How Frontier Tech Solves Traditional Industry Challenges: DNA Storage, Drawing Collaboration, and Industrial Exoskeletons

From data storage to industrial collaboration to wearable robots, frontier technology is seeking entry points to solve structural challenges in traditional industries.

In data storage, traditional silicon-based storage faces pressure on energy consumption and raw materials. Dai Junbiao, founder and chief scientist of Zhongke Tanyuan, said that by analogy with portable hard drives, 10 million portable hard drives cannot even be stacked in a room, but 50 grams of DNA can store the same amount of information.^[1] He also believes that about 80% of data is cold data, which does not care about read/write speed but whether it can be preserved long term—this is exactly where DNA storage can be useful.^[1] Zhongke Tanyuan mainly focuses on the DNA storage process, building out everything from information encoding and decoding to synthesis, preservation, and sequencing; Dai Junbiao said China's basic technologies are on par with those abroad.^[1]

In industrial software, Wu Xinghui, founder and CEO of Zhuiguang Geometry, believes drawing collaboration has clear value for mechanical manufacturing companies. For complex products such as aerospace, automobiles, and ships, the problems brought by drawing collaboration are not just efficiency issues, but whether the product can be made at all.^[2] He does not think moving to the cloud or full cloud migration can solve all problems in drawing collaboration. Cloud migration changes file management, but it solves only a small part of the problems in file version management and information synchronization; solving other problems still requires specialized control systems.^[2]

In robotics, Xu Zhenhua, founder and CEO of Aoshark Intelligence, introduced that exoskeleton robots fall into two major categories: rigid exoskeletons and flexible exoskeletons. Flexible exoskeletons are still at the laboratory stage and not yet commercialized; currently, the more commercialized type is rigid exoskeletons.^[3] According to ABI Research data, industrial exoskeletons will account for half of overall market revenue by 2028 and more than half of overall shipments.^[3]

Commercial cleaning robots are likewise seen as a track poised to take off. Li Yuhao, founder and CEO of Maiyan Intelligence, believes that aging will cause a cliff-like decline in labor supply, and demand for commercial cleaning robots will surge.^[5] He said the entire industry combined cannot meet 1% of demand; only when annual shipments reach more than 100,000 can a significant portion of customer demand be met. If considering a market at the million-unit level, at least 100,000 units a year are needed to unlock the market.^[5]

At the level of corporate management and startup methodology, Feishu launched Feishu People, connecting HR modules such as OKRs, personnel, performance, and recruiting, in an attempt to solve challenges in corporate recruiting, OKR performance, and HR management.^[6] Anu Atluru, Clubhouse's first head of community, shared lessons she learned during her two years at Clubhouse starting from 1,000 early users, summarizing 25 startup lessons across product, community, and operations.^[4]

These cases show that the key to frontier tech entrepreneurship is often not a single technological breakthrough, but finding high-value scenarios and cost-affordable entry points.