Shengshi Weisheng Closes A+ Round as Hyundai Bets on Welding Robot Sector

Hyundai Enters the Arena as Welding Robot Sector Draws Fresh Capital

Shengshi Weisheng, an embodied-intelligence robotics company focused on welding vertical scenarios, recently announced the completion of a Series A+ funding round worth tens of millions of yuan, co-invested by South Korea's Hyundai and Viguard Ventures. The proceeds will primarily go toward R&D of its "embodied brain," iteration of hardware and software products, and market promotion. Notably, the company has already secured shipyard orders worth tens of millions of yuan, with full-year revenue expected to exceed several hundred million yuan — a clear sign of accelerating commercialization.

As a strategic investment from Hyundai, a global industrial giant, the round not only provides financial backing but also signals international industrial capital's endorsement of Shengshi Weisheng's technology roadmap, potentially opening doors to overseas markets.

"Three-in-One" Core Capabilities Build a Technology Moat

Founded in 2020, Shengshi Weisheng's core team comprises robotics experts from top universities including Harbin Institute of Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, as well as seasoned professionals with years of industrial automation experience. Founder Wang Dezhao and the core team have spent over a decade in robotics and automation, developing a deep understanding of the process requirements and industry pain points specific to welding scenarios.

The company's key technological advantage lies in its proprietary "three-in-one" capability integrating AI algorithms, welding processes, and robot hardware. In 2022, Shengshi Weisheng acquired Hagong Hyundai Robot Co., Ltd. Its controlled subsidiary Hagong Hyundai operates a smart factory in Haining, Zhejiang Province, with an annual production capacity of several thousand robots and cumulative shipments approaching ten thousand units. This strategic layout makes the company one of the few domestic smart robotics firms capable of independently developing and deeply integrating everything from robot hardware design and manufacturing, to embodied AI models, to welding process data.

End-to-End Embodied AI Model Tackles Non-Standard Welding Challenges

On the AI algorithm front, Shengshi Weisheng pursues an "end-to-end embodied AI model" approach, training robots to understand welding tasks through a multimodal, welding-specific large model. The model leverages the company's extensive welding process data for simulation training, enabling robots to achieve greater adaptability under non-standard and complex working conditions.

Traditional welding automation solutions typically rely on manual teach-in programming and fixed routines, delivering extremely low efficiency when confronted with non-standard scenarios such as shipbuilding and steel structures. By equipping robots with autonomous perception and decision-making capabilities through its "embodied brain," Shengshi Weisheng has significantly lowered deployment thresholds and commissioning times — a key factor behind its ability to win large-scale shipyard orders.

Market Outlook: AI Ushers in a New Growth Cycle for Welding Robots

Welding, one of the most ubiquitous manufacturing processes, has long struggled with difficulties in recruiting workers, rising labor costs, and inconsistent quality. Industry data indicates that China's welder shortage has exceeded one million, while traditional industrial robots still have a low penetration rate in unstructured welding scenarios. As embodied intelligence technology matures, AI-driven welding robots are entering a window for large-scale deployment.

Hyundai's strategic investment in Shengshi Weisheng not only validates the industrial value of the company's technology roadmap but also provides strong endorsement for expansion into high-value-added sectors such as shipbuilding and heavy industry. At this critical juncture — with annual revenue projected to surpass several hundred million yuan — Shengshi Weisheng is transitioning from the technology validation phase to a new stage of scalable growth.

The deep integration of embodied intelligence with industrial scenarios may well be one of the most pragmatic paths for AI technology to move from the laboratory to the factory floor.