Capital Rushes into the Underwater Robotics Market: Who Is Betting on the Next “Underwater Yuzhu”?
Hello everyone, I’m your financial journalist. Today, we’re talking about a topic that may sound a bit technical, but the logic behind it is actually quite practical: the underwater robotics sector has suddenly become very popular, and it’s doing so in a well-organized manner.
Over the past few years, people have been focused on humanoid robots and cleaning robots, thinking they represented the future of technology. However, recently, capital has quietly shifted its attention to the deep sea. A cargo ship in the Fujian region completed the cleaning of its hull in just 10 hours, a task that would have previously taken two weeks with manual labor, resulting in a 50-fold increase in efficiency. Behind this success are three startups from the same university, which have secured record-breaking investments within just three months.
This is not just about the success of these individual startups; it’s also a major reshuffle of business logic, determining where the demand for labor is highest and where the profits are to be found. Let me break down this phenomenon into five key points in simple language to help you understand the ins and outs.
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1. Why the Underwater Realm? Because It’s the Place Where Humans Can’t Work—and Where Costs Are Highest
Many people might wonder: Why don’t robots go to factories to tighten screws or do household chores, but instead, they go to the bottom of the sea to clean ships and repair undersea cables?
The answer is simple: These are areas off-limits to humans and represent a “black hole” in terms of costs. Imagine a diver working at a depth of 200 meters—their effective working time is only about 10 minutes before reaching physiological limits. Infrastructure such as offshore wind turbines, undersea cables, and oil and gas pipelines requires regular maintenance, and the environments are harsh and highly dangerous.
This is where robots come in handy. There are two main benefits:
- Safety: Accidents caused by human divers account for 25%-30% of offshore wind turbine maintenance incidents. Using robots ensures safety.
- Costs: Repairing undersea cables used to cost over $5 million with manual labor; now, robots can reduce costs by more than 40%. For example, inspecting a reservoir used to cost $5 million and take six months; with robots, it only costs $700,000 and takes 20 days.
The core logic is this: In factories, people might question the use of cheaper robotic arms. But in the underwater realm, there’s no alternative to robots. This “essential need” combined with high costs makes underwater robotics the first category in the robotics industry where the benefits clearly outweigh the costs.
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2. Investors’ New Standard: Not Just Showy Technology, but Practical Solutions
Many of the investors in this round of financing are associated with a well-known figure—Zhu Xiaohu (from Jinsha River Venture Capital). In the past, Zhu was a critic of humanoid robots, saying, “Just because a robot can do a backflip doesn’t mean it’s commercially viable.” He withdrew from many projects focused on cool-looking humanoid robots because the customers for such robots were imaginary, and no one was willing to spend tens of thousands of dollars on them as mere decorations.
But now, his attitude has changed. He invested in Shihang Intelligence, which makes ship-cleaning robots, and has continued to invest in the company for five rounds. Why? Because he has established a new standard for measuring the return on investment (ROI):
- False ROI: If a robot can only replace half a person’s work, the company still needs to keep that person, so the robot doesn’t actually save money.
- True ROI: If a robot can completely replace a position or even an entire team, that’s where the real savings lie.
Shihang Intelligence’s “Orca” robot has reduced a two-week project to 10 hours, replacing not just a diver but an entire diving team and the associated ship downtime. The shipowner saves on fuel costs and downtime, which far exceeds the cost of the robot.
In other words, investors no longer invest in “science fiction” but in practical, productive solutions. As long as a company can show that it helps customers save real money, even if the robot looks unattractive, capital will flow towards it.
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3. Three Types of Investors with Different Goals
The funding in the underwater robotics sector is coming from a diverse range of investors, with each having their own agenda:
- State-owned Capital and Insurance Funds (Investing in National Strategy): Representatives include China Insurance Investment and CETC Investment. The logic is simple: “Deep-sea technology” was mentioned in the government work report for the first time in 2025, and the 14th Five-Year Plan emphasizes building a strong maritime nation. These funds follow policy, seeking long-term stability and national security.
- Industrial Capital (Investing in Industry Chain Positioning): Representatives include Total Energy (an oil giant) and Dayang Electric (a motor manufacturer). They are interested in reducing costs associated with undersea oil and gas operations and ensuring that their motors can be used in these robots, thereby strengthening their position in the industry chain.
- Market-oriented VC (Investing in Scarcity and Exit Opportunities): Representatives include Guanghe Venture Capital and Dacheng Capital. There are very few private companies capable of manufacturing complete deep-sea robots, making them a scarce asset. The Sci-tech Innovation Board (STAR Market) is favorable for such hard-tech companies, with companies like Shenzhi Blue and Yunzhou Intelligence waiting to go public. Investors are looking for direct returns through stock sales.
This “iron triangle” of investors makes the sector more stable but also more competitive.
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4. Who’s Leading the Way? The “Harbin Engineering University” Connection
It’s interesting that the three companies that received significant funding—Shihang Intelligence, Deepsea Intelligence, and Gongzhi Ocean—all have founders from Harbin Engineering University, known as the “Whampoa Military Academy” of China’s shipbuilding industry, producing 30% of the country’s technical and managerial talent.
These three companies represent different approaches:
- Shihang Intelligence (Service-oriented Approach): They don’t sell the robots themselves but provide services. Their “Orca” robots have been used on giant ships like China Merchants Shipping and COSCO Bulk, cleaning thousands of ships. They’ve even been selected for Singapore’s national underwater hull inspection program. Their strength lies in their good cash flow and high customer repurchase rates, similar to DJI in the drone industry, with a high level of standardization.
- Deepsea Intelligence (Export-oriented Approach): They directly sell high-end equipment to foreign companies. They successfully competed with industry giants from the UK, the Netherlands, and Norway and delivered a deep-sea robot worth nearly ten million dollars to an Emirati telecom company, marking the first commercial export of such robots from China. Their technology is highly sophisticated, targeting the global premium market.
- Gongzhi Ocean (Technology-focused Approach): They focus on core technologies, especially propellers. Their “Hetu” robots are extremely quiet and hardly disturb the seabed, making them ideal for nuclear power inspection and deep-sea mining, which require strict environmental standards. Their technology is cutting-edge and could become industry benchmarks in the future.
In summary, Shihang Intelligence focuses on efficiency, Deepsea Intelligence on high-end products, and Gongzhi Ocean on advanced technology.
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5. Hidden Risks Behind the Boom
Despite the promising prospects, as a financial journalist, I must highlight some potential challenges:
- High Revenue Volatility: Companies like Shandong Future Robotics, which holds a 60% market share in China, earned 97.18 million yuan in 2024 but lost 22.01 million yuan in the first half of 2025. This is because their revenue is highly dependent on large orders; without them, they suffer losses. Such fluctuations are common.
- Long Delivery Cycles and Slow Cash Flow: The process from contract signing to acceptance involves extensive testing and debugging, taking years. This can lead to cash flow issues.
- Lessons from the Market: There’s a company called Nauticus Robotics in the US that was valued at $560 million at its IPO but recently faced a significant revenue drop due to delayed projects, almost depleting its cash reserves and forcing it to implement a reverse stock split to stay in business.
- Overpromise vs. Reality: Some companies are still hyping up the concept of “marine embodied large models,” but there are physical limitations to underwater communication technology, and the gap between simulation and real-world applications is significant. Don’t be misled by flashy presentations.
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Conclusion: Who Deserves the Title of “Underwater Yuzhu”?
So far, no company has truly earned the title of “Underwater Yuzhu.” Yuzhu Technology succeeded because it perfected four-legged robots, combining both technology and large-scale commercial applications.
In the underwater robotics sector, there’s no shortage of capital or exciting ideas. What’s lacking is a track record of converting orders into actual revenue and projects into profitable products.
- Shihang Intelligence has scale, but can it maintain high margins?
- Deepsea Intelligence has exports, but can it replicate this success?
- Gongzhi Ocean has advanced technology, but can it achieve commercial success?
In the next two to three years, the company that can present stable financial reports and successfully go public will truly deserve the title of “Underwater Yuzhu.”
For the general public, understanding this sector boils down to one simple principle: Where humans can’t work, robots have the potential to generate profits. This is not only a principle for investing but also a indicator of future employment and industrial trends.