Huawei has invested in a physical AI startup through its investment arm Huawei Habot, marking another strategic move into embodied intelligence technology.

GigaAI, a Beijing-based physical AI company, announced the completion of its RMB 100 million ($14 million) A1 funding round on November 3, jointly led by Huawei Habot and Huakong Fund. The investment follows several hundred million yuan raised across Pre-A and Pre-A+ rounds in late August, bringing the total to four funding rounds between February 12 and October 30, 2025.

Founded in 2023, GigaAI develops full-stack software and hardware solutions driven by world models for physical AI applications. Its core products include GigaWorld, a world model platform; GigaBrain, an embodied foundation model; and Maker, a general-purpose embodied platform.

The company's GigaWorld platform generates physically accurate, high-fidelity synthetic data to bridge the gap between traditional simulation environments and real-world conditions, enhancing training efficiency for robotics and autonomous driving systems.

GigaBrain-0, released recently, represents China's first vision-language-action foundation model combining world models with real-world generalization capabilities. The model demonstrates strong 3D spatial perception and structured reasoning abilities, capable of handling complex mobile manipulation tasks across multiple platforms. The company plans to open-source the model to lower industry development barriers.

The startup's founding team consists of researchers from Tsinghua University's Intelligent Vision Laboratory and veterans from Baidu Inc. and Microsoft Corp. CEO Huang Guan holds a doctorate from Tsinghua's automation department and brings over a decade of AI industry experience from Microsoft, Samsung, and Horizon Robotics. Chief scientist Zhu Zheng has published over 70 papers at top conferences with more than 16,000 citations.

GigaAI has established partnerships with humanoid robot innovation centers, global automotive manufacturers, and leading embodied AI platform developers. Its products, including virtual-physical data factories and embodied intelligence platforms, are being deployed across driving, industrial, and service scenarios.

The investment aligns with Huawei's broader strategy to expand its presence in AI infrastructure and applications beyond traditional telecommunications equipment.