The archive · Hardware & Devices · Technical decision · 2022–2026
Astribot bets tendon-driven arms make home humanoids; S1 went viral, ¥1B+ B round
Shenzhen's Stardust Intelligence bets tendon-driven arms plus an AI-first stack can mass-produce home humanoids; 2026 B round topped ¥1B.
Astribot (星尘智能 / Stardust Intelligence)
What the business is
Astribot builds the S1 humanoid — cable-driven arms on a wheeled base — with an AI model and embodied-OS stack, aimed at home, research, retail and service tasks.
How it started
Founded in Shenzhen in 2022 by Lai Jie (来杰), the first engineer and architect of Tencent's Robotics Lab and a former Baidu Xiaodu robot lead. S1 took about a year to develop; its April 2024 demo — pouring wine, shaving a cucumber, flipping sandwiches, writing calligraphy at up to 10 m/s with 10 kg per arm — went viral and made the unknown startup a global talking point.
What happened
On 2024-08-19 Astribot launched the full S1 robot on a wheeled base for household chores, CEO Lai Jie saying robots should reach millions of homes within 5–10 years. In 2025 it closed A, A+ and A++ rounds — Ant Group led three rounds in a year alongside Jinqiu Fund and Guoke Investment — and in June 2025 said it had cracked tendon-robot mass production with monthly batch deliveries, claiming to be the world's first mass-produced tendon-driven AI robot. By November 2025 it reported thousands of unit orders across research, tourism, retail and logistics, with clients including ByteDance, Tencent, Baidu, CCTV and JD.
How it ended up
Still running and expanding: a B-round series announced 2026-06-03 — three rounds in three months, over ¥1B total — pushed valuation past ¥10B, with funds earmarked for the 'AI model + embodied OS + tendon body' stack and real-world data collection.
Background
Astribot is the Shenzhen-based robot subsidiary of Stardust Intelligence (星尘智能), founded in 2022 by Lai Jie, the first engineer and architect of Tencent's Robotics Lab and a former Baidu Xiaodu robot lead. Its bet: tendon-driven 'cable' arms — which mimic human tendons instead of using rigid joints — plus an AI-first software stack can make humanoids dexterous, safe and cheap enough to mass-produce for homes and services.
The S1 took about a year to develop. Its April 2024 demo video — pulling a tablecloth out from under wine glasses, pouring wine, shaving a cucumber, flipping a sandwich, writing calligraphy at a claimed top speed of 10 m/s — went viral; New Atlas wrote that the bot 'truly gave us the chills.' On August 19, 2024, Astribot launched the full S1 on a wheeled base for household chores, with Lai Jie saying robots should reach millions of homes within 5–10 years.
Money followed the attention. In 2025 Astribot closed A, A+ and A++ rounds — Ant Group led three rounds in a single year alongside Jinqiu Fund and Guoke Investment. In June 2025 the company said it had cracked tendon-robot mass production and begun monthly batch deliveries, calling itself the world's first mass-produced tendon-driven AI robot. By November 2025 it reported thousands of unit orders spanning research, tourism, retail and logistics, with clients including ByteDance, Tencent, Baidu, CCTV and JD.
On 2026-06-03 Astribot announced a B-round series — three closings in three months, over ¥1B total — that pushed its valuation past ¥10B. The capital is aimed at iterating its AI foundation model, collecting real-world data, and scaling the 'AI model + embodied OS + tendon body' stack toward commercial deployment, keeping Astribot in the top tier of China's humanoid race.
What has to be true
- Tendon actuation was a genuinely different technical bet: lower friction, continuous force control and human-like speed versus the rigid-joint designs most humanoid rivals adopted.
- Astribot optimized for AI from day one ('Design for AI'), so the hardware could feed models continuous force data instead of fighting gear backlash and friction.
- The April 2024 demo was the wedge that created global traction — a single video made an unknown startup a named contender before it had shipped.
- Mass production, not the demo, is what converted attention into capital: monthly batch deliveries from June 2025 preceded thousands of orders and a valuation past ¥10B.
What can be applied
A differentiated bet — tendons instead of rigid joints — plus an AI-first stack made an unknown startup viral; but cracking mass production unlocked capital, orders and a ¥10B valuation.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Astribot is scaling: it reported thousands of unit orders (research, tourism, retail, industrial logistics), a 2025 A++ round co-led by Guoke Investment and Ant Group, and a 2026 B-round series totaling over ¥1B with a valuation past ¥10B. It launched the half-body commercial S1-U and the DuoCore whole-body VLA model at IROS in October 2025, and continues pushing the 'AI model + embodied OS + tendon body' stack toward real-world deployment, claiming to lead the tendon-driven track over OpenAI-backed 1X.
Sources
- Video of super-fast, super-smooth humanoid robot will drop your jaw
- Watch: Humanoid homebot tackles impressive array of household chores
- 蚂蚁集团三度押注 星尘智能再获融资
- 星尘智能完成B轮超10亿元融资
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