Embodied AI Is Crowding in "Road Builders"—Before Robots Are Widely Adopted, 12,270 Service Providers Are Already Competing - 36Kr

Embodied AI funding is booming: in H1 2026, domestic deals reached 322 rounds and 93.5 billion yuan, with at least eight companies valued above 20 billion yuan.

But the bigger opportunity appears to be upstream “road builders” that provide perception, world models, standards, and training data, not just robot makers.

There are more than 12,000 related companies in the ecosystem, and the race is shifting toward foundational capability providers.

This means a few leading infrastructure platforms could shape the industry’s future, while late entrants face a much higher risk of being squeezed out.