Aug 20, 2026
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Add us on GoogleIf you’ve watched a video of a humanoid robot doing backflips or seen androids dancing to Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” on America’s Got Talent, you’ve likely encountered Unitree’s work — you just may have been completely unaware of it.
On August 19, the Hangzhou-based robotics firm made its stock market debut in Shanghai and the reception was extraordinary. Shares jumped more than 600% in their first day of trading, according to CNN.
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The IPO raised 6.1 billion yuan — approximately $905 million — and was oversubscribed more than 8,000 times, a record for Shanghai’s STAR Market, China’s tech-focused exchange that’s modeled on the Nasdaq.
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What is Unitree?
Founded in 2016, Unitree is backed by Meituan, Alibaba, Tencent and AI startup DeepSeek. From 2023 to 2025, its revenue grew more than tenfold to nearly 1.7 billion yuan ($252 million). It delivered more than 5,500 humanoid robots worldwide last year, becoming the world’s largest android seller. It’s also one of the few companies in its space to have turned a profit, posting a net income of 278 million yuan ($41 million) in 2025.
The company makes both humanoid and quadruped robots — known as robot dogs — and their viral social media presence, according to a Unitree press release, has made them cultural touchstones beyond the robotics industry. Last year, the robot dogs accounted for about 42% of its revenue. Its market entrance makes Unitree the first humanoid robot maker listed on mainland China’s exchanges, CNN notes.
Unitree became a household name in China after its androids performed during the country’s most-watched annual television event — the Lunar New Year gala — and the company’s profile has only risen since. Founder Wang Xingxing earned a coveted spot beside President Xi Jinping at a high-profile meeting between the Chinese leader and the country’s top tech executives, a signal of how seriously Beijing takes Unitree’s strategic importance.
Days before Wednesday’s debut, the company kept the momentum going by revealing a new humanoid it calls “Superman” — a robot capable of clearing a two-meter jump and running at nearly 13 meters per second.
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The frenzy, and why it matters to investors
The IPO’s reception reflects both genuine enthusiasm for the humanoid robotics sector and China’s deliberate positioning of robotics as a national strategic priority, seeing it as the “new high ground of technological competition and a fresh frontier for future industries,” according to CNN’s translation of a 2023 Chinese government policy document.
According to McKinsey & Company’s analysis, China has committed about $138 billion in state venture capital guidance funds to AI, robotics and related sectors.
The scale of the opportunity being priced in is enormous. According to IDC, by 2030, global humanoid robot shipments are expected to surpass 510,000 units — a compound annual growth rate of nearly 95% from today. The firm also expected Chinese vendors to account for 95% of global shipments in 2025.
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Unitree’s G1 robot starts at approximately $13,500 — a fraction of what comparable robots cost when built outside China’s supply chain. According to the South China Morning Post, citing a Morgan Stanley analysis, building Tesla’s Optimus Gen 2 without Chinese suppliers would cost almost three times as much — with the total bill of materials surging from roughly $46,000 to $131,000.
The risks are real
The 600% first-day pop should be read with some caution. Ethan Qi, associate director at Counterpoint Research, called the IPO “a key milestone for the humanoid industry” and “a benchmark for other IPOs in the pipeline” — but also noted that Unitree’s competitive edge relies heavily on hardware and motion control, and that the company needs to invest more in embodied AI, the software systems that think for the machines, CNN reports.
Currently, research and educational institutions account for the majority of Unitree’s sales, with industrial deployment representing less than 10% of revenue in 2025’s first three quarters. “Moving from demonstrations and early deployments to widespread industrial adoption will take time,” Kangyuxiao Li, equity analyst at Morningstar, admitted to CNN.
Geopolitical risk compounds this. In June, Unitree was added to the U.S. government’s list of Chinese military-linked companies and barred from doing business with the Pentagon. The following month, Washington banned new foreign-manufactured humanoid and quadruped robot imports, citing national security concerns.
More than 40% of Unitree’s revenue comes from overseas and its prospectus warns it “may be unable to sustain rapid growth in overseas sales” if U.S. restrictions continue.
A partnership with Nvidia announced in June for joint AI research and development signals Unitree’s awareness of where its gaps are. Whether that partnership survives the escalating U.S.-China technology restrictions remains to be seen.
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With a writing and editing career spanning over 15 years, Emma creates and refines content across a broad spectrum of industries, including personal finance, lifestyle, travel, health & wellness, real estate, beauty & fitness and B2B/SaaS/tech.
