Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Technology myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The Chinese army\u2019s newest recruit is a robot dog made by a start-up with funding from major venture capital firms.The debut of the robo-dog, which the army has equipped with an assault rifle that it can fire, was a \u201cmajor highlight\u201d of joint exercises carried out by the People\u2019s Liberation Army and Cambodia this month, according to Chinese state television.\u00a0It is based on a robot dog made by Unitree Robotics, formally called Hangzhou Yushu Technology, which has received backing from top VCs including Neil Shen\u2019s HongShan, formerly known as Sequoia Capital China; Matrix Partners China; and Shunwei Capital, set up by Xiaomi founder Lei Jun. In February, the start-up raised Rmb1bn ($140mn) in a funding round that included food delivery app Meituan and made the group its biggest external investor, with an 8 per cent stake.Unitree says it does not sell its products to China\u2019s military; it is not known how the PLA procured the dog.Even so, the PLA\u2019s use of Unitree\u2019s product highlights how difficult it can be for VCs and start-ups to ensure their investments in boundary-pushing technologies such as robotics are not militarised. Corporate records indicate that HongShan and Matrix Partners China\u2019s funding came from their renminbi-denominated funds, which would not include US investors, and which hold 7 and 6 per cent stakes in Unitree, respectively, according to business data provider Tianyancha.\u00a0However, the armed forces\u2019 robo-dog demonstration is likely to reinforce Washington\u2019s determination to make sure that US funding is not used to further China\u2019s use of technology for military purposes.The Biden administration, which has consistently argued that advanced technology can end up aiding China\u2019s armed forces, announced an order last August that would restrict some US funding to the country, while US lawmakers have also stepped up scrutiny of investments in China.Before splitting from Sequoia Capital last year amid rising US-China tensions, HongShan, led by managing partner Shen, raised nearly $9bn, about half from US pension funds and endowments.Shen\u2019s team first invested in Unitree in 2020 and has participated in several subsequent funding rounds, according to data provider ITJuzi. Unitree said its products were manufactured for civilian use and that the company was not involved in deploying them for any military purposes. \u201cThe company also does not have any contractual or business relationship with any military-related parties,\u201d Unitree said. HongShan said it did not \u201cinvest in businesses that operate for the purpose of facilitating or providing support to military use\u201d and added that if anyone independently obtained Unitree\u2019s products from third parties, that was beyond the control of the company.\u00a0\u00a0Matrix Partners China, Shunwei Capital and Meituan did not respond to requests for comment. PLA soldier Chen Wei told state TV that the robot dog with its rifle attachment could \u201cconduct a firepower strike after discovering the enemy\u201d, adding that \u201cit has become a new team member for our urban attack and defence operations\u201d.\u00a0The video shows Unitree\u2019s name on the PLA\u2019s remote-controlled robot dog, which jumps, comes to heel and leads an infantry team, firing a rifle on its back in an exercise. Unitree\u2019s robo-dogs first attracted attention during Shanghai\u2019s 2022 Covid lockdown, when a local housing community strapped a megaphone on the back of one to bark orders at city residents.\u00a0\u00a0These are Chinese troops\u2019 robot dogs during the \u201cGolden Dragon-2024\u201d joint exercises with Cambodia. They can even shake \u201chands\u201d with human!Robot dogs can be so intelligent & flexible in key combat scenarios. pic.twitter.com\/C6f2peHUIT\u2014 Hu Xijin \u80e1\u9521\u8fdb (@HuXijin_GT) May 26, 2024<\/p>\n
The state-owned nationalist tabloid Global Times quoted an unnamed expert as saying the drills showed that the PLA has been intensively testing robot dogs and their debut in joint military exercises meant the new platform had \u201creached a certain level of technical maturity\u201d.Unitree sells on Amazon robo-dogs similar to those used by the PLA and has also started marketing an Rmb99,000 humanoid robot.\u00a0US-China tensions have helped fuel a gold rush for defence start-ups in the US but have contributed to plummeting funding for Chinese groups, as American and other global investors pull back from investing in the country.\u00a0The situation has drawn the attention of President Xi Jinping, who earlier this month asked business leaders about it. \u201cWhy is the number of new unicorn companies declining?\u201d he asked executives, according to state media. The answer was not reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Technology myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.The Chinese army\u2019s newest recruit is a robot dog made by a start-up with funding from major venture capital firms.The debut of the robo-dog, which the army<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-94303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94303\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}