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In the wave of artificial intelligence, AI intelligent hardware has emerged as a dazzling new star, rapidly rising and unveiling the grand curtain of a trillion-dollar market!
According to authoritative market research firm Lottu Technology, the scale of China’s AI hardware market is expected to reach 1.102 trillion yuan by 2025, with an average annual growth rate of over 16% in the next five years, and is projected to reach 2.5618 trillion yuan by 2030.
The AI intelligent hardware industry is now presenting a new trend!I summarize it in four words: Transforming Boundaries and Navigating the Seas! In short: it aims to replicate the achievements of DJI, and capital is particularly fond of entrepreneurial talents represented by DJI, with projects ideally prioritizing overseas expansion!I checked publicly available information online, and I should be the first to propose this four-character idiom. If anyone quotes it later, please indicate the source is AI.X Hardware.
Continuing on:Transforming boundaries has two meanings:The first meaning is the hope that new AI hardware brands can replicate DJI’s market height, as DJI is the ceiling of domestic intelligent hardware.DJI is synonymous with the drone category,and DJI has monopolized the global consumer drone market,holding 70% of the global drone market share, over 90% in the commercial market, and 77% in the U.S. market.It can also achieve “top performance + affordable prices” in high-end technologies such as industrial surveying and imaging.Currently, DJI is not only the absolute leader in the drone market but is also rapidly expanding in the imaging technology market. By the end of July this year, DJI officially entered the panoramic camera market, and within just three months, it captured 49% of the panoramic camera market share in China and 43% globally.Recently, it has also started launching its first sweeping robot, leveraging core technologies from drones,applying its core technologies in navigation, obstacle avoidance, and path planning to the sweeping robot field. It is reported that it is also planning to enter the 3D printing market, possibly through investment first.The other aspect is to keep an eye on talents from DJI,there’s a saying in the investment circle: “Software looks at Byte, hardware looks at DJI!”The most shocking case to the outside world isthe team of Tuozhu, which focuses on the seemingly niche market of 3D printing, and in less than four years,Tuozhu is expected to achieve revenue of 5.5 to 6 billion yuan in 2024, with a net profit close to 2 billion yuan. In the first quarter of this year, Tuozhu’s revenue reached 2 billion.
Moreover, the founderTao Yeand the core team are all from DJI’s backbone, which indirectly confirms that those who come out of DJI have a methodology that can quickly scale a product and rapidly capture the number one market share.In addition to Tuozhu, there are also Zhenghao Innovation, Species Origin, and Yiwufuture, these companies are distributed in different fields and have gained fame both domestically and internationally in a short time, and their founders all have work experience at DJI.This is why many investment institutions are now closely watching talents from hardware companies represented by DJI and Anker, not just sending subtle signals, but are eager to throw money at them, as long as they are willing to start their own businesses, they will help clarify directions if they lack them, and help find partners if they need partners.
The founder of Tuozhu Technology, Tao Ye, recently mentioned this in his social circle, stating: The capital market is currently experiencing a bit of FOMO (fear of missing out) regarding the “DJI system,” giving projects a high premium, leading to a trend of DJI employees starting their own businesses.
Transforming the seas means going overseas, which also has two meanings:Channel selection, prioritizing overseas projects.Because the domestic market is too competitive, and there are always white-label imitations, which is very detrimental to the healthy growth of a startup brand. Once you have any differentiated creative product, competitors will immediately follow and copy, while Huaqiangbei will quickly buy and disassemble to replicate.From the information gathered from various situations, most entrepreneurs and investors do not favor AI intelligent hardware prioritizing the domestic market; if you want to do it, you must first gain some recognition abroad before turning back to the domestic market, for example,Plaud Note AI recording card is a typical example.In June 2023,Plaud became famous on Kickstarter, and a year later, global sales exceeded one million units, covering 170 countries, becoming a “mythical sample” of AI hardware entrepreneurship.It is expected that total revenue will reach 250 million USD by 2025,and in September this year, it officially announced its “return” to China for sales on Tmall and JD.com.
Additionally, the habit of domestic users paying for software subscriptions is still in its early stages, making it difficult to popularize in the short term.Therefore, the business model of hardware sales + subscription income is hard to implement domestically. In contrast, this model is acceptable to users in Europe and the United States.This business model can provide new entrepreneurial projects with better cash flow and gross margins.——
In this wave of AI hardware, former employees of DJI, especially core employees, are highly sought after by major investment institutions and FAs.
Currently, DJI seems to be the Huangpu Military Academy of the AI hardware field, and many star projects have recently emerged in the AI hardware field. Let’s take a look at which companies are currently part of the DJI system!
1. Wilderness Innovation, Gong Ding, formerly of DJI’s flight control department, currently focuses on outdoor smart vehicles.
2. Miaodong Technology, Gao Jianrong, formerly head of the marketing department, currently focuses on consumer-grade robots.
3. No. 3 Universe, Li Yang, formerly a power system expert, focuses on AI companion robots.
4. Yingchen Technology, Li Jinjie, formerly of the Mavic product team at DJI, focuses on 4K imaging glasses.
5. Paid Island Technology, Su Tie, formerly responsible for DJI’s Ronin products, focuses on AI instant photography.
6. Zettlab (Wuyun Innovation), Guo Yanan, formerly a research and development engineer at DJI, product is AI NAS storage.
7. Ludens Intelligent, Xue Lijun, formerly an algorithm engineer at DJI, focuses on intelligent companion robots.
Founded in July 2025, “Wilderness Innovation” focuses on the outdoor smart vehicle field, includingAI technology empowering traditional outdoor equipment, creating electric and intelligent outdoor sports products.Founder Gong Ding is a seasoned outdoor sports enthusiast who realized that AI large models and multi-modal perception technologies are advancing rapidly, while traditional outdoor equipment is still in the mechanical era, leaving a huge space for intelligent upgrades.
Dongguan Ludens Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. was established in July 2024, with founder Xue Lijun being a former DJI engineer.The new company “Ludens Intelligent” has already secured two rounds of financing, with investors including the XbotPark fund founded by Professor Li Zexiang and Linear Capital.
The company describes itself as a global intelligent companion robot technology company, with products similar toEilik’s desktop robot, AI pets like Lovot and Ropet, and humanoid robots like Bumi from Songyan Power.
Shenzhen Yingchen Technology Co., Ltd. was established in March 2025, with founder Li Jinjie, formerly of the Mavic product team at DJI, focusing on 4K imaging glasses.
In September 2025, Li Jinjie established Yingchen Tongxin with partners to jointly develop imaging glasses products, emphasizing photography functions, planning to achieve 4K quality and optimize for sports scene adaptation.
No. 3 Universe (Shenzhen) Technology Co., Ltd. was established on June 23, 2025.No. 3 Universe is also focusing on companion robots, and founder Li Yang is also a former DJI employee.The company raised tens of millions of dollars in seed funding, with participating investors including Matrix Partners, Shunwei Capital, Jiuhe Capital, and Chuxin Capital.
During his time at DJI, Li Yang was responsible for related work on the Mavic series products, educational robot product development, and also involved in autonomous driving-related businesses.
Miaodong Technology was established in January 2025, with former DJI marketing department head Gao Jianrong’s new project “Miaodong Technology” also focusing on consumer-grade robots.
Shenzhen Miaodong Technology Co., Ltd. has added Meituan-related company Hanhai Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. as a shareholder, while the registered capital has increased to 1.4065 million yuan.
Zettlab (Wuyun Innovation) was established on November 22, 2023, with founder Guo Yanan, who has experience at both DJI and Yunji. “AI NAS era is coming! Xiaomi’s entry will accelerate the consumerization of this niche category, right?In the AI NAS field, Zettlab has created a new species, with crowdfunding being very popular.Recently, it completed nearly 100 million yuan in Pre-A round financing, led by Xinglian Capital, with Xiangfeng Capital and Fengqiao Capital participating, and it just won the 2026 CES Innovation Award product list.
——It can be seen that the above companies founded by entrepreneurs from the DJI system were established around 2024-2025, which is precisely when the wave of AI hardware has just arrived!This is why everyone says 2025 is the year of AI hardware!Even earlier, there were more entrepreneurs from the DJI system, but at that time, there was no concept of AI hardware, yet they were also involved in companies related to intelligent hardware.The product business distribution is broader, including 3D printers, mobile energy products, lawn mowing robots, industrial drones, hair dryers, electric toothbrushes, outdoor cleaning robots, etc.
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DJI’s approach is to first deepen and break through technology, and once the technology reaches a certain level, combine it with application scenarios to form products, and then achieve mass production and market launch.
A major characteristic of entrepreneurs from the DJI system is their ability to focus on refining products.
The reason DJI has produced so many successful entrepreneurs is that these individuals often served as engineers at DJI, possessing a very deep technical foundation, thus the hardware products they develop generally have higher technical barriers.
DJI provides these entrepreneurs with a unique business philosophy, allowing them to replicate the DJI model in other industries.
Written in the postscript:
Transforming Boundaries and Navigating the Seas is merely a prominent reflection of the current entrepreneurial environment in AI hardware, just the tip of the iceberg, not the whole picture. Besides DJI, Anker, Huawei, Xiaomi, and ZhiMi hardware companies are also favored by capital.
However, I personally believe that for high-level entrepreneurs from large companies, it is essential to have a clear understanding of what they truly want to do, rather than being stimulated by capital without a clear idea of what to do, just not wanting to miss this wave of opportunity.
This is likely to be unfavorable; if things go smoothly, it’s fine, but once they don’t, problems can easily arise.
Everything needs to be viewed according to the first principles; it cannot be overheated, as overheating will lead to bubbles. For example, a few months ago, AI companion products were very hot, but recently it has clearly cooled down. It seems everyone has calmed down and needs to see what the core of companionship is and what the barriers are.
Regardless, the current industry trend for intelligent AI hardware is thriving, and transforming boundaries and navigating the seas is happening right now! The opportunities for AI to empower hardware are immense; we just need to let the bullets fly for a while longer!
The wave of the AI era is an opportunity ten times larger than the internet wave. I believe that in the future, most physical products will have the opportunity to be reconstructed or empowered by AI.
Everything can be AI-enabled!(AI+X, where X means everything)
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