Xixuan Chuangzhi, the MetaX (688802.SH) and UBTECH (9880.HK) embodied AI chip company, closes RMB500 million angel round led by 纪源资本 and MPCi
Xixuan Chuangzhi Technology (Wuxi), a robot chip company set up in May 2026 by GPU maker MetaX (688802.SH) and robot maker UBTECH (9880.HK), has closed a RMB500 million angel round, about $74.4 million at the Nov. 11 central parity rate, Shanghai Securities News and 21st Century Business Herald reported on Nov. 11, 2026. 纪源资本 and MPCi, formerly Matrix Partners China, co-led it. Shanghai Securities News said followers include CTC Capital, Hengxu Capital, Glory Ventures and Soul Capital.
Its first chip is a combined "big brain and small brain" robot SoC for perception, decision-making and motion control. Its stated R&D goal is to fully surpass Nvidia's Thor, a company target rather than a test result. It plans a validation platform for partners in 2027 and its first SoC and embodied AI solution in 2028. The money goes to chip and platform R&D, a software toolchain, hiring, joint validation and mass-production delivery.
Servospace take: UBTECH is helping build the chip it may end up buying
Servospace analysis: this is a buyer-backed chip supplier more than a classic chip startup. Business registration data reported by Star Market Daily in June listed MetaX and UBTECH at 35.01% each and Zhejiang Fenglong Electric at 4.70%, with the rest held by three other entities. Fenglong's own April filing shows UBTECH owns 43.01% of it, so UBTECH and the listed company it controls held about 39.71% of Xixuan at founding versus 35.01% for MetaX, a Servospace calculation. Stakes after the angel round were not disclosed.
The new money is five times the RMB100 million registered capital reported in June, and there is no product yet. In June the partners targeted tape-out in the second half of 2027. Nvidia made Jetson AGX Thor generally available on Aug. 25, 2025, with a $3,499 developer kit and early adopters including Agility Robotics, Boston Dynamics and Figure. Xixuan's first SoC would land about three years after the chip it benchmarks against, by Servospace math.
Who makes money: if UBTECH designs Xixuan silicon into its robots, compute spending that now goes to outside chip vendors would flow partly to a company UBTECH co-owns. UBTECH chief Zhou Jian said in June that foreign chips and on-robot materials make up roughly a third of a humanoid's bill of materials, his estimate, which Servospace has not verified. The risk is the calendar: robot makers can buy Thor today, and Xixuan's buyers wait until 2028.
More on Nvidia, UBTech and robot business and funding.
Sources
- Shanghai Securities News via Eastmoney: Xixuan Chuangzhi completes RMB500 million angel round (Nov. 11, 2026)
- 21st Century Business Herald via 10jqka: MetaX and UBTECH chip venture raises RMB500 million (Nov. 11, 2026)
- Star Market Daily (Cailian Press) via Sina Finance: UBTECH and MetaX form embodied AI chip joint venture, shareholders and timeline (June 12, 2026)
- 21st Century Business Herald: UBTECH and MetaX RMB100 million chip venture targets 2028 mass production (June 12, 2026)
- Zhejiang Fenglong Electric (002931.SZ) filing via CNINFO: UBTECH tender offer completed, UBTECH holds 43.01% (Apr. 25, 2026)
- Zhejiang Fenglong Electric (002931.SZ) filing via CNINFO: controlling shareholder changed to UBTECH, actual controller Zhou Jian (Mar. 13, 2026)
- Xixuan Chuangzhi: About us (company site)
- NVIDIA Newsroom: Jetson Thor now available (Aug. 25, 2025)
- TechNode: Matrix Partners rebrands China unit as MPC (July 2, 2024)
- MPCi: About us (English site, formerly Matrix Partners China)
- Xinhua: yuan central parity rates, Nov. 11, 2026 (USD 6.7191)
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Summarized by Servospace from the sources above, drafted with AI help and checked against those sources before publishing. Claims are the companies' or outlets' unless we say otherwise. How we work.