A prestigious embodiment of artificial intelligence suddenly finds itself at a crossroads.

In early October, news of the dissolution of OneStar Robotics spread quickly within the industry, initially met with skepticism. Just a month earlier, the company announced a substantial financing round backed by prominent institutions, including Baidu Ventures. Moreover, the firm was founded by Li Shufu, the chairman of Geely Holding Group's son, Li Xingxing.

However, sources within OneStar confirmed the dissolution to Wall Street Watch. The company's CTO and co-founder, Ding Yan, has altered his work history to reflect an end date at OneStar of October 2025. Additionally, OneStar's public accounts have erased all historical data, as if wiped from the digital world.

This company, born from substantial prestige and resources, appeared insulated from the notion of "failure." However, the logic of the business world is often more intricate than it seems. Under the overarching strategy of "One Geely," an extensive internal resource consolidation is underway. Even projects initiated by Li Shufu's family must yield to broader strategic blueprints.

Reflecting on the brief journey of OneStar Robotics, its beginnings were enviable. It was viewed as a significant move by Geely into the robotics sector since its inception. On July 12, the company raised hundreds of millions in a "friends and family" funding round, attracting investors from Geely-related industries including Cao Cao Mobility, Jingneng Microelectronics, and Chunsan Capital.

More importantly, OneStar did not solely rely on its background but proposed a unique differentiated developmental pathway. It deviated from the industry's common practice of creating eye-catching demos and innovatively adopted a "reverse-engineered AI" approach. This strategy emphasizes starting with practical tasks on production lines to deduce and design algorithms and workflows, allowing robots to evolve through real-world challenges. This pragmatic philosophy reflects Geely’s signature approach: to create value through technology in factories rather than through showroom displays.

To support this vision, OneStar assembled a formidable technical team. The company partnered with top professors from Fudan University and Tsinghua University, and recruited Ding Yan, a star researcher from Shanghai AI Lab, as co-founder and CTO. Though small, this elite team boasted that over half of its members possessed academic or work experience abroad.

Underpinned by robust funding, technology, talent, and practical applications, OneStar's rapid development became apparent. In August, OneStar collaborated with universities to establish a joint laboratory and launched its first wheeled dual-arm robotic product. By September, it secured additional seed funding in the hundreds of millions, with notable market-oriented institutions among the investors. Reportedly, the company garnered commercial orders within just two months of operation.

In the early hours before National Day, Ding Yan continued to update his social networks, actively seeking commercial partners for OneStar.

All signs indicated that the firm was racing toward success. However, momentum came to an abrupt halt post-holiday.

The events leading to this point were not without warning. On September 28, a brand launch for Qianli Technology marked a pivotal moment. Li Shufu publicly supported Qianli's founder, Yin Qi, delivering high praise. His statement that "the future belongs to Yin Qi" clearly indicated a decisive strategic direction.

Robotics is one of the key focus areas for Qianli's future development, creating overlap with the business direction of OneStar, which Geely has heavily invested in and concentrated resources on.

Under Geely's "Taizhou Declaration," any projects that presented positioning conflicts, potentially wasting internal resources, must be restructured to achieve the overarching goal of "One Geely."

For Li Shufu, traditional automotive manufacturing profit margins are under increasing pressure, whereas new ventures exemplified by embodied intelligence have substantially higher profit margins. Geely aims to secure a foothold on the broader stage of "AI + Cars + Robotics."

However, the road to this future requires massive and concentrated investment. In such a high-risk, high-reward sector, any dispersion of resources could lead to missed opportunities. Thus, consolidating internal strengths and concentrating all bets on the most promising entity inevitably became the necessary choice. In this significant strategic game concerning the future of the group, commercial rationality has prevailed.

Does this mean a clear path for Geely's robotics journey?

An interesting detail is that following OneStar's dissolution, its highly regarded technical team has not been directly incorporated into Qianli Technology. Instead, they have been given other choices, including following the original CTO to embark on new ventures or to seek fresh opportunities.

Notably, the current core focus of Qianli Technology remains on intelligent driving, with their robotics-related planning still in the early stages, thus lacking a major recruitment drive in the short term.

This creates an intriguing scenario: Li Shufu has cleared the path for his selected future champion, yet this contender seems unprepared to fully enter the robotics arena. The integration of OneStar appears more like a strategic foresight aimed at ensuring long-term alignment, willing to end a project that was showcasing great momentum.

Li Shufu has boldly redefined the landscape, redirecting the future of robotics toward Qianli Technology. However, it may take some time before Qianli fully embraces the story of its robotics ambitions.

Geely's aspirations in AI persist, albeit the road toward realizing the dream of a robotics empire becomes layered with waiting and uncertainty due to this decisive integration.