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Breaking · Aug 18, 2026, 06:36 PM · 5 sources

Unitree Robotics IPO oversubscribed 8,000x in Shanghai; raises $904M at $9B valuation for humanoid manufacturing

<cite index="72-1">Unitree Robotics opened subscriptions for its initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market on Monday, with the $900 million offering more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors</cite>. <cite index="72-2">Unitree set its share price at 150.80 yuan (about $22), placing the company's total valuation above 60 billion yuan, and is offering about 40.45 million shares representing 10% of its post-offering share capital</cite>. Retail investors faced odds of approximately 0.018% of receiving shares, a lottery-like allocation reflecting extraordinary demand for physical AI exposure.

<cite index="73-2">Unitree is unique in the sector for being profitable, reporting 1.7 billion yuan in 2025 revenue with strong margins, and having delivered 18,000 robots</cite>. <cite index="73-4">The company is valued near 36 times last year's sales and strategic allocations went to DeepSeek, Tencent's Qishan Investment, and PetroChina's Kunlun Capital, a map of who wants proximity to embodied AI</cite>. Unitree becomes the first pure-play humanoid manufacturer on a mainland Chinese exchange.

<cite index="73-4">The company unveiled a new robot called Superman that manages a two-meter standing jump and a top speed of 12.66 meters per second</cite>. <cite index="76-2,76-3">IPO proceeds will be invested in intelligent-robot model research, robot-body development, new robot products, and an intelligent-robot manufacturing base</cite>. The listing comes amid US trade restrictions: the FCC added foreign-made humanoid robots to its Covered List in late July, and <cite index="77-3">research and educational institution use accounted for the majority of Unitree's sales, while industrial deployments remained less than 10% in the first three quarters of 2025</cite>.

For infrastructure and automation teams tracking embodied AI commercialization: Unitree's 8000x oversubscription is a retail-investor signal, not a fundamental endorsement. The profitability and shipment volume are real differentiators vs. private humanoid startups (Figure at $39B valuation, zero shipments or public margins). But industrial adoption remains <10% of revenue. The listing establishes Unitree as a public proxy for the humanoid sector at a disciplined valuation—36x sales vs. private multiples. Watch whether the Shanghai listing price holds after enthusiasm cools, and track whether Unitree can convert R&D capex into factory yields and industrial repeatability.

Sources

Everything this brief rests on
  1. 01 Primary source finance.yahoo.com
  2. 02 finance.yahoo.com finance.yahoo.com “Unitree Robotics' Shanghai IPO offering more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors, compared with roughly 4x demand for SpaceX's offering”
  3. 03 finance.yahoo.com finance.yahoo.com “Unitree priced shares at 150.80 yuan (about $22), placing the company's total valuation above 60 billion yuan (approximately $9 billion), raising about 6.10 billion yuan ($904 million)”
  4. 04 forbes.com forbes.com “Unitree shipped more than 5,000 humanoid units in 2025 and delivered roughly 18,000 humanoid robots across its model range by July 2026”
  5. 05 forbes.com forbes.com “Unitree's prospectus showed revenue of about 1.7 billion yuan in 2025, roughly $235 million, with gross margins near 60 percent and a net margin in the mid-teens”