Shenzhen Lide Robots Co., Ltd., a startup specializing in shipbuilding robotics and backed by venture capital, has settled in Nanshan District's Robot Valley.

With investments from Shenzhen Angel FOF, Shenzhen Guangyuan Investment Co., Ltd., and Googol Tech, Lide Robots recently established its headquarters in the Liuxiandong Headquarters Base. The company is a national-level high-tech enterprise specializing in the R&D, production, and sale of AI-powered shipbuilding robots. It reportedly has secured orders worth more than 1 billion yuan (US$149 million).

Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that in the first half of 2026, China's new shipbuilding orders reached 121.06 million deadweight tons, a year-on-year increase of 173.1%, accounting for 82.3% of the global market share. During the same period, Chinese shipbuilders completed 62.2% of all ships built worldwide and held 71.2% of global order backlogs.

Despite the thriving business, there has been a severe shortage of talent in the shipbuilding industry. With fewer young people willing to work in high-temperature, high-humidity, dusty, and noisy shipyards, the average age of frontline welders continues to rise. There is only one welder available for every 8.5 job vacancies in shipbuilding, and for special material welding, there is just one worker available for 12 vacancies.

While shipbuilding robots seem to be the best option to address these challenges, there are tremendous practical hurdles. Unlike automobiles that can be mass-produced, ships are custom-built. A single ship has tens of thousands of weld seams, and no two steel plates have identical groove profiles. While the welding process is the most costly in shipbuilding, it is impractical to let traditional robots do the job, as they need to be constantly reprogrammed for such non-standard tasks.

To address these pain points, Lide Robots developed the ARCMOS system, a "brain" that enables robots to understand what to weld, where to weld, and how to proceed. The company's robots can autonomously plan their work process, follow preset parameters, and work in coordination. Human workers only need to click on their computer to assign such tasks as fillet welding, groove welding, and multi-layer multi-pass welding.

Under the direction of the system, welding robots fill grooves, spraying robots apply anti-corrosion paint, and handling robots deliver blocks to workstations.

According to Lide Robots, the ARCMOS system can significantly cut welding costs and lower total shipbuilding costs, while also helping secure earlier delivery. Their customers include leading shipbuilders such as China State Shipbuilding Corporation, COSCO Shipping, China Merchants Industry, and South Korea's Hyundai.

The Robot Valley is a roughly 10-kilometer-long industrial corridor nestled between Yangtai Mountain and Tanglang Mountain in Nanshan District, along Liuxian Boulevard. It has become one of China's most representative robotics industry clusters, known for its complete supply chain and rapid prototyping capabilities.

The valley is home to 32 specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprises and 15 listed companies, as well as 11 universities and research institutions. Companies such as UBTech, Dobot, and AI2 Robotics have all settled in the valley. It is said that you can get all the parts for a robot ready here within half an hour.

Shenzhen is striving to build a global marine hub city. Statistics reveal that Shenzhen's gross ocean product has exceeded 540 billion yuan, accounting for 14.7% of its GDP. The city is home to 110,000 marine-related companies.

Shenzhen has set a goal of achieving an added value of 215 billion yuan in its marine industry by the end of 2030, with an average annual growth rate of more than 12%.