- Alibaba's Amap unit plans to unveil a quadruped robot, marking the tech giant's entry into a crowded market.
- The move highlights fierce competition in China's embodied intelligence sector, with rivals offering massive compensation for talent.
Alibaba plans to soon unveil its first robot, a four-legged device from the embodied intelligence division of its Amap, or Gaode Maps, unit, according to a Tuesday report by local media Sina Tech.
Amap established its embodied intelligence division in January this year and released a in-house developed embodied navigation base model in February, the report noted.
Product forms such as humanoid robots and robot dogs are all within the exploration direction of Amap's embodied intelligence division, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Meanwhile, Amap has built the industry's largest embodied navigation data engine and made breakthrough progress in its ability to handle long-range complex tasks, the report said.
Separately, Bloomberg reported, citing a company spokesperson, that the quadruped robot will compete with products such as Unitree's Go series.
In March, Amap open-sourced what it called the world's first embodied operation base model based on a unified architecture, which achieved an 80.5% task success rate in benchmark tests.
Alibaba joins industry leaders Unitree and Agibot, Chinese firms aiming to outdo Tesla and other rivals in the US.
It is unclear when Alibaba intends to begin selling its four-legged product, but such robots have proven popular with consumers seeking an early adopter's cachet.
Capital flowing into robot makers underscores the heated competition for technical talent, with UBTech offering as much as 124 million yuan ($18 million) for a chief scientist.
UBTech sold more than 1,000 humanoid robots in 2025, generating substantial revenue, with the machines primarily targeting traditional factory jobs that are increasingly difficult to fill.
($1 = 6.8159 yuan)
