A Shanghai-based maker of "embodied" AI robots is preparing to go public in Hong Kong, a sign of how fast capital is flowing into the race to put artificial intelligence into physical machines.
According to the Wall Street Journal's Jiahui Huang, citing sources, the company — called Coowa — plans to file its Hong Kong IPO application within the next two to three months. The same sources say Coowa was valued at $3 billion after raising $600 million in its most recent funding round.
Coowa develops what the industry calls embodied AI robots — machines that combine artificial intelligence with a physical body so they can sense and act in the real world, rather than living purely as software.
Silicon UK describes Coowa as an Apple supplier and reports that the planned Hong Kong listing is intended to fund the firm's robotics expansion.
The details available so far are limited. The reporting rests on unnamed sources, and an IPO filing is a plan rather than a completed listing — timelines and valuations can shift before any shares actually trade. Beyond the figures above, the source items do not specify Coowa's revenue, product lineup, or which Apple products it supplies.
Why it matters: a $3 billion valuation and a $600 million raise for a single embodied-AI robotics startup signals that investors increasingly see physical, AI-driven robots — not just chatbots — as the next major commercial frontier, and a Hong Kong listing would give public markets a direct way to bet on that shift.