Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree powers up for stellar Shanghai debut
Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree powers up for stellar Shanghai debut
People sit near Unitree's G1 and R1 humanoid robots on display at a Unitree store in Beijing,
Samuel Shen and Eduardo Baptista
Fri, August 14, 2026 at 8:54 AM GMT+3 4 min read
By Samuel Shen and Eduardo Baptista
SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Aug 14 (Reuters) - China's Unitree, the country's most high-profile humanoid robot maker, is widely expected to have an explosive stock market debut in Shanghai next week. The only question is — how frenzied is it going to be?
Outside China, on private share platforms such as EquityZen, UpMarket and Hiive, Unitree shares are tipped to almost triple, while on crypto exchanges Hyperliquid and Gate, derivative trades point to a jump of almost four times.
Some others expect much more.
Such is the excitement around Unitree, whose humanoid robots have drawn global attention for their running, dancing and performing of martial arts, that its IPO was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors, a record for Shanghai's STAR Market for tech startups.
Chinese media have also reported that lucky IPO subscribers have been approached by scalpers offering to buy its shares at 410 yuan, a 170% premium to its offering price of 150.8 yuan.
Unitree's listing date is expected to be announced later on Friday.
PROFITABLE AND SEEN TO HAVE STATE SUPPORT
Unitree, which competes with Hyundai Motor Group-owned Boston Dynamics and Tesla, is not the first Chinese humanoid robot maker to list. Hong Kong has at least two: UBTech and Dobot, while a slew of others, including Leju Robotics and Agitbot, are preparing to go public.
But it is the world's biggest humanoid-robot maker by sales and the first general-purpose robotics company to debut in mainland China. Just as importantly, it's already profitable.
"Unitree represents a major turning point for Chinese robotics," Jack Pearson, an investment principal at RoboStrategy, wrote in a report.
It "arrives on the public market with something many humanoid companies lack: scale combined with profit."
Investors are also drawn to Unitree's perceived state support as China seeks to gain the upper hand in tech over the United States and pushes development of the sector.
Its founder Wang Xingxing had a coveted front-row seat at a summit with tech business leaders hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping early last year, and the startup also has backing from some of China's most influential tech firms including Tencent, Alibaba and DeepSeek.
A blockbuster debut from Unitree would come just a few weeks after shares in chipmaker CXMT soared more than five times in their Shanghai debut, brightening the outlook for tech listings in the world's second-largest economy.
MODEST IPO STOKES INTEREST
Unitree raised a relatively modest 6.1 billion yuan ($905 million) by selling just 10% of its enlarged capital in the IPO, which has fanned expectations that investors who missed out will be eager to jump in when shares begin trading.
Trading platform Hiive prices Unitree shares at roughly $62, implying a 176% upside from the IPO price, said Jeff Ko, chief analyst at CoinEx.
"Every market outside the regulated IPO process is attaching a substantial scarcity premium to the shares," he said, also noting that China IPOs had generated an average 233% first-day return in the first half of 2026.
Other platforms point to a bigger debut.
On Hyperliquid, a round-the-clock venue for leveraged bets on everything from stocks to oil, a contract linked to Unitree shares traded on a platform operated by Trade.xyz was priced at around $90 early on Friday.
Wen Hao, a veteran trader in China's eastern city of Hangzhou, where Unitree is based, was even more bullish, predicting the stock could jump as much as eight-fold on its maiden day.
But others said investors also ran the risk of ignoring fundamentals for a sector that has still to prove itself.
Unitree faces growing competition, has only a limited number of mature applications for the factory floor, and Chinese humanoid robot firms may be blocked from selling in the U.S. market.
"It's questionable whether the robotics sector's long-term promise justifies" the current price tag, said Jeff Mei, COO of crypto exchange BTSE.
"Given that SpaceX dropped below its IPO price post-listing, even top-tier hype names are susceptible to a reality check."
($1 = 6.7428 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Samuel Shen in Shanghai and Eduardo Baptista in Beijing; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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