Unitree raised about 6.1 billion yuan in its initial public offering, and its stock surged in volatile trading on Shanghai's STAR Market, highlighting intense investor appetite for Chinese robotics. Shares climbed as much as nearly 630% intraday, then pared gains to finish the day at 845 yuan, leaving the stock up well into the hundreds of percent on its first day.
The Hangzhou-based company has drawn attention for robots that backflip and dance, and for a product range that now spans bipedal humanoids capable of walking and manipulating objects with dexterous hands, as well as four-legged platforms used for tasks such as hazard detection. The breadth of Unitree's lineup helped frame investor interest in the offering.
The IPO attracted strategic backing, with Chinese AI firm DeepSeek buying about 140.8 million yuan of stock, according to company filings. Unitree's prospectus also notes existing investors include Tencent. The offering raised roughly 6.1 billion yuan, equivalent to $905 million under the figures disclosed in the prospectus.
In the week leading up to the listing, Unitree introduced a new humanoid called "Superman," which the company says can jump two meters from a standing position and run at speeds of up to 12.66 meters per second. The reveal added a fresh narrative to the debut and underscored Unitree's technical showcase of dynamic motion.
Unitree is the latest major tech name to list on the STAR Market, following memory chipmaker CXMT, whose shares surged 466% on their first day last month. The IPO comes as Morgan Stanley has significantly raised its forecast for China's humanoid robot shipments, boosting its estimate for this year to 50,000 units from a prior 28,000. The bank projects the domestic humanoid market could expand from $2 billion this year to $15 billion by 2030.
Morgan Stanley also expects pilot projects in China to begin moving into broader deployments in the second half of this year, with full-size humanoids forecast to account for about 30% of shipments now, rising to 70% by 2028. Investors will be watching whether those deployment timelines and the shipment trajectory justify the extreme valuations implied by Unitree's debut.
