Shanghai Ant Lingbo Technology Co., Ltd.
Category: Robotics / Embodied AI
Ant Group's wholly-owned embodied intelligence subsidiary developing humanoid service robots and open-source foundation models for robotics. Shanghai Ant Lingbo Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 2024. The company is led by Zhu Xing (朱兴, alias: Tao Zhai 陶斋). Based in Shanghai, China. Team size: 51-200. Latest round: Bootstrapped. Key investors include Wholly owned by Ant Group (via Ant Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.).
- Founded
- 2024
- Headquarters
- Shanghai, China
- Team size
- 51-200
Value proposition
Building the bridge between digital intelligence and physical world through humanoid service robots (R1/R1-S) and open-source embodied AI foundation models (LingBot series) for real-world deployment.
Products and solutions
Robbyant R1 (wheeled humanoid service robot); R1-S (variant); LingBot-VA (causal video-action world model, RSS 2026); LingBot-VLA (vision-language-action model); LingBot-World (world simulator); LingBot-Depth (spatial perception model); LingBot-Map (streaming 3D reconstruction model)
Unique value
Ant Group-backed embodied AI company with a full-stack approach: from open-source world models (LingBot-VA, LingBot-World, LingBot-VLA, LingBot-Depth, LingBot-Map) to production humanoid robots (R1), leveraging Ant Group's AI infrastructure and ecosystem.
Target customer
Hospitality (kitchens, restaurants), museums/tourism, healthcare/pharmacies, public services, commercial institutions
Industries served
Hospitality; Healthcare; Tourism/Museums; Public Services; Commercial Service
Technology advantage
Mixture-of-Transformers (MoT) architecture for unified video prediction and action generation; causal world modeling for real-time robot control; open-source strategy with 5+ models released; full-stack from foundation models to hardware; Ant Group's AI infrastructure and Bailing LLM integration; strategic partnership with Orbbec for 3D vision
How they differentiate
Unlike pure hardware robotics companies (Unitree, UBTech) or pure AI model companies, Ant Lingbo combines both — developing open-source foundation models (LingBot series) while also manufacturing its own humanoid robot (R1). Backed by Ant Group's massive AI investment and ecosystem, with a focus on service-oriented scenarios rather than industrial/manufacturing.
Main competitors
Unitree Robotics (宇树科技); UBTech Robotics (优必选); Tesla Optimus
Key partnerships
Orbbec (strategic partnership for spatial perception AI); Leju Robotics (strategic cooperation for embodied AI application); Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (research collaboration on RSS 2026 paper); Jiangsu Longsheng Weirui Embodied Intelligent Robot Innovation Center (ecosystem cooperation)
Notable customers
Museums (R1 deployed as tour guide); Community centers; Restaurants (R1 tested in kitchen scenarios)
Major milestones
Dec 2024: Company established with ¥100M registered capital; Mar 2025: Official unveiling ceremony in Pudong, Shanghai; Sep 2025: R1 humanoid robot debut at IFA Berlin and Inclusion Conference Shanghai; Jan 2026: Open-sourced 4 models in 4 days (LingBot-Depth, LingBot-VLA, LingBot-World, LingBot-VA); Apr 2026: Open-sourced LingBot-Map (streaming 3D reconstruction); May 2026: LingBot-VA paper accepted at RSS 2026 (top robotics conference)
Market positioning
Premium service humanoid robot provider targeting commercial/institutional customers, competing with Unitree, UBTech, and Tesla Optimus in the Chinese humanoid robot market. Positioned as Ant Group's physical-world AI gateway.
Geographic focus
China (primary), expanding to global markets (IFA Berlin 2025 debut)
About Zhu Xing (朱兴, alias: Tao Zhai 陶斋)
Ex-Ant Group executive; 10+ years in internet technology spanning fintech, local services, advertising commercialization, and embodied AI. Born 1985.
Official website: https://www.robbyant.com