With deep technological roots and extensive scene resources, JD.com and Meituan are actively integrating embodied intelligence into their core strategic landscapes. Although their approaches differ, their objectives align: to spearhead an efficiency revolution in their primary businesses through embodied intelligence and forge core competitiveness for the future.

Editor: Lv Xinyi

Liu Qiangdong and Wang Xing find themselves once again at the same table, but this time, they're not wagering on cups of tea; they're betting on tickets to the next era: embodied intelligence.

As key players in e-commerce and local life services, respectively, JD.com and Meituan's primary businesses aren't directly tied to embodied intelligence. However, the technological and scene accumulation embedded in their corporate DNA form the cornerstone for nurturing embodied intelligence. As emphasized by Meituan CEO Wang Xing, Meituan is fundamentally a technology-driven enterprise; similarly, JD.com CEO Xu Lei noted that "AI is increasingly playing a value-driven role in JD.com's overall business."

With AI as the central narrative for both, embodied intelligence, as a pivotal vehicle for AI capabilities to penetrate the physical world, naturally becomes a prime target for these two giants to compete in layout. Its value lies in two dimensions: firstly, leveraging the technological leap of embodied intelligence to drive a breakthrough improvement in the efficiency of both parties' core businesses; secondly, this technology holds the potential for full-link penetration and efficiency reconstruction.

Specifically:

Wang Xing clearly stated that the company will deepen its collaboration with invested robotics enterprises, strengthen the integration of Robotics and AI, and continuously iterate key capabilities such as automated delivery. The technological advancement of embodied intelligence will drive innovation in core elements of its supply chain and terminal delivery system, effectively reducing fulfillment costs. Additionally, Wang Xing has a grander vision of "bridging" the physical and digital worlds, with embodied intelligence serving as the central nexus.

On the basis of optimizing fulfillment links, JD.com is also focusing on promoting technical collaboration between JD Cloud and embodied intelligence products, aiming to enhance its market competitiveness in cloud services. Simultaneously, by listing embodied intelligence products on its e-commerce platform, JD.com aims to seize the first-mover advantage in embodied intelligence retail channels, establish a "uniqueness" barrier, and further consolidate its comprehensive competitiveness in the e-commerce sector.

With deep technological roots and extensive scene resources, JD.com and Meituan are actively integrating embodied intelligence into their core strategic landscapes. Despite their divergent paths, their goals remain consistent: to spearhead an efficiency revolution in their primary businesses through embodied intelligence, build core competitiveness for the future, and occupy strategic high ground in the next round of AI-empowered industrial competition.

Investment + Independent Research Dual-Track Strategy

Don't Miss Out on Embodied Intelligence

The strategies of large enterprises often bear historical similarities. Whether it's large models or embodied intelligence, forward-thinking internet giants always deploy their strategies through "investment + independent research." The former involves betting on potential players to grow together through industrial investment, maximizing the value of new targets through industrial cooperation in the shortest time, while the latter facilitates long-term development and mastery of technological initiative.

From an investment perspective, Meituan is more aggressive than JD.com or any other large enterprise. The largest external shareholder of the popular Unitree Robotics is none other than Meituan. The rationale behind "buying half the track" is the best footnote to Meituan's "technology + retail" strategy.

According to the Embodied Learning Society, since 2024, Meituan has made 8 investments in embodied intelligence, participating in companies such as Independent Variable Robotics, Miaodong Technology, Unitree Robotics, Yinhe Universal, and Tashizhihang. In terms of the attributes of the invested enterprises, Meituan's investment layout in embodied intelligence spans ontology, brain, and brain + ontology.

The overall strategy isn't to bet on the founding team or a single development trajectory but rather on the future logic of "buying the track." After all, embodied intelligence is still in its infancy, and the only certainty is that this trend is irreversible, but the path to achieving it remains uncertain.

Illustration by Embodied Learning Society, data from public sources

Apart from financial investment, Meituan has also forged a "tightly bound" development posture with invested enterprises, enabling bidirectional empowerment through its own scene advantages and invested enterprises.

The most typical case occurred in September 2024, when Meituan and Yinhe Universal signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The two parties will jointly create the world's first humanoid robot intelligent pharmacy solution and cooperate in multiple fields such as offline retail, smart warehouses, and smart logistics.

Yinhe Universal can be classified as a "large model + ontology" type of humanoid robot enterprise. It enhances the generalization of robots through simulation data training, allowing robots to "understand" objects. The wheeled and foldable ontology structural design enables robots to move smoothly in various scenes and expand the range of operating space. The combination of these two aspects equips its humanoid robots with the basic ability to work in retail scenarios.

Image source: Yinhe Universal

When Yinhe Universal's technological prowess meets Meituan's channel and scene advantages, it not only provides real-world work validation for Yinhe Universal but also injects new productivity that is automated, unmanned, and all-weather into Meituan's retail sector. Wang He, founder of Yinhe Universal, revealed that two 24-hour "unmanned" pharmacies staffed by humanoid robots have been set up in Beijing, with plans to deploy 100 nationwide by the end of the year.

Compared to Meituan, JD.com has made fewer investments in the field of embodied intelligence, but its investments have been extremely generous. In July 2024, it strategically invested 200 million yuan in Xianglu Technology, a company developing AI cooking robots. In May 2025, it led the B+ round of financing for another star enterprise in embodied intelligence, "Zhiyuan Robotics."

Fewer investments do not reflect JD.com's "hesitation"; on the contrary, JD.com may value embodied intelligence even more than Meituan, as evidenced by its independent research efforts.

Earlier this year, Liu Qiangdong appeared in Hong Kong to visit projects related to embodied intelligence. Subsequently, JD.com officially announced its entry into the field of embodied intelligence, establishing a special business department to focus on the development of intelligent products for household scenarios. Simultaneously, it recruited Shen Hui, former vice president of SenseTime Technology, to join as the head of the embodied intelligence project. At that time, there were speculations within the industry that some technical backbone members from SenseTime's "Yuanluobo" project had also joined.

In July, JD.com confirmed to the outside world that it would soon release an AI fashion toy product. It is foreseeable that this AI fashion toy product, bearing the name of JD.com's independent research, will undoubtedly be launched on JD.com Mall, appearing alongside other related JD.com products. At that time, JD.com will firmly establish itself as the "leader" in the robot sales platform.

Meituan, on the other hand, established the Shenzhen Meituan Robotics Research Institute in 2022, dedicated to the research and development of key common technologies for robots such as drones, autonomous driving, and embodied intelligence. Mao Yinian, vice president of Meituan and head of the drone business, serves as the president and dean of the Meituan Robotics Research Institute.

The research institute primarily collaborates with universities on scientific research, with achievements covering fields such as motion control and multimodal interaction. As of December 2024, the Meituan Robotics Research Institute has reached over 40 scientific research collaborations with more than 20 universities worldwide (such as Tsinghua University and Harbin Institute of Technology).

It's evident that whether it's investment or independent research, both Meituan and JD.com are essentially making strategic bets to extend their strengths, shielding their primary businesses from the impact of the times.

JD.com: Becoming the App Store of Embodied Intelligence

What JD.com seeks is never just a cooler-looking new product.

From a genetic perspective, hardware isn't JD.com's strength, but selling hardware is JD.com's secret to success. Over the years, its ability to build an ecological closed loop for hardware has long become JD.com's "killer move."

Today, JD.com is building an ecological closed loop of "3C channel advantages + AI technology empowerment" for embodied intelligence products. For instance, the JoyInside platform built by JD.com implants JD.com's large model interaction capabilities into hardware devices such as robots, toys, and furniture, constructing an integrated embodied intelligence ecosystem of "hardware + software + services."

Image source: JD Cloud

Currently, this platform has collaborated with more than 10 leading manufacturers to launch multiple consumer-grade and industry-grade products. During JD.com's 618 shopping festival, it achieved a 300% year-on-year increase in self-operated sales of intelligent robots and a 1700% year-on-year increase in sales of embodied intelligence robots.

It's believed that soon, through product technology empowerment and the reuse of its original 3C channel advantages (including the overlap of target user groups and the accumulation of in-station user data), JD.com will be able to establish user perceptions similar to "buy home appliances on JD.com" for "buy robots on JD.com."

With underlying technical support and a window for users to see, the embodied intelligence ecosystem created by JD.com bears a striking resemblance to Apple's ecosystem, and JD.com may become the App Store of embodied intelligence.

Firstly, the interaction capabilities accumulated in JD Cloud's model can empower hardware manufacturers to create AI brains, enhancing the human-computer interaction experience. This obviously lowers the research and development threshold for robot manufacturers. In turn, the pressure on model research and development is reduced, and products become "usable" faster, assisting product entry into the market on the supply side.

Secondly, JD.com's cooperation with these enterprises extends to the sales level. JD.com not only invites these enterprises to settle in its mall but also provides them with technical support in the future. These enterprises' products aren't just consumer-grade AI toys but also include industry-grade products such as Zhongqing PM01 and MagicDog.

On July 15, JD.com signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Whale Robot, a leading educational robot brand. A key part of this cooperation is that JD Cloud will provide stable cloud service support, a full-process intelligent agent development platform, and endow its products with the JoyInside AI brain. JD.com's digital human and AI marketing technologies will also assist in product sales. The starting point of this cooperation is Whale Robot's entry into JD.com.

Image source: JD Cloud

Furthermore, some humanoid enterprises not connected to JD.com's model, such as Zhuoyide, Lingbao CASBOT, Songyan Power, Xinghai Map, and Unitree Robotics, have either been invited by JD.com or have "unanimously" gathered on JD.com's e-commerce platform, creating new labels and genes for JD.com's e-commerce while also opening up new sales channels for these embodied enterprises.

For example, Cyan Qingxin Yichuang stated in an interview with Securities Daily that "JD.com currently provides a lot of promotional resources, and JD.com's procurement and sales are essentially B-end oriented, which is conducive to promoting business progress." Therefore, both C-end and B-end embodied enterprises can benefit from JD.com.

In this way, the user mindset of "buy robots on JD.com" is quietly established, and the vendors embedded in JD.com's hardware ecosystem also bring an agglomeration effect. JD.com naturally has control over the entire supply and sales chain of embodied products, holding the control rights of the embodied hardware ecosystem.

Meituan: "Reconstructing" Business Boundaries with Embodied Intelligence

Compared to JD.com's embodied actions, Meituan's seem a bit "scattershot," but in fact, Meituan is breaking through business boundaries by lighting up its lush technology tree.

Observing Meituan's strategic layout in the embodied field, two conclusions emerge: surface and deep.

On the surface, Meituan bears the huge label of a "food delivery company" with 7 million riders and tens of millions of partner merchants, which constitute its "baggage." Therefore, in the labor-intensive food delivery industry, in addition to continuously improving delivery efficiency on the algorithmic side, Meituan is also bound to actively invest in cutting-edge productivity (robots) to enhance business efficiency.

Thus, from the companies invested in by Meituan, some observers perceive self-consistent instances of "technology" nurturing "retail," believing that Meituan's strategic layout consistently revolves around "retail." For instance, as early as 2021, the invested Horizon Robotics jointly launched the MagiBag 20 unmanned delivery vehicle with Meituan, augmenting delivery riders' terminal transport capacity.

Image source: Meituan Autonomous Delivery

Indeed, unmanned delivery vehicles for riders, unmanned retail for merchants, and the fulfillment capabilities required for local life businesses are deeply intertwined. Does Meituan's strategy solely focus on catering delivery and instant retail?

If one shifts perspective and delves deeper, viewing Meituan as a technology company transitioning towards AI, the business boundaries no longer remain confined to the local life sector.

Among the technology companies Meituan has invested in over the past few years are leading firms such as Zhipu, Moon's Dark Side, and the acquired Lightyear AI; the AI infrastructure provider Silicon Flow; diverse robotics enterprises like Unitree Robotics, Xinghai Map, Independent Variable, Flexiv, Tashizhihang, and Pudu Robotics; autonomous driving companies including Jiushi Intelligence and Horizon Robotics; and, of course, upstream companies like Hesai Technology and Aichip Microelectronics...

Furthermore, Meituan has invested billions of yuan in constructing GPU resources. It has independently developed the large language model LongCat, which is said to possess capabilities nearing GPT-4 and is comparable to domestic first-tier models. It has also created AI-native products, such as an AI life assistant capable of automatically ordering food. Its drone technology has undergone continuous iterations and now operates on dozens of routes in cities like Shenzhen and Dubai...

Therefore, it is overly simplistic to attribute all of Meituan's investments in the technology sector solely to the business needs of catering delivery. Moreover, on the catering delivery landscape, it is certainly not another "Meituan" that will usurp its position.

From this vantage point, Meituan's embodied intelligence initiatives are not merely aimed at safeguarding its core business but rather represent the company's spontaneous exploration of broader business horizons, with technology serving as the lifeblood.

As we all know, Meituan is a company that espouses "no boundaries" and "no limits." In 2017, Wang Xing stated, "Too many people focus on boundaries and not on the core." He continued, "There are no absolute boundaries in all things, so I believe we should not set limits for ourselves. As long as we are clear about our core - who we serve and what services we provide - we will continue to experiment with various businesses."

If one were to encapsulate Meituan's strategy in the embodied intelligence domain, Wang Xing's words resonate profoundly: "We are a technology company that bridges offline businesses with the online world. In the AI era, we will continue to serve as this bridge, realizing the integration between the digital and physical realms. This is our strength."

It is evident that "connection" is inherent in Meituan's DNA.

This also explains why Meituan consistently invests in seemingly "unrelated" businesses. There are no futile investments; only deep synergies yet to surface.

Not only embodied intelligence but also cutting-edge technologies like the low-altitude economy and autonomous driving have witnessed Meituan's involvement. These are all, without exception, facets of the "connection" emphasized by Wang Xing, the focal point of Meituan's relentless pursuit.

The industrial narrative of embodied intelligence extends beyond the entry of Meituan and JD.com. Alibaba has deepened its investments in the robotics industry chain, while Tencent continues to increase its investments in technological research and development. As all internet giants anchor themselves in the embodied intelligence track, this technological revolution, jointly propelled by top technology enterprises, holds far greater strategic boosting value than potential competitive pressure for the nascent industry ecosystem.