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Hong Kong fund strikes another AI deal with Beijing robot maker Galbot to boost industry

arifnsn July 19, 2024

0 29 2 minutes read

Hong Kong fund strikes another AI deal with Beijing robot maker Galbot to boost industry

Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC), a HK$62 billion (US$8 billion) government fund, has inked a partnership with Galbot, a Beijing-based humanoid robot start-up, in the latest high-profile move from the financial hub to shore up its artificial intelligence (AI) industry.

The deal will see Galbot establish a local entity called HK-Galbot Embodied AI Lab, and the company will explore applications for humanoid robots in Hong Kong with pilot projects in industries including retail and tourism, HKIC CEO Clara Chan said on Friday at a signing ceremony.

Galbot will also work with local schools to set up training programmes for embodied AI – which is integrated into physical objects so that AI systems can interact with their environments – and train more than 100 teenagers every year, Chan said.

A potential benefit of embodied AI, according to Chan, is that it can replace humans in performing dangerous and tedious tasks.

Chan Clara, CEO of the HKIC, speaks at the ceremony announcing the government fund’s partnership with Galbot at Island Shangri-la on July 19, 2024. Photo: Dickson Lee

The year-old Beijing start-up, the third company chosen by HKIC to boost Hong Kong’s technology sector, will also prioritise Hong Kong as its destination for an initial public offering in the future, according to Chan.

Companies the HKIC has collaborated with, including SmartMore and Biomap, are bringing technology, research capabilities, talent and pioneering products to Hong Kong, which will attract more companies and investment firms to the city, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said at the same event on Friday.

“We believe that Galbot will participate in depth in building a robotics ecosystem in Hong Kong,” he said.

At a media briefing, HKIC’s Chan declined to disclose how much the government fund had invested in Galbot.

He Wang, an assistant professor at the Peking University’s Centre on Frontiers of Computing Studies in Beijing, founded Galbot in May of last year.

The company completed an angel round of funding in June this year, raising 700 million yuan (US$96.3 million) from investors including Chinese food delivery giant Meituan, and major venture capital firms including Qiming Venture Partners and Lanchi Ventures.

The company exhibited its first humanoid robot, named Galbot G1, earlier this month at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, China’s biggest AI show. Chinese media reports showed that the robot performed tasks including talking with visitors, picking up objects and placing them down at a targeted location.

The Galbot G1 engaged with more than 800 visitors at WAIC, fetching objects more than 1,000 times with a success rate of 97 per cent, Wang said on Friday.

“AI currently focuses too much on abstract concepts but not on physical labour,” Wang said, explaining why Galbot is building human-shaped machines. “If we want AI to perform physical tasks, it can’t be just a computer, right? It needs arms, it needs hands, it needs legs; it requires a physical body.”

Wang said his company can make robots for a tenth of what it costs similar US companies because of the Greater Bay Area’s supply chain advantage. In 10 to 15 years, a humanoid robot purchase for a household could be comparable to buying a car, he said.

Galbot’s products could first be used in retail to perform actions such as picking out items from delivery orders and passing them to a delivery person, Wang said at the media briefing. The company plans to have its robots in some Hong Kong shops within the next year or two, with a large-scale deployment within five years, he said.

arifnsn July 19, 2024

0 29 2 minutes read