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Author: Huang Nan

Editor: Yuan Silai

Hard Krypton has exclusively learned that on July 19, the "Hong Kong version of Temasek" Hong Kong Investment Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Hong Kong Investment Company") officially announced its investment in "Galaxy General", and the investment amount was not disclosed.

Galaxy General's strategic layout in Hong Kong includes:

1. Support Hong Kong to become an international gathering place for embodied intelligence talents and an innovation center. This includes establishing cooperative relations with Hong Kong universities, regularly conducting technical lectures, field visits or special training programs, and hosting embodied intelligence design or application competitions;

Second, explore the practical application of robots in Hong Kong’s commercial, tourism and other service scenarios. For example, establish multiple demonstration sites based on Hong Kong’s advantageous industries such as retail and tourism, and explore embodied intelligent government service assistance;

3. Build local teams to promote the development of embodied intelligence technology and industry in Hong Kong, including but not limited to the establishment of R&D and business teams, and opening internship positions to create more employment opportunities in Hong Kong.

Wang He, assistant professor at Peking University and director of the Peking University-Galaxy General Embodied Intelligence Joint Laboratory, said that Hong Kong has strong market resources, deep talent pool and broad international vision, which are natural advantages in the development of embodied intelligence. Through this cooperation, Galaxy General will bring the most advanced technology to Hong Kong and cultivate the most comprehensive talents.

As the first universal embodied multimodal large-scale model robot of "Galaxy Universal", Galbot has the ability to perceive and recognize objects of various materials and images in different light and environments, and can further complete tasks such as opening cabinets, drawers and hanging clothes. It can be widely used in different scenarios such as commerce and industry.

Galbot is picking up trash (Photo source: Galaxy General)

Yao Tengzhou, co-founder of Galaxy Universal, revealed that Galbot will first be used in the retail industry to complete tasks such as loading, picking up and inventorying, and will further explore more application scenarios such as community elderly care and family services.

Not long ago, Galaxy General announced the completion of its angel round of financing with a total scale of RMB 700 million. There were 18 investors, including BlueRun Ventures, BAIC Capital, Meituan Strategic Investment, SenseTime Guoxiang Fund, Qiming Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, Source Code Capital, etc.

This investment in "Galaxy General" is also the third investment by the Hong Kong investment company since June, following Simou Technology and Baitu Biotechnology.

Financial Secretary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government Paul Chan (center), CEO of Hong Kong Investment Management Co., Ltd. Paul Chan (right), and Director of the Peking University-Galaxy General Embodied Intelligence Joint Laboratory Wang He (left) attended the cooperation launch ceremony

Paul Chan, Financial Secretary of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, said, "Embodied intelligence has deep learning and execution capabilities, can be widely used in different scenarios, deeply integrated with various industries, and geometrically improve productivity. It is an important new track for artificial intelligence. Hong Kong has many advantages. Combined with the commercialization and intelligent manufacturing capabilities of sister cities in the Greater Bay Area, plus the gathering of scientific research talents, it has huge potential in the development of embodied intelligence. I hope that under the active guidance of Hong Kong Investment Corporation, partners such as Galaxy General will participate more deeply in the construction of Hong Kong's artificial intelligence robot ecosystem, help Hong Kong accelerate the cultivation of new quality productivity, and actively contribute to the development of science and technology in the country and the world."

HKIC CEO, Chan Ka-chi, said, "HKIC hopes to leverage the qualities of 'patient capital' to accelerate cutting-edge technology R&D and cooperation, explore more practical applications, and more comprehensive talent training, as well as the construction of Hong Kong's innovation and technology ecosystem, focusing on the field of embodied intelligence. Embodied intelligence combines the ability to understand and reason about large models such as language and images, and combines it with the flexible operation of machine hardware to create new technologies and open up new markets. Through this cooperation, HKIC has further completed its multi-dimensional layout in the field of artificial intelligence, and its coverage has also expanded from industrial scenarios to daily life."

The Hong Kong Investment Corporation manages four funds, namely the Hong Kong Growth Portfolio, the Greater Bay Area Investment Fund, the Strategic Innovation and Technology Fund and the Co-Investment Fund, with a total initial scale of 62 billion yuan. The development plans of its investment targets are aimed at "being in line with government goals"; it intends to promote the development of target industries through strategic investment, so as to enhance Hong Kong's competitiveness and economic vitality in the long run and earn investment returns.

At present, Hong Kong has established 14 cross-industry AI research laboratories. The 2023-2024 budget mentioned that HK$3 billion will be allocated to strengthen basic research in cutting-edge technology fields such as AI.