Amap, a subsidiary of Alibaba, is undergoing the most significant technological transformation in its brand history. Since announcing a full AI transformation and shifting to the field of spatial intelligence in August 2025, Amap has demonstrated dominance in the WorldScore spatial intelligence evaluation benchmark, ranking first in multiple indicators with its self-developed world model.
This benchmark was proposed by Professor Fei-Fei Li's team at Stanford University and is currently the most authoritative open-source standard for evaluating multimodal world generation models, meaning that Amap now possesses top-tier capabilities to understand and simulate the laws of complex physical worlds.
Amap's ambitions are not limited to algorithms but are extending into physical entities. According to news from Sina Technology, Amap has quietly established a embodied intelligence business department internally and is recruiting experts in embodied intelligence products and algorithm engineers globally. According to insiders, Amap plans to use its world model as the underlying "brain" to explore diverse product forms, including humanoid robots and robotic dogs, achieving a leap from digital navigation to physical action.
This strategy is closely integrated with Alibaba Group's AI ecosystem. Recently, Alibaba's latest AI flagship application "Qwen" has already been integrated with Amap and "Amap Street View Ranking," significantly enhancing the interactive experience of local lifestyle services through spatial intelligence technology. From a map tool in 2024 to a spatial intelligence giant in 2026, Amap is trying to define the new infrastructure of the embodied intelligence era by building a "brain" and "body" for the physical world.
