Shares of Unitree, one of China's largest humanoid robot makers, soared as much as 629% in their public trading debut on Wednesday in Shanghai, marking one of the most explosive stock market debuts of the year and the latest signal of investor optimism over China's technological advances.
The stock, which listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's Nasdaq-style STAR Market, later closed 460% higher at 845 yuan ($125.31), according to the Associated Press. The session turned a company that was raising money at a modest IPO price into one of the most valuable robotics firms in the world almost overnight. For more context on this story, see our ongoing breaking AI news.
A Record-Setting Debut on the STAR Market
Unitree raised roughly 6.1 billion yuan ($904 million) in its initial public offering, with shares priced at 150.80 yuan ($22.36) apiece, the AP reported. At the opening bell, buyers piled in: the stock briefly surged 629%, lifting the company to a valuation of about $66 billion before settling back, according to the South China Morning Post.
Reuters called the debut "a milestone for China's humanoid robotics sector," and the numbers back up that framing. Bloomberg had reported ahead of the listing that Unitree was set to debut after raising $904 million, making it the highest-profile technology IPO on the Chinese mainland in months — and the first major public listing of a pure-play humanoid robotics champion anywhere in the world.
From Backflips to Billions
CNBC described the company as "China's backflipping robot maker," a reference to the viral videos of Unitree's humanoid robots performing backflips and kung fu routines that made the startup a global sensation. Founded in 2016 by entrepreneur Wang Xingxing in the eastern Chinese technology hub of Hangzhou, Unitree built its business selling both humanoid robots and quadruped robot dogs.
The financials disclosed around the listing show a company that is growing fast but still small relative to its new stock market value. Unitree reported about 1.7 billion yuan (roughly $250 million) in revenue in 2025, mainly from sales of its humanoid and four-legged robots, according to the AP. More than 40% of that revenue came from overseas.
The United States accounted for roughly 13% of Unitree's revenue last year — but that was before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission moved to ban Chinese humanoid robots from the American market on national security grounds, a decision that effectively closes off one of the company's export markets.
Embodied AI and the U.S.-China Race
Advanced robotics, often referred to as "embodied" artificial intelligence, has become a key battleground in the technology rivalry between China and the United States. China currently leads the U.S. in production capacity for humanoid robots and the ability to scale up manufacturing, as the AP noted — an advantage that Unitree's listing now puts on public display.
The timing of the debut was symbolic in another way: it coincided with the World Robot Conference in Beijing, which featured more than 300 exhibitors. Chinese leaders have made robotics a development priority, funneling state support into the sector.
Not every robotics stock shared in the celebration. UBTech, another major Chinese humanoid robot maker listed in Hong Kong, saw its shares fall more than 10% on Wednesday — a reminder that investors are starting to differentiate between companies rather than simply chasing the theme.
A Flood of Capital Into Physical AI
Unitree's debut comes amid a historic wave of investment into what venture capitalists now call "physical AI." Global venture funding for physical AI companies — a category spanning robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace, drones, industrial automation and sensors — totaled $47.4 billion across 521 deals in the first half of 2026, according to Crunchbase News. That is up nearly 80% from the $26.4 billion raised in the first half of 2025, and more than the $41.9 billion invested in the sector across 2022, 2023 and 2024 combined.
The megadeals driving the boom include Waymo's $16 billion Series D raised in February at a $126 billion valuation, Crunchbase reported. Wall Street is watching the category closely: Benzinga cast Unitree as a Tesla Optimus rival, and Forbes argued that the IPO's massive pop makes U.S.-based Agility Robotics "look super cheap" by comparison.
Valuation Questions Linger
For all the euphoria, some analysts urge caution. TradingView asked whether "China's robot boom is already overvalued" after the surge, noting that price discovery effectively malfunctioned during the first session. Reuters Breakingviews, in a piece titled "Nobody knows how to price China IPOs anymore," argued that the mechanics of the mainland's IPO market make valuations of debutantes like Unitree difficult to justify on fundamentals.
With roughly $250 million in annual revenue against a peak market value near $66 billion, Unitree trades at a multiple that prices in years of flawless execution in a market — general-purpose humanoid robots — where mass commercial adoption is still in its earliest days.
Still, the IPO's success is unambiguous as a statement of market sentiment: investors, in China and beyond, believe the era of embodied AI has begun, and they want exposure to it now. For the robotics industry, Wednesday's session in Shanghai may be remembered as the moment humanoid robots became a mainstream asset class.
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