World’s top humanoid robot maker surges in blockbuster market debut in China

Shares of Unitree, the world's largest humanoid robot maker by sales, soared over 600% in its initial public offering (IPO) debut in Shanghai on Wednesday. The company raised a staggering 6.1 billion yuan ($905 million) in the offering, which was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed, marking a record for Shanghai's STAR market, a tech-focused exchange similar to the Nasdaq.

The rapid rise of Unitree in the IPO market is seen as a testament to the growing prominence of China's robotic advancements, with the company capturing global attention through its dancing and kung-fu fighting androids. Unitree unveiled a new humanoid robot dubbed "Superman" on Monday that can jump up to two meters and run at a speed of 12.66 meters per second.

Last year, Unitree gained national prominence after its robots performed on China's biggest stage, the Lunar New Year gala. The company's founder, Wang Xingxing, was seated in the front row at President Xi Jinping's symposium with top tech businesses, solidifying Unitree's position as a key strategic firm in China's ambitious plan to dominate future technology.

With China's economic growth slowing and its workforce shrinking, the government has invested billions of dollars in humanoid robots as the next disruptive product, with the potential to boost China's standing in the US-China competition in artificial intelligence and advanced technology. Unitree's IPO marks the first time a humanoid robot maker is listed in mainland China, and other Chinese android firms, including UBTECH and Dobot, have been trading in Hong Kong, while Agibot is pursuing an IPO in Shanghai.

While Unitree is already the world's largest seller of androids, accounting for the vast majority of global deliveries last year, the technology is still constrained by both hardware and software limitations, with industrial deployments making up less than 10% of Unitree's sales in the first three quarters of 2025. The company's IPO proceeds will be used for research and development of embodied AI models and robot hardware, as well as factory expansion.