To drive standardization and large-scale development in the robotics rental industry, the National Robot Rental Ecosystem Summit and Qingtian Rent Platform Launch Conference was held in Pudong on December 22. The conference unveiled “Qingtian Rent,” the country’s first open robot rental platform. The platform introduced its “1234 Strategic Plan,” aiming to attract over 10 robot manufacturers, develop more than 200 premium service rental providers, gather over 3,000 content creators, and serve more than 400,000 rental customers by 2026.
Promoting Standardization and Large-Scale Development in Robot Rental
Early this year, humanoid robots were still unsteady on their feet, but by year-end, they could sing, dance, and converse fluently. For emerging industries, rapid technological innovation often coincides with breakthroughs in business models. Only through innovative business models can new technologies be effectively delivered to users and deployed across diverse scenarios.
The key to integrating robots into thousands of industries and millions of households lies in lowering the barrier to entry—making robots “accessible to everyone.” “Many robot users this year have been driven by curiosity or a desire to experiment, rather than treating them as everyday, scalable products,” said Jiang Qingsong, Partner at Zhiyuan AGIBOT and Chairman of Qingtian Rent. “The launch of Qingtian Rent is aimed at driving the robot rental industry toward standardization and large-scale adoption. It’s similar to the early days of Didi Chuxing—most people were used to hailing taxis on the street, but as the platform evolved and its convenience became evident, online ride-hailing is now the norm.”
The core innovation of Qingtian Rent is transforming high-threshold robot usage scenarios into a convenient rental model akin to shared power banks. This addresses pain points in the current robot rental market, including high operational costs, complex collaboration chains, and content homogenization, enabling enterprises and individuals to rent robots flexibly and on demand.
A quick look at the Qingtian Rent platform reveals that robots are available for rent starting from 200 RMB, with popular models like the Lingxi X2 series priced at 1,499 RMB. Following the platform’s launch, user acquisition and merchant incentive policies will be gradually introduced. According to its roadmap, Qingtian Rent aims to expand to over 200 cities by 2026. The deployment of the “Qingtian Network” marks the first time robot services come with a guaranteed nationwide delivery capability. “An intelligent and convenient platform connects supply and demand, standardized and reliable systems ensure fulfillment, and a nationwide network guarantees service accessibility,” explained Li Yiyan, CEO of Qingtian Rent.
Pudong State-Owned Capital Fully Supports Embodied Intelligence Ecosystem
Building a robust ecosystem for embodied intelligence is critical. At the conference, the Qingtian Rent Application Innovation Community was officially inaugurated. Pudong state-owned capital, serving as both an angel investor and strategic partner, has provided Qingtian Rent and its ecosystem enterprises with office and innovation spaces at the Zhangjiang Science Gate’s Moli Tower and the Zhangjiang Robot Valley, offering comprehensive support for the platform’s growth.
The year 2025 is hailed by the industry as the breakout year for embodied intelligence. From “struggling to stay upright” to “showcasing advanced skills,” Pudong’s embodied intelligence enterprises have achieved mass production in less than a year. Earlier this month, Zhiyuan Robot rolled out its 5,000th general-purpose embodied robot off the production line, marking initial progress toward industrialization. Deng Taihua, Chairman and CEO of Zhiyuan Robot, stated at the conference that the company’s shipments are expected to exceed 5,000 units in 2025, with revenue surpassing 1 billion RMB.
“Shipments” are a hard indicator of large-scale application. Jiang Qingsong also shared data: this year, the robot rental market has already exceeded 1 billion RMB. With the intervention of platform-based operations through Qingtian Rent next year, the market size is projected to reach no less than 10 billion RMB.
Pudong’s embodied intelligence enterprises have never been solely about “building robots”—they are focused on “building ecosystems.” Since the launch of the nation’s first open robot rental platform in Pudong, it has attracted global users, rental providers, content developers, and robot manufacturers, sparking creativity and unlocking new markets. “We won’t set limits—it’s like the Didi model, where drivers can join the platform with their own vehicles,” Jiang Qingsong remarked.
