It Stone Smart Navigation (它石智航) raises $455M Pre‑A, the largest single round in China’s embodied intelligence sector this year

Big-ticket funding and who’s behind it

It Stone Smart Navigation (它石智航) has closed a $455 million Pre‑A round, it has been reported that the financing — led by Hillhouse Venture Capital (高瓴创投) and Sequoia China (红杉中国) — marks the largest single deal in China’s embodied intelligence sector in 2026. Strategic and financial investors joining the round include Meituan Longzhu (美团龙珠), CICC Capital (中金资本), Kailian Capital (凯联资本), Oriental Fortune Capital (东方富海) and Junshan Investment (钧山投资); earlier backers such as Qiming Venture Partners (启明创投), Linear Capital (线性资本) and BlueRun Ventures (蓝驰创投) also participated. Industry investors — including TCL Industrial Investment (TCL产投), Shoucheng Holdings (首程控股, 0697.HK) and C&D Emerging Investment (建发新兴投资) — further broaden the syndicate.

What the money will buy

The company said the funds will accelerate development of a general‑purpose embodied large model called AWE and attract top talent; reportedly the following financing round will prioritize turning research into robots that can “truly work” at scale. It Stone Smart Navigation has moved unusually fast since its 2024 founding, having raised roughly $120M and $122M in angel and angel+ rounds, then $242M in 2025 — now topping that with this $455M haul.

Technology and proof points

It Stone Smart Navigation has built an in‑house SenseHub wearable data acquisition suite that includes TARS‑Vision (a first‑person visual capture system) and two dexterous end‑effectors, TARS Glove (five‑finger) and Glove2 (pincer). The company disclosed AWE 3.0’s architecture at NVIDIA’s GTC earlier this year, claiming three core innovations: omniview shared‑sensing decision‑making (OSD), high‑density tactile sensing (HTS) and latent‑space smooth motion (LAS). It has been reported that AWE‑driven systems secured a Guinness World Record on March 10, 2026, for the most sub‑millimetre wire‑harness assemblies completed by a robot in one hour — a headline proof point for industrial precision.

Founders, strategy and geopolitical backdrop

It Stone Smart Navigation was co‑founded by Chen Yilun (陈亦伦) and Li Zhenyu (李震宇). Chen, a Tsinghua (清华大学) alumnus with a PhD from the University of Michigan, previously worked at DJI and Huawei, where he led full‑stack autonomous driving system development; Li is a longtime auto‑drive veteran who ran multiple core units at Baidu (百度), including its L4 autonomous driving division. This funding surge comes amid heightened geopolitical pressure — export controls on advanced semiconductors and tighter U.S.‑China tech relations — which has pushed Chinese startups and investors to double down on domestic AI, sensing and manufacturing capabilities. Why does that matter? Because capital, talent and hardware all need to converge for embodied intelligence to migrate from lab demos to factory floors and frontline services — and investors are betting this company can bridge that gap.