, making it easy for beginners to fly. Production has already begun at XPENG’s new flying car factory, capable of producing one aircraft every 30 minutes.

In 2026, ARIDGE will collaborate with the Dunhuang Government to launch China’s first low-altitude self-driving tourism route.

XPENG Science Park: Where Innovation Meets Collaboration

The event was held at XPENG Science Park, home to over 10,000 employees working across AI, robotics, cars, and aviation. The company says its multidisciplinary teams are driving daily innovations that fuel the emergence of Physical AI.

Looking ahead, XPENG will begin mass production and rollout of its AI-driven mobility products from 2026, paving the way for a new era where cars, robots, and flying vehicles coexist under one intelligent ecosystem.

XPENG’s message is clear: The future of mobility is not just smart, it’s embodied. With its breakthroughs in Physical AI, the company is positioning itself at the forefront of a global transformation that blends intelligence with motion, bringing tomorrow’s innovations into today’s world.

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