Stardust Intelligence raises fourth round in six months at RMB15B valuation

Stardust Intelligence, an embodied-AI company that describes itself as the world's first to mass-produce rope-driven AI robots, announced on Oct. 13 that it had raised RMB1 billion in a new financing round. The post-money valuation reached RMB15 billion, according to the company. The figure places the startup among China's most valuable embodied-AI ventures.

The round was led by Tongkong Donghai, with participation from Hongtai Fund, the Ninghai Xingtahe Fund managed by Guanghua Sunshine, Shanheng Capital and other state-owned and financial investors. Existing shareholder Xianmu followed on. The deal marks Stardust's fourth funding round in roughly half a year, a pace that highlights continued investor interest in embodied AI even as the sector's capital requirements rise. The participation of state-linked funds signals local policy support for robotics commercialization.

The company had already closed a B-series round of more than RMB1 billion in June, when its valuation first crossed RMB10 billion. With the latest injection, Stardust faces a familiar challenge for high-valuation robotics startups: converting technical milestones and manufacturing claims into commercial deployment, revenue and operating metrics. Investors are betting that rope-driven hardware can scale beyond lab demonstrations and into factories and service settings. The next test will be the operating scorecard it delivers after this rapid fundraising cycle.