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Chinese EV and Tech Giants Accelerate Humanoid Robot Push, Challenging Tesla

Chinese electric vehicle makers including BYD and Xpeng are ramping up plans to mass-produce humanoid robots, entering a new competitive arena with Tesla. Alibaba has launched AI models with robot-control capabilities, while Tencent’s OpenClaw framework has been integrated into Zeroth’s M1 humanoid, signaling a broader race to deploy AI in physical systems.

By Tertius News AI Desk 1 outlet · 3 articles Version 1 Coverage May 28 – Jun 10, 2026 Published Aug 15

Lead

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers are opening a new front in their long-running rivalry with Tesla: humanoid robots. After years of competing on electric cars and autonomous driving, leading manufacturers including BYD and Xpeng are accelerating plans to mass-produce humanoid robots, betting that artificial intelligence will unlock a vast new market beyond transportation.

Coverage

EV makers target humanoid robots

According to reports from the South China Morning Post, Chinese EV giants are positioning humanoid robots as the next strategic battleground. BYD’s executive vice-president, Stella Li, said in a video posted on the company’s official WeChat account: “I believe China will become the first market to see full commercialisation of humanoid robots. BYD has made a huge investment in AI, and it will take some time before we reap the rewards.” Li indicated that BYD plans to distribute robots through its global dealer network, though no timetable for mass production was provided.

The push is seen as strengthening China’s position as a global manufacturing hub for next-generation mobility and robotics, an area increasingly viewed as a key competition point between Beijing and Washington. Tesla continues to promote its Optimus humanoid robot, and in April, Tesla’s China president, Allan Wang Hao, said the Shanghai Gigafactory could eventually produce humanoid robots, supporting CEO Elon Musk’s ambition to turn Tesla into a physical AI company. Tesla has yet to commercialise Optimus.

Tech companies race to embed AI in robots

Beyond automakers, Chinese tech firms are racing to integrate AI models into physical systems, shifting the generative AI battleground from chatbots to autonomous robots, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

Alibaba Group Holding launched its Qwen3.7-Max model last week, featuring “tool-calling” capabilities that allow the AI to act as a digital brain, triggering external software and hardware. The company said the model can control robots by orchestrating physical actions such as navigation, obstacle avoidance, and task planning. Alibaba also released a suite of supporting AI models for robotics, including a robotic gripper agent, a navigation model, and a vision-language system designed for physical-world interaction.

Earlier this month, embodied AI start-up Zeroth announced that its M1 humanoid had become the first mass-produced robot to integrate Tencent Holdings’ OpenClaw AI agent framework, enabling large language models to interpret human speech and immediately translate it into robotic movements.

Perspectives

The commercial race is driven by the belief that AI’s next phase lies in the physical world. As Wu Bangyi, chief data officer at Chinese tech company Tianyu Shuke, was quoted as saying: “The past few years of large language model development have mainly focused on solving problems in the digital world.”

While Chinese firms are moving aggressively, Tesla’s Optimus remains a prominent reference point, and the company has not yet brought its robot to market. The competitive dynamics between China and the United States in robotics are likely to intensify as both sides seek to dominate what many see as the next major industrial frontier.

How this outlet told it

South China Morning Post as of May 28, 2026, 11:00 AM UTC

Framing: Chinese tech companies racing to deploy AI models in robots — Informative

Facts Included:

Alibaba Group Holding launched Qwen3.7-Max model
Qwen3.7-Max model features tool-calling capabilities
Alibaba released a suite of supporting AI models for robotics
Zeroth announced its M1 humanoid integrated Tencent Holdings' OpenClaw AI agent framework

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South China Morning Post as of Jun 8, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC

Framing: Chinese EV makers opening new front against Tesla in humanoid robots — Competitive

Facts Included:

Chinese EV makers competing with Tesla in humanoid robots
BYD and Xpeng accelerating plans to mass-produce humanoid robots
Stella Li's comments on BYD's investment in AI and humanoid robots

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South China Morning Post as of Jun 10, 2026, 5:30 AM UTC

Framing: China's EV giants challenging Tesla in humanoid robots — Promotional

Facts Included:

China's EV giants challenging Tesla in humanoid robots

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What was claimed, and who backed it

AI-extracted; can misattribute a claim — see Methodology.

Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.

Claim	Confidence	Status
ClaimAlibaba Group Holding launched Qwen3.7-Max model, which features tool-calling capabilities that allow the AI model to act as a digital brain to trigger external software and hardware components.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of May 28, 2026, 11:00 AM UTC
ClaimAlibaba released a suite of supporting AI models for robotics, including a robotic gripper agent, a navigation model and a vision-language system designed for physical-world interaction.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of May 28, 2026, 11:00 AM UTC
ClaimZeroth announced its M1 humanoid had become the first mass-produced robot to integrate Tencent Holdings' OpenClaw AI agent framework, allowing large language models to interpret human speech and immediately translate them into robotic movements.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of May 28, 2026, 11:00 AM UTC
ClaimChinese electric vehicle (EV) makers are opening a new front in their battle with Tesla: humanoid robots.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jun 8, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC
ClaimLeading Chinese manufacturers including BYD and Xpeng are now accelerating plans to mass-produce humanoid robots, betting that advances in artificial intelligence will unlock a vast new market beyond transportation.	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jun 8, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC
ClaimStella Li, BYD's executive vice-president, said 'I believe China will become the first market to see full commercialisation of humanoid robots. BYD has made a huge investment in AI, and it will take some time before we reap the rewards.'	ConfidenceHigh	StatusSingle-source via South China Morning Post as of Jun 8, 2026, 1:00 PM UTC

Transparency & Audit Trail

1 outlet · 3 articles consulted: South China Morning Post 6 claims extracted Version 1 Written 2026-08-15