He Xiaopeng: XPeng Has a Shot at Seizing Autonomous Driving’s “DeepSeek Moment”

On February 1, IT Home (IT之家) reported that He Xiaopeng, Chairman of XPeng Motors, shared a year-end message reflecting on the company’s annual gathering. In his view, AI is set to become one of the defining mega-trends of the next 30 to 50 years.

Against that backdrop, he pointed to a clear signal: cars and AI have officially entered a new era of cross-domain integration. Technologies for smart cockpits and intelligent driving are beginning to converge, ultimately note he expects to form a “super intelligent agent” that unifies in-car experience and autonomy.

He added that XPeng has been investing for the long term in “physical AI”—committing not only to AI itself, but also to the real-world systems it controls, alongside the computing power and data required to scale. Because of this foundation, he said the company has strong confidence and a significant opportunity to become the first in China to capture an autonomous-driving “DeepSeek moment.”

Looking ahead, He described XPeng’s next stage as a full evolution into a global physical AI technology company. The plan is to apply one unified AI technology system across multiple “robot” forms—cars, humanoid robots, and flying cars—and bring these products to international markets.

IT Home also noted that on January 8, XPeng held a global new-product launch and highlighted two key themes for 2026: physical AI and globalization. At the event, He said 2026 will mark the commercialization and scaled mass production of physical AI, representing a pivotal shift from “technology exploration” to “real-world deployment.”

He also outlined several concrete milestones for 2026, including: rolling out a second-generation VLA to vehicles in the first quarter, launching Robotaxi operations, scaling up humanoid robot mass production, and achieving scaled mass production of its flying car.