The Xpeng Iron humanoid robot showcased at the Beijing Auto Show in April 2026. Credit: CnEVPost
- The sudden personnel change comes at a critical time as Xpeng sprints toward its goal of mass-producing humanoid robots by the end of 2026.
- Shi Xiaoxin, who served in Xpeng’s robotics department for over four years, was a core veteran who built the Iron humanoid robot project from scratch.
Shi Xiaoxin, the core product chief of Xpeng’s (NYSE: XPEV) robotics business, resigned earlier this month, marking a sudden personnel change at a critical time as the company sprints toward the mass production of its humanoid robots.
Local media outlet 36Kr reported the change on Friday, noting that Shi worked in Xpeng’s robotics department for 1,675 days, spanning the early integration phase of the business and the entire process of the team’s formal incorporation into Xpeng Group.
He was a benchmark veteran who built Xpeng’s humanoid robot product system from scratch, witnessing the full cycle of the Iron humanoid robot from its early prototype iterations to its current mass production preparation.
Shi holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Nanjing University and a master’s degree in IT from the University of Technology Sydney, and he was deeply involved in the overseas commercial service robot sector in his early years.
He previously led robot deployment projects at multiple top international technology exhibitions and is one of the earliest industry veterans in China to delve into humanoid interaction and product deployment, the report noted.
Shi joined Xpeng’s robotics business around 2021 and ushered in a core role transition after Xpeng completed its acquisition of Pengxing Intelligence and anchored the Iron research and development roadmap in 2023.
As the product chief, he took full charge of defining the entire Iron product series and was also responsible for promoting the deployment of Iron as shopping guides in Xpeng stores, accelerating its commercial exploration, according to the report.
His departure appears sudden within the industry, as he remained active in industry academic exchanges just a month before his resignation.
In May, as a guest lecturer at ShanghaiTech University, he publicly shared the mass production design concepts of Xpeng’s humanoid robots.
Currently, Xpeng has not officially announced this core personnel change.
2026 is seen as a crucial year for the mass production and deployment of Xpeng’s Iron robot, with the company aiming to achieve the large-scale mass production of advanced humanoid robots by the end of this year.
To support this ambitious plan, Xpeng already took substantial action in the first quarter of this year. The company launched the construction of the industry’s first full-chain mass production base for humanoid robots in Guangzhou earlier this year.
The base covers an area of about 110,000 square meters and encompasses the entire process from research and development validation and small-batch trial production to large-scale manufacturing.
In terms of technology research and development, Xpeng also made a key breakthrough early this year. In January, the company rolled out its first ET1 version robot prototype developed using automotive standards.
In November 2025, Xpeng unveiled the new generation Iron, and the humanoid robot drew widespread attention at the time by completing a catwalk with natural, smooth movements and highly realistic human postures.
The new generation Iron is equipped with an all-solid-state battery and three of Xpeng’s self-developed Turing AI chips, achieving a total computing power of 2,250 TOPS.
It is also integrated with the second-generation VLA (Vision-Language-Action) large model, giving it complex interaction capabilities.
Shi’s next destination remains unclear. 36Kr cited multiple independent sources as saying that he does not have a strong intention to seek a job at this stage.
Shi has already declined invitations from several leading robotics companies and new carmakers, and he will temporarily pause his career search in the short term to prioritize personal rest, according to the report.
Shi’s departure is the latest example of talent mobility in the embodied AI industry recently. Previously, former Xpeng autonomous driving head Li Liyun joined Chinese robotics startup EngineAI in April.
EngineAI was founded by serial entrepreneur Zhao Tongyang in 2023, and the company announced a Series B funding round in April this year, pushing its valuation past 10 billion yuan ($1.48 billion).
Dogotix, founded by Zhao, was acquired by Xpeng in 2020, which formed the predecessor of Xpeng’s robotics department.
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