In mid-August, a corporate registration filing caught the market's attention: Guangdong Maoyou Robotics Co., Ltd. was officially incorporated in Maoming's Maonan District with a registered capital of 10 million yuan. The shareholder structure reveals a deliberate design—Guangdong Maoming Binhai Holdings Co., Ltd. subscribed 9 million yuan for a 90% stake, while Shenzhen UBTech Robotics Co., Ltd. contributed 1 million yuan for a 10% stake. State capital taking the controlling position while technology enters as a minority partner—this equity arrangement speaks volumes about a traditional industrial city's strategic resolve to plant its flag in future industries.

From May 12, when Maoming's investment promotion team first visited UBTech's Shenzhen headquarters, to July 23, when both parties formally inked a strategic cooperation agreement, and then to the registration of the joint venture—in just three months, Maoming completed a textbook-style "blitzkrieg" of government-enterprise collaboration with the company dubbed the "first humanoid robot stock."

Precision-Targeted Investment for Industrial Upgrading

Investment attraction is the lifeline of local development. But for Maoming, the pulse of this lifeline has shifted dramatically—from the indiscriminate "everything in the basket" approach of the past to a systematic, precision-driven strategy aligned with industrial upgrading. Maoming's industrial foundation is both deep and heavy. Its petrochemical sector is massive, its agricultural resources are uniquely abundant, yet the region also grapples with a high share of traditional industries, insufficient digital intelligence, and low value-added output. How does one make old trees sprout new branches? Maoming's answer: empower traditional industries with future industries and leverage technology imports to catalyze transformation.

The entry of UBTech is a quintessential example of this approach. From initial contacts in March, Maoming demonstrated extraordinary execution speed. On May 12, the city's top leadership led a delegation to Shenzhen for investment inspections, with UBTech as the first stop; just five days after the visit, the municipal government convened a special session to study AI industry development; within two weeks, UBTech founder Zhou Jian led a return visit; and on July 23, the strategic cooperation agreement was officially signed. At the signing ceremony, Maoming's leadership delivered a pointed message: Maoming must learn from benchmark enterprises and partner with top-tier players, continuously optimize its business environment, establish dedicated project teams, provide "one-on-one" follow-up services, and push cooperative projects toward early implementation and early results.

Learning from benchmarks, partnering with the best—this phrase captures the real intent behind Maoming's investment strategy: bringing in companies is not merely about boosting GDP figures, but about leveraging the technology spillover and industrial driving effects of leading enterprises to nurture a local innovation ecosystem and push traditional industries up the value chain. The equity structure of Guangdong Maoyou Robotics is equally deliberate. With Guangdong Maoming Binhai Holdings (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Maoming Port Group) holding 90% and UBTech holding 10%, the state's absolute control ensures the project's local roots and resource commitment, while the technology provider's intellectual property and brand contribution guarantee deep engagement. Technology must not only be brought in but also take root; projects must not only land but also empower traditional industries. This closed loop between investment attraction and industrial upgrading is where Maoming's chess game is played most solidly.

Maoming's Choice in the "AI+" Wave

As artificial intelligence reshapes the global economic landscape, Maoming has chosen not to sit on the sidelines but to actively embrace the wave. The city's leadership made it clear at the signing ceremony: keep pace with the times, emphasize application-oriented development, implement the "AI+" action plan in depth, accelerate the cultivation of new quality productive forces, and continuously shape new drivers of high-quality development. Looking closely at this statement, the phrase "application-oriented" deserves the most scrutiny. AI research and development hubs are concentrated in Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai, but technology only generates real value when industrial cities provide landing scenarios. Maoming knows exactly where it stands—it cannot compete with first-tier cities on R&D resources, so it will maximize its scenario advantages and become a pioneer in technology application.

Maoming's petrochemical, agricultural, and logistics industries, all substantial in scale, provide a rare testing ground for robotics technology. Petrochemicals are the city's foundation—a refining base with ten-million-ton capacity, complex production processes, stringent safety standards, and numerous hazardous operation scenarios. Humanoid robots have natural advantages in equipment inspection, pipeline monitoring, and replacing humans in dangerous work zones. Once a proven model is established in Maoming's petrochemical environment, its experience can be replicated across the national petrochemical industry, unlocking enormous market potential.

Agriculture is Maoming's core identity. As a major agricultural city, its lychee and longan production ranks among the nation's largest, yet harvesting, sorting, and plant protection remain highly labor-intensive, with labor shortages intensifying. The introduction of agricultural robots can not only relieve labor pressure but, in the longer term, drive precision agriculture and smart farming, giving traditional agriculture a technological lift. Education is the long-term play—by establishing skilled talent training bases and science outreach practice centers, the city can cultivate a local workforce capable of operating and maintaining these technologies. Industrial landing requires people, and urban transformation requires people even more—as young people begin to learn about and engage with AI, Maoming's future gains solid ground.

The "One Arena, Two Stations, Two Bases" Industrial Blueprint

According to the plan, Guangdong Maoyou Robotics will build an Embodied Intelligence Application Innovation Center, following an integrated "industry-academia-research-application" development path to create "one arena, two stations, two bases"—an embodied intelligence data training ground, an embodied intelligence 6S service station, an innovative scenario secondary development station, a skilled talent training base, and a science outreach practice base. The total project investment is approximately 100 million yuan, covering about 8,000 square meters. This architecture conveys a clear strategic intent: this is not simply "selling machines" but a full-chain industrial layout. The data training ground targets the most critical resource for embodied intelligence—data collection and model training; the 6S service station addresses after-sales support and operational maintenance; the skilled talent training base focuses on workforce development and industrial ecosystem building.

In fact, Maoming has already taken an early step in AI data infrastructure. In May 2026, the Maoming Digital Innovation Super Factory project was officially launched, located at the Fomao Industrial Transfer Main Platform, constructing a large-scale, standardized embodied intelligence data collection center covering 4 large application scenarios, 28 medium and small scenarios, and 84 standardized collection workstations, tailored to local industry data collection needs in petrochemicals and specialty agriculture. This project is positioned as "a powerful engine for AI industry innovation and development in western Guangdong."

From a signed agreement to an industrial cluster, the road is long, but the journey is underway. Maoming's alliance with UBTech is not just a case study in local industrial upgrading—it is an experiment in technology deepening and scenario cultivation. The future has arrived, and Maoming is embracing AI with an open posture, cultivating new quality productive forces with concrete actions, and accelerating its sprint on the track of high-quality development.