He Xiaopeng: XPeng's Humanoid Robot IRON to Begin Mass Production by End of Year

XPeng Group Chairman He Xiaopeng stated at the 2026 semi-annual earnings call that the humanoid robot IRON is planned to enter mass production starting from the end of this year, with commercial scenarios rolling out at XPeng stores and campuses. In 2027, IRON will officially launch, targeting external customers in retail and service industries, with large-scale deliveries in both China and overseas, and monthly production capacity can rapidly ramp up to thousands of units next year. He has concurrently served as CEO of the robotics business since June this year, integrating resources such as automotive supply chains, vehicle-grade manufacturing, global expansion, and Turing AI chips to drive mass production and commercialization. On the same day, XPeng announced that its humanoid robot business secured over $900 million in its first financing round, with a post-investment valuation exceeding $6.3 billion. IDG led the round, with GSR Ventures, Tencent, Alibaba, and others subscribing to $600 million, while XPeng Group and controlling entities of senior executives including He Xiaopeng subscribed to $300 million. He Xiaopeng believes that the technical threshold for advanced general-purpose robots is at least 20 times that of smart vehicles, and the full-lifecycle revenue and gross margin per unit will be significantly higher than those of automobiles, expecting substantial gross margins post-mass production to support physical AI research and development. The pre-installed mass-produced Robotaxi equipped with the second-generation VLA has completed over 2,000 internal test orders in Guangzhou, and XPeng has completed the development of a cloud-based takeover platform, targeting driverless passenger operations with no safety officer next year. The automotive business recorded total revenue of RMB 32.78 billion in the first half of the year, with deliveries of 166,000 units and a gross margin of 20.6%; it expects Q3 deliveries of 115,000 to 121,000 units, with total revenue of RMB 21.7 billion to 23.4 billion.