China’s Midea pledges US$8.7 billion for AI and robotics in pivot to automation

Midea Group, the owner of industrial robot giant Kuka, is the latest Chinese company to pledge heavy investment in AI and robotics – another 60 billion yuan (US$8.7 billion) over the next three years – as traditional industries embrace futuristic technologies.The planned expenditure on research and development, with a focus on “AI, embodied intelligence and other cutting-edge areas”, matched its total spending over the past five years, the company announced in Shanghai on Tuesday.The strategic move followed the debut in December of an “ultra” humanoid robot, Miro U, which has six arms and runs on wheels.The robot had been deployed at one of the home appliance giant’s washing machine factories in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, where it had improved production-line changeover efficiency by 30 per cent, according to the company website.Midea has accelerated its foray into robotics since the 2017 acquisition of German robotic giant Kuka. Five years later, the Chinese firm established a lab to study high-end heavy-duty robots, the only “state key laboratory” in the robotics sector backed by a company.In 2024, Midea launched an innovation centre dedicated to humanoid robots.Midea is not alone among China’s traditional electric appliance makers in pivoting towards robotics and AI.