JD.com and Huilun Tech Partner to Commercialize Humanoid Robots

JD.com and Huilun Tech have signed a strategic partnership to integrate humanoid robots—including security patrol units, motors, and dexterous hands—into JD.com's retail and logistics operations, combining hardware with JD.com's proprietary AI software and large language models. The deal marks a shift in Chinese e-commerce and logistics toward rapid commercialisation of embodied AI to offset labour costs and improve efficiency. A major e-commerce player just bought a robotics company's entire output and is embedding it into live warehouses. If you build sensors, grippers, power systems or navigation software for humanoid robots, you now know where volume orders originate—and JD.com's customers will follow.