Summary
- Xiaoyu Intelligent Manufacturing is using welding as the first step in its broader industrial embodied intelligence plan.
- The company chose welding because it sees a major labor shortage, hard working conditions, and a long training path for new welders.
- Its founder says the goal is to build one general robot “brain” that can later expand from welding into tasks like riveting, grinding, and spraying.
Xiaoyu Intelligent Manufacturing, founded in 2023 by former Xiaomi executive Qiao Zhongliang, is putting welding at the center of its early robotics push. In the 36Kr report, the company presents welding as the first real factory case for its “one brain, multiple forms” idea, where one core intelligence could later run different robot bodies.
The reason is very practical. Qiao says welding fits three things his team looks for: work people do not want to do, work that takes a long time to learn, and work with high value. He also points to a major welder shortage, while noting that welding can be hard on the lungs, eyes, and waist, even though pay can be attractive. That makes this story important not only for robotics, but also for the future of welding jobs and skills.
On the technical side, the company says welding is one of the hardest industrial tasks because of molten pool behavior, metal movement, smoke, dust, and the need to control the last few millimeters with accuracy. Xiaoyu says its welding robots have been deployed in customer factories since Q4 2025, and it sees welding as the base from which it may later expand into nearby operations such as riveting, grinding, and spraying.
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