Unitree, a Chinese robotics company, has priced its IPO at a $9.04 billion valuation, becoming the country's first mainland-listed humanoid robot manufacturer.
The company's 2025 revenue more than quadrupled to 1.7 billion yuan, with humanoid robot sales of 867.8 million yuan now exceeding its quadruped robot business.
IPO subscriptions open August 10, and the company plans to raise about $900 million to fund hardware and software development, product launches, and manufacturing expansion.
What happened
Unitree, a Hangzhou-based robotics manufacturer, priced its Shanghai STAR Market IPO at 150.8 yuan ($22.34) per share, valuing the company at approximately $9.04 billion. The company is selling 40.45 million new shares and plans to raise about $900 million, with IPO subscriptions scheduled to open on August 10. DeepSeek is among the strategic investors participating in the offering.
Why it matters
Unitree becomes China's first mainland-listed humanoid robot manufacturer, signaling strong investor interest in AI-powered robotics despite US-China technology tensions. The company's 2025 revenue more than quadrupled to 1.7 billion yuan, with humanoid robot sales at 867.8 million yuan now surpassing its quadruped robot business. However, first-quarter 2026 profit excluding one-off items fell 52.6 percent as the company increased spending on research and marketing.
What to watch
Unitree will use IPO proceeds to develop new robot hardware and software, launch additional products, and expand manufacturing capacity. The US accounted for 13.3 percent of the company's 2025 revenue, though new US restrictions introduced last month could prevent future foreign-produced humanoid and quadruped robots from obtaining approvals for US sale; Unitree's existing products remain authorized. The $9 billion valuation positions Unitree smaller than analyst estimates for competitors—Bank of America values Tesla's Optimus at about $30 billion, while Morgan Stanley estimates it could eventually be worth $180 billion.
Unitree, based in Hangzhou, has set the opening price for its Shanghai STAR Market IPO at 150.8 yuan ($22.34) per share, valuing the company at approximately 61 billion yuan ($9.04 billion). The company is selling 40.45 million new shares, which represents 10 percent of its enlarged share capital, and expects to raise about 6.1 billion yuan ($900 million). IPO subscriptions are scheduled to open on August 10. Strategic investors in the offering include Chinese AI company DeepSeek.
Unitree plans to deploy the IPO proceeds toward developing new robot hardware and software, launching additional products, and expanding manufacturing capacity. The company manufactures both humanoid robots and quadruped robots across a spectrum ranging from consumer-priced robot dogs to industrial humanoid platforms, and has gained recognition in China for public demonstrations of robots capable of running, dancing, and performing acrobatic movements.
Financially, Unitree's 2025 revenue more than quadrupled to 1.7 billion yuan, driven substantially by humanoid robots, which generated 867.8 million yuan in sales and became the company's largest business segment, surpassing quadruped robots. However, profitability came under pressure: first-quarter 2026 profit excluding one-off items declined 52.6 percent as the company increased spending on research and marketing. The US market accounted for 13.3 percent of the company's 2025 revenue, though this exposure now faces headwinds. Last month, US regulators introduced new restrictions that could prevent future foreign-produced humanoid and quadruped robots from obtaining the approvals needed for US sale, though Unitree has confirmed its existing products remain authorized.
Unitree's $9.04 billion valuation positions the company significantly below analyst estimates for competitors that have not yet commercialized at scale. Bank of America values Tesla's Optimus business at approximately $30 billion, while Morgan Stanley has estimated that Tesla's humanoid robot business could eventually be worth $180 billion. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently described Optimus as "the biggest product ever," while acknowledging that "scaling production would be 'the hardest product to scale manufacturing that we've ever made at Tesla because everything on the robot is new'." Unitree's IPO is expected to provide investors with one of the first direct opportunities to invest in a publicly listed humanoid robotics manufacturer as competition intensifies between Chinese and US companies seeking to commercialize general-purpose AI-powered robots.
Unitree's $9.04 billion IPO valuation marks a watershed moment for Chinese robotics: the company becomes the first domestically-listed humanoid robot manufacturer at a time when the global robotics sector is attracting significant capital and talent. The timing is notable because 2025 saw Unitree's revenue more than quadruple and its humanoid robot segment—which generated 867.8 million yuan in sales—overtake its previously dominant quadruped robot business, demonstrating genuine market traction rather than speculative positioning.
Yet the valuation also highlights the gap between commercialized robotics and speculative estimates. At $9 billion, Unitree trades at a substantial discount to analyst projections for Tesla's Optimus (Bank of America: $30 billion; Morgan Stanley: up to $180 billion), even though Tesla's humanoid robot has not yet reached mass production. The difference is stark: Unitree has shipped units and generated measurable revenue, while Optimus remains in pilot deployment. This gap suggests either that the market discounts Unitree's scaling ability or that analyst estimates for Optimus embed significant optionality and future-production assumptions.
The backdrop is deteriorating US-China technology relations. The US introduced new restrictions last month that could prevent future foreign-produced humanoid robots from obtaining sale approvals, though Unitree's existing products remain authorized. With the US generating 13.3 percent of Unitree's 2025 revenue, regulatory risk is real but not yet prohibitive. Unitree's first-quarter 2026 profit fell 52.6 percent despite revenue growth, a warning that the path to scale profitably while defending market share against well-funded competitors—particularly Tesla—remains uncharted.
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