An exhibitor demonstrates the Unitree Robotics G1 humanoid robot at the Humanoid Summit in Tokyo, Friday, May 29, 2026.
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
As retail excitement reaches a fever pitch over the listing of China’s best-known humanoid maker, Unitree Robotics, skeptics are wondering how long it will be before these robots can move beyond running and acrobatics and perform truly useful tasks.
The Hangzhou-based startup priced its IPO at 150.8 yuan ($22.4) per share, raising $900 million and giving it an enterprise value of 61 billion yuan (about $9 billion).
Investors are hoping that Unitree, the first humanoid robot company to go public on the mainland, will start trading at the end of this month and see a big jump in its stock price from the first day.
Unitree’s products experienced record retail demand at Shanghai’s STAR market, with the online tranche oversubscribed over 5,000 times, resulting in a historically low winning rate of 0.018%. The company’s IPO also attracted strategic investors, including AI startup DeepSeek.
HyperLiquid’s pre-IPO perpetual contract linked to Unitree is trading at about four times its IPO price as of Friday, as investors turn to crypto derivatives exchanges to bet on stocks before trading begins.
Unitree’s robots, famous for delivering kung fu kicks and recovering from knockdowns, still face questions about whether the technology can be scaled commercially, with unresolved AI and software limitations.
“These humanoid robots are fascinating, to be honest. They can do things like dance, but I’ve never seen them actually do housework,” said Hao Hong, managing partner at Lotus Asset Management.
Unitree said in its prospectus that progress in large-scale commercial deployment may be slower than expected because the robotic hand is still not precise or durable enough for sustainable use.
Hong pointed out that the rush of individual investors is partly because there are very few humanoid robot companies to invest in.
Dominic Plos, equity analyst at VP Bank, says that even advanced humanoid robots can typically only handle a small number of tasks and only need a few hours to recharge their batteries. Most humanoid models can run idle for up to 4 hours.
“Robots need to be specifically trained for every task entrusted to them, even the simplest tasks,” he said, adding that complex daily activities are still out of reach.
More robot listings are planned for the future. Unitree rivals AgiBot and Leju Robotics are aiming to go public in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, respectively. “Going public is a must,” LimX Dynamics founder Will Chan told CNBC last month.
humanoid economics
Low-cost manufacturing has helped China stay ahead of global rivals in robotics.
Wood Mackenzie predicts that the world’s humanoid robot fleet will increase by more than 90% every year until 2035, reaching more than 10 million units. By then, annual shipments are expected to reach 4 million units. China is already a major player, accounting for more than 70% of the world’s industrial robot deployments and nearly 90% of all humanoids introduced last year, according to the research firm.
The average price of a humanoid robot fell 93% between 2020 and 2025, to $58,000, according to Wood Mackenzie. The company estimates Unitree’s $16,000 flagship G1 model will cost just $82 a year in electricity to run eight hours a day, but says widespread adoption could increase pressure on power systems already strained by AI data centers.
Semianalysis estimates that Unitree reduced the pre-tax price of its G1 EDU model (a customizable model built for research) by more than 45% from last year to $27,300, while maintaining a 67% gross margin.
Linda Sui, founder of research firm Smart Analytics Global, said falling prices for robots and support from the Chinese government, including investments in helping domestic manufacturers shift from labor-intensive work to automation, are helping to raise interest and attract capital to the emerging field. Although the increase in production has helped reduce costs, it will take time to test the robot’s return on investment, Sui said.
Analysts say Unitree’s strengths lie in its manufacturing scale and cost structure. Unitree’s revenue more than quadrupled last year, but its first-quarter adjusted profit fell more than 52% as it increased spending on research and development and marketing.
Skeptics point out that much of Unitree’s current demand remains focused on research and demonstration. Nearly three-quarters of the company’s humanoid revenue came from research and education in the first nine months of 2025, while corporate tours still accounted for more than half of its small industrial business, the company’s filings showed.
“Unlike many early-stage robotics companies, Unitree’s story is backed by real revenue growth,” said Jeff Coe, principal analyst at CoinEx. Still, he pointed to the speculative element, saying Unitree’s hefty $9 billion valuation (more than 200 times last year’s revenue) is even higher in the crypto market.
robot politics
The IPO frenzy continued after the United States last month banned imports of foreign-made humanoid and quadrupedal robots that appeared to target Chinese technology products.
SAG said Unitree derived 13% of its revenue from the United States last year and could be “particularly at risk.”
Unitree’s low-cost robots have become a viable option for humanoid research at U.S. universities, but some researchers are unfazed by the new regulations, as small-lot imports for testing and development are still exempt. According to the House Select Committee on China, Unitree’s quadrupedal robots are also used in the U.S. national correctional system and military installations, raising national security concerns.
Another big geopolitical risk is the possibility that Chinese robotics companies will lose access to Nvidia’s hardware and software stack, SAG’s Sui said. The Chinese industry leader is one of the early users of the Nvidia platform for powering robots.
“Chinese robot makers are not yet in a position to do without Western components completely,” said VP Bank’s Ploss.
But Bernstein analyst Dian Wang said China’s dominance in rare earths, which are used in humanoid robot actuators and motors, could give the country’s players significant leverage over their global peers.
The humanoid robot industry has a long way to go, but the potential market opportunity has led Tesla CEO Elon Musk to focus on robotics development and convert the company’s Fremont factory’s EV production line to make Optimus humanoid robots. Production is expected to begin later this year.
Some researchers argue that Unitree is more than just a humanoid bet. Humanoids are Unitree’s biggest business, but quadruped robots still make up the lion’s share. They say that while specialized robots are cheap and reliable in repetitive industrial environments, humanoids are best suited for unpredictable and unstructured environments.
