JD.com's Cao Peng at Wuzhen: Building an Embodied AI Industrial Foundation, Not a Robot Terminal Manufacturer

At the 2026 World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Cao Peng, Chairman of JD.com's Technology Committee, outlined the company's strategy to serve as an industrial infrastructure provider for embodied AI rather than competing as a robot hardware manufacturer. JD plans to leverage its logistics network and data assets to address industry challenges such as scarce high-quality training data and limited generalization capabilities. The company aims to collect 10 million hours of human scenario video data and 1 million hours of robot operation data within two years, utilizing first-person vision data that is hardware-agnostic. Cao Peng estimates the current maturity of general embodied AI at a conservative 3–4 out of 10, predicting commercial B-side robots will achieve scale in 3–5 years while household robots may take 8–10 years due to higher safety and cost barriers.