Unitree soars 460% in Shanghai debut, hits $53B on $904M IPO
What's the deal? Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics closed up more than 460% in its Shanghai debut Wednesday, having raised 6.1 billion yuan ($904 million) in an initial public offering. It is the first publicly traded humanoid robot maker in mainland China.
By the numbers: Shares jumped as much as 629% from the IPO price of 150.8 yuan before paring gains to close at 845 yuan, valuing the Hangzhou company at roughly 358 billion yuan (about $53 billion). Unitree sold 40.45 million shares — around 10% of the company — with the retail tranche oversubscribed more than 5,500 times.
What it does: Unitree makes bipedal humanoids that walk and manipulate objects with dexterous hands, plus four-legged robots for tasks such as hazard detection. Its backflipping and dancing machines have drawn global attention, appearing at China's Spring Festival Gala.
The financials: Revenue surged to 1.7 billion yuan in 2025 from 393 million yuan a year earlier, with net profit of 278 million yuan and gross margin above 60%. It shipped more than 5,500 humanoids last year, ranking first globally, and about 18,000 units across its full range by July 2026 — making it a rare profitable player in the sector.
Who's backing it: The offering drew strategic placements from AI firm DeepSeek, which invested about 140.8 million yuan, alongside Tencent, PetroChinaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and China TelecomDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Founder Wang Xingxing holds roughly 30%, a stake now worth north of 100 billion yuan.
The product: Ahead of the listing, Unitree on Monday unveiled a new humanoid called "Superman," which it says can jump two metres from a standing position and run at up to 12.66 metres per second.
The contrast: Unitree's valuation dwarfs US rival Agility Robotics, the Oregon maker of the Digit warehouse humanoid. Agility said in June it would go public via a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XIDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → at a $2.5 billion pre-money valuation, netting about $620 million. Recent SPAC trading implies a value near $4 billion — a fraction of Unitree's $53 billion.
The signal: Embodied AI is emerging as a closely watched frontier as Beijing backs strategic technologies and investor attention shifts beyond foundation models. "Unitree's debut surge signals strong appetite for China's embodied AI sector," Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ian Ma said, adding it may set a favourable valuation read for upcoming Chinese robotics IPOs. JPMorgan forecasts global humanoid shipments will rise from 18,000 units in 2025 to 1.75 million by 2030, with China accounting for more than half of demand.
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Image credit: AZAdam
