Chinese embodied AI Company TARS raised $455 million in a Pre-A round, breaking the record for the sector in China, led by Hillhouse, Sequoia, and Meituan.

EqualOcean reported on April 16,TARS (它石智航) announced today the completion of a Pre-A financing round of over 450 million USD., setting the record for the highest single-round financing in the history of embodied intelligence in China, and successfully leading the first tier of the embodied intelligence industry in just one year.

It is worth noting that this is already the second time TARS (它石智航) has refreshed the industry financing record. In the second quarter of 2025, TARS (它石智航) completed the largest angel round financing in the history of embodied intelligence in China—242 million USD. A year later, with 455 million USD, TARS (它石智航) further broke the record for the largest Pre-A round financing in the history of embodied intelligence in China, as well as the record for the largest single round financing in the industry. According to investors, TARS (它石智航)'s new post-investment valuation is now NO.1 in the industry.

This round of financing achieved an oversubscription, mainly because TARS (它石) has continuously received the highest recognition and firm commitment from top domestic and international investment institutions. The investment institutions cover four dimensions, forming a rare assembly of star capital:

In terms of financial investors, Hillhouse Ventures and Hongshan (红杉中国) jointly led this investment in TARS. Meituan Longzhu (美团龙珠), CICC Capital (中金资本), Capitallink (凯联资本), Oriental Fortune (东方富海), and PEAKVEST (钧山投资), among other well-known financial funds, participated as follow-on investors;

At the level of strategic investors, Meituan Strategic Investment, as an important cornerstone strategic shareholder of the company, made a significant additional investment and continued to co-lead the round; meanwhile, existing shareholders such as Qiming Venture Partners (启明创投), Linear Capital (线性资本), Lanchi Ventures (蓝驰创投), Xiang He Capital (襄禾资本), and Hongtai Fund (洪泰基金 )also made additional strategic investments;

At the level of industrial investors, the further investment entry of TCL Capital (TCL产投), Futeng Capital (孚腾资本), Shoucheng Holdings (0697.HK) (首程控股), C&D Emerging Investment (建发新兴投资), Hengxu Capital (恒旭资本), and CICV Investment (国汽投资) will strongly promote the commercialization process of the company's diversified scenarios;

At the state-owned capital level, Beijing Robotics Industry Development Investment Fund and Shanghai State Investment Guide have jointly invested in an embodied intelligence company for the first time. This empowers the company's development to align with the direction of the national "15th Five-Year Plan" for the robotics industry, assists TARS in becoming a regional leading enterprise in the embodied intelligence chain, and drives the upgrading and development of the industrial cluster.

Since its establishment, TARS (它石智航) has always remained true to its original aspiration, successively achieving multiple key technological milestones. It was the first to conquer the "Goldbach Conjecture" of the industrial automation world—the assembly of complex flexible wire harnesses—and set a Guinness World Record for "the most number of sub-millimeter wire harnesses assembled by a robot in one hour."

Meituan (美团) stated, "The company has long been bullish on the strategic value of Embodied AI as a next-generation productivity tool. We believe that the ultimate outcome of Embodied AI belongs to enterprises capable of bridging data, models, and the physical world. TARS (它石智航) possesses forward-looking core technological breakthroughs in the field of Embodied Large Models, as well as the engineering capability to transform technology into real productivity. We look forward to TARS (它石智航) rapidly promoting the large-scale application of the Embodied AI industry."

The person in charge of the Hillhouse Venture project stated: "In the field of embodied intelligence, we always focus on whether the team's judgment on key technical routes is sufficiently forward-looking, and whether they have the ability to truly implement cutting-edge technology into real-world scenarios. What left a deep impression on us was that the team formed clear and firm judgments on directions such as end-to-end models, world models, and reinforcement learning from the early stages of the startup. Moreover, this judgment did not remain at the conceptual level but was continuously being validated by product and scenario progress. At the same time, the team combines cutting-edge AI capabilities, industrial understanding, and complex system engineering implementation capabilities. They are able to effectively connect data, models, embodiments, and scenarios, steadily advancing towards the long-term goal of general robots while also continuously accumulating capabilities and realizing value from real-world scenarios in the short to medium term. Hillhouse's continued support for the team is precisely because we are optimistic about their ability to turn long-term technical directions into real industrial results step by step."

Dr. Chen Yilun, CEO of TARS (它石智航), stated, "The company has successively achieved intensive technological breakthroughs and implementation progress in areas such as full-stack AI layout, a Human-centric new data paradigm, and the world's first 'work-capable' general embodied large model, AWE3.0, laying a solid foundation for future development. Tashi will be committed to building trustworthy physical AI and taking the lead in becoming a new quality productive force for Chinese manufacturing."

Li Zhenyu, Chairman of TARS (它石智航), stated, "This round of financing will be used to accelerate the development of the general embodied large model AWE and to continuously attract top industry talent. The next round of financing will focus on building robots that can truly work and achieve true mass production. The company will actively participate in global competition to let Chinese embodied intelligence stand on the world stage."