Doraemon, this man Build Robot Business Rp 54 Trillion

Inspired his interest as a child in Doraemon, Alex Zhou built Linkerbot to be the second-largest robotic hand manufacturer in China, in order to replicate human hand movements.

A daily hand action requires a very complex finger movement that is extremely difficult to mimicking even the most advanced robots. "Hand is the final big hardware challenge in robotics," he called it.

The 40-year-old businessman answered this challenge through Linkerbot, a company he founded in 2023 to develop robotic hands that could match human agility. Linkerbot supplies the robotic hand used in Chinese factories to hold objects and assemble components.

Zhou wanted to develop his technology so robots could cook, clean houses, and deal with fragile objects, potentially a versatile home assistant humanoid robot.

Zhou's interest in robots began in his childhood, when he was lured by Doraemon, a robot cat whose magic bag could emit various tools. Then he believed that the source of man's power was not a magic bag,

At the age of 14, he entered the University of Science and Technology Huazhong, one of China's leading engineering universities, to pursue interdisciplinary studies, including AI and robotics. After graduation, he spent two years in Chinese technology giant Lenovo, developing mobile software.

He then set up two startup before selling his shares at both companies. The sale helped him fund Linkerbot in his first year.

Instead of his whole humanoid obot, he focused on his hand. That decision put him in one of the hardest engineering challenges in robotics. Robots are more able to walk, run, and do coordinated movements, but manipulating objects everyday is much harder.

Humans perform these acts almost instinctively, relying on a sense of taste and precision muscle control. Robots have to achieve similar results using mini motors, mechanical joints, sensors and software.

The human hand has about 27 degrees of freedom, referring to the various ways its percent can move on its own. Linkerbot advanced models offer more than 20 degrees of freedom, allowing his fingers to manipulate small screws, use tools, and play instruments.

Linkerbot technology attracts investors. The April funding round evaluated the USD company 3 billion according to Forbes, which also estimated Zhou's fortune to $920 million based on 31% of the shares. They're pursuing another round of funding that targets a US valuation of 6 billion. If it is achieved, Zhou will become a billionaire.

Linkerbot produced several robotic hands at a price from 6666 yuan to 99.999 yuan. Model entry level can grasp things like mobile phones. A more sophisticated version can use tools like tweezers to handle small components. By comparison, some sophisticated robotics hand made by foreign competitors costs more than 100,000 dollars.

Zhou believed the Chinese manufacturing supply chain gave his company the advantage of producing advanced hardware at a lower price. Linkerbot created almost all of its components independently, helping them control the cost and perfect the product faster.

"Linkerbot has one of the cheapest and best robotics hands you can buy today," said Dermot McGrath, founder of ZenGen Labs robotics consultant who quoted seconds of VN Express, Monday (19 / 10 / 2026).

Linkerbot sent over 10,000 robotics hands in 2025, making it the second largest manufacturer in China, behind the Inspire Robots. His clients include Stanford University, Tsinghua University, Samsung Electronics, and the giant German industry Siemens.

Following the opening of the new production line in Beijing, companies are now operating four factories in China and targeting the annual increase in production by 100,000 robotics hands.