JD.com's Cao Peng: Physical AI Moves Toward Scale, Competition Shifts to Compute, Data and Scenarios

Speaking at the Robotics and Embodied Intelligence Forum during the 2026 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit, Cao Peng, chairman of JD.com's technology committee, said physical AI has entered a phase of large-scale deployment. In his keynote, Cao argued that the industry's competitive focus is shifting from model demonstrations to three foundational elements: computing power, data and application scenarios. Physical AI—systems that combine perception, decision-making and control in the real world—requires robust compute infrastructure for training and inference, high-quality data to improve generalization, and real-world scenarios to validate and commercialize solutions. As the technology moves from proof of concept to scaled deployment, Cao indicated that companies able to integrate these resources will gain an edge. The shift signals that embodied intelligence is moving toward practical adoption, with compute, data and scenario access becoming key battlegrounds for industry players.