A Successful AI Business Model? Ruqi Mobility: Data Sales as a Business Model

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How will the billions that China's automotive industry is investing in artificial intelligence ever pay off? Ruqi Mobility, a robotaxi subsidiary of the state-owned GAC Group, believes it has the answer and is monetizing the data its vehicles collect while transporting passengers.

On August 3, 2026, Ruqi Mobility issued a positive earnings guidance for the second time this year. The figures for the first half of the year exceeded expectations. The ride business generated 3.92 billion yuan, representing a 139.5 percent increase compared to the previous year.

Although Ruqi is still posting losses, Soochow Securities forecasts that the company will become profitable in 2027. Two business segments are driving growth: passenger transportation via ride-hailing vehicles and robotaxis, and the sale of AI training data, which Ruqi refers to as “technology services.”

In the first half of the year, the amusement ride business generated 3.92 billion yuan, representing a 139.5 percent increase compared to the previous year. The data division, which exceeded 100 million yuan (approximately 13 million euros / $14.95 million) in revenue for the first time, grew by 274.4 percent and achieved a gross margin of 22.7 percent.

Combating the Lack of Data

Progress in physical AI—that is, robots and autonomous vehicles—is currently being slowed primarily by a lack of high-quality data, said Zhang Jianzhong, CEO of the Chinese chip developer Moore Threads, at the recent World Robot Conference in Beijing.

This wasn't really news, but it shows that this issue is becoming a major focus for Chinese practitioners. Machines designed to grasp, steer, and brake require data that isn't available on the Internet. The Chinese financial portal Aerfa Gongchang Yanjiuyuan estimates that generating such data using remote-controlled robots costs between 10 and 50 yuan per data set—equivalent to about 1.30 to 6.40 euros ($1.50 to $7.36). It further noted that as of early 2026, there were only about 500,000 hours of high-quality data from physical interactions worldwide. More than 99 percent of the demand remains unmet.

Ruqi can generate this data cost-effectively on its own and plans to operate robotaxis in 100 cities within five years and to run more than 10,000 robotaxis in collaboration with partners. In cities such as Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenyang, more than 300 vehicles are collecting traffic data.

What Will Happen to the Flood of Data?

Three service centers with more than 1,500 employees process this data. Their customers include developers of driver-assistance systems, robots, and language models. The government supports the sale of data. In July, four data categories from Ruqi were included in the Chinese auto industry’s “Trusted Data Space,” a pilot project of the National Data Authority in Beijing. This data space ensures that the data is legally compliant and tradable. The government, which backs Ruqi through GAC, is thus creating a reliable marketplace for data trading.

Since June, Ruqi has also been selling data for robots, including first-person videos of work processes. The GAC subsidiary is thus expanding into the field of embodied intelligence. This industry is currently booming in China. In the first half of the year, there was 93.5 billion yuan (about 12 billion euros / $13.8 billion) in investment in related companies—five times as much as in the same period last year. “The technology is bringing robotaxis to the streets, but operations determine the scale,” the China Daily quotes Han Feng, Ruqi’s chief operating officer, as saying. Since July 2025, Ruqi’s robotaxi platform has been open to partners under the name “Robotaxi+.” Pony.ai has been delivering its latest generation of vehicles since March.

The Chinese market for robotaxi rides is just beginning to take shape. Goldman Sachs estimates the market value for 2025 at just under 47 million euros ($54.05 million), with growth to about 41 billion euros ($47.15 billion) by 2035. Ruqi is a relatively small player. Pony.ai operates more than 1,700 vehicles worldwide, while WeRide operates about 1,300. Caocao, Geely’s ride-hailing service, even plans to have 100,000 robotaxis by 2030.

Yet this relatively small player is currently providing an interesting impetus for the industry. In Guangzhou, its robotaxis have begun to function as mobile data collectors as well. Passengers finance the fleet, while the AI industry purchases the collected data. It’s a pragmatic business model for a technology whose providers often make grand claims but nonchalantly gloss over the issue of monetization. And it’s already working.

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