Alibaba

China is applying its electric vehicle playbook to robotics. Learn what’s real, what’s hype, and levers for U.S. competitiveness.

In 2020, autonomous vehicles left other technology applications in the dust. Other areas of robotics receiving funding or merger and acquisition activity included supply chain automation, surgical robots, and quadrupeds.

Autonomous vehicles, sensors, food preparation, and surgical robots received funding in November 2019.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has a rich knowledge of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). Its invested millions to add mobile robots to its warehouses to help fulfill online sales, which in 2015, for example, were greater than Amazon, eBay, and Walmart combined. Alibaba is getting itself into commercial robotics with a new service robot called…