Revolutionizing Logistics: JD.com’s Expansion of Physical AI with 3 Million Robots

JD.com’s Physical AI Acceleration Plan: Revolutionizing Logistics with AI and Robotics

JD.com, a leading e-commerce giant, is embarking on a groundbreaking journey to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in its logistics network. Under the new Physical AI Acceleration Plan, the company aims to procure 3 million robots, 1 million autonomous vehicles, and 100,000 delivery drones within the next five years.

At the JDDiscovery 2026 event in Beijing, JD Logistics unveiled its industrial Wolf Robot series, specially designed to perform a wide range of tasks including warehousing, sorting, transport, and delivery.

The company is deploying specialized systems capable of operating in extreme conditions, such as temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius. JD Logistics is also introducing automated pharmacy dispatch systems, autonomous delivery vehicles, and drones to enhance its operational efficiency.

Building on its existing automation capabilities, JD Logistics has already implemented the LangzuTech Goods-to-Person automated warehousing system in over 30 warehouses across China, with additional deployments in the UK and Germany.

As of June 30, JD Logistics boasts a vast warehouse network comprising more than 1,800 self-operated warehouses and over 2,000 third-party cloud warehouses on its Open Warehouse Platform, covering a total area exceeding 36 million square meters.

The company has also successfully integrated thousands of unmanned vehicles into its operations, operating in more than 20 Chinese provinces. Moreover, JD Logistics has established over 100 domestic drone routes for various applications, including parcel and food delivery, emergency medicine transport, and disaster relief.

From AI Decisions to Physical Execution

JD Logistics is revolutionizing its operations by connecting physical equipment with Meta Brain, an advanced AI system used in warehousing, transportation, and delivery processes. The latest iteration, Meta Brain 3.0, can now calculate optimal routes for hundreds of millions of parcels within seconds, significantly enhancing efficiency.

Meta Brain is also powering JD Logistics’ LangzuTech Packer robotic arm, which leverages multimodal sensor data to track, grasp, and place parcels of various shapes. Through parallel reinforcement learning in simulated environments, the Packer optimizes parcel-placement sequences and loading layouts to improve sorting efficiency and space utilization.

JD Logistics has upgraded the robotic arm’s force-control technology to support more precise cage-loading operations, enabling continuous operation across multiple logistics parks. Additionally, the company is expanding its computing capacity to support AI development, collaborating with chipmaker Moore Threads to deploy a cluster containing 100,000 GPUs for large-model training and inference workloads.

JD Cloud aims to gather over 10 million hours of real-world human activity videos for embodied-AI training over the next two years. Beyond warehouse operations, JD Logistics has extended its autonomous vehicle network to include night-time delivery services, enabling uninterrupted operations in cities like Shenzhen.

The company has also ventured into rural logistics using drones, launching a drone delivery network in Zizhong, Sichuan province, covering 78 administrative villages and ensuring swift deliveries, with some reaching mountain villages in as little as seven minutes.

Scaling Automation Across JD’s Logistics Network

JD.com has kept the total expected cost of its five-year procurement program confidential, focusing on enhancing its logistics infrastructure and operational efficiency. The company allocated RMB2.3 billion for research and development in the first half of 2026, a 23.7% increase from the previous year, emphasizing continued investment in technology and innovation.

Depreciation of property and equipment, along with amortization of intangible assets, rose by 18.7% to RMB2.6 billion in the first half of 2026, mainly attributed to additional logistics equipment and vehicles. JD Logistics also invested RMB3.09 billion in property and equipment over the same period to bolster its logistics operations.

As China’s major e-commerce platforms focus on expanding fulfillment infrastructure, JD.com, Alibaba, and Meituan are shifting towards investing in logistics infrastructure, supply chain enhancements, and order-level economics. The instant-retail market in China is poised to reach RMB1.2 trillion by the end of 2026, driving fierce competition among industry players.

JD.com and its ecosystem companies employ approximately 700,000 delivery and logistics personnel. The company’s founder, Richard Liu, envisions a future where robots will handle parcel-delivery tasks currently performed by human couriers. JD Logistics is actively retraining workers for roles in robot repair and maintenance, aiming to establish over 100,000 robotics service engineer jobs in the coming years.

JD’s automation plans align with its commitment to innovation and operational excellence, as the company pioneers the integration of AI and robotics in logistics, heralding a new era of efficiency and productivity.

(Photo by JD.com)

See also: Arm launches Total Design for Physical AI and robotics framework

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