In 2026, the field of embodied artificial intelligence (AI) is set to exhibit a polarized trend. On one hand, unicorns boasting valuations of 10 billion yuan are emerging frequently, and large-scale financing activities persist. On the other hand, the industry is undergoing accelerated reshuffling. Infinite Power, an industrial embodied AI enterprise established just eight months ago, which once secured substantial financing and orders amounting to nearly 1 billion yuan, has now ceased operations. Since August, the company has been unable to pay salaries to 30 to 40 employees, with the total owed wages nearing 8 million yuan. Moreover, the actual controller of the company is now unreachable, and the salary dispute has entered the labor arbitration stage.
Infinite Power is not an isolated incident. Previously, renowned robotics companies such as Yinghe Robotics, DeepBlue Robotics, Zhicheng Power, and the Beijing subsidiary of CloudMinds Robotics have also successively encountered operational crises, with some even going into bankruptcy liquidation. The embodied AI sector was previously plagued by a 'demonstration economy' bubble, where companies relied on prototype demonstrations, tentative framework agreements, and capital injections to sustain their valuations.
However, in the latter half of 2026, the investment logic in the capital market underwent a fundamental shift, placing greater emphasis on companies' stable revenue streams, cash collection capabilities, and delivery performance. The Matthew effect within the industry is intensifying, and companies lacking genuine delivery capabilities and relying solely on storytelling are being eliminated in batches. The industry may witness a large-scale shakeout, and a true era of commercialization for embodied AI is anticipated to arrive after the industry undergoes thorough cleansing.