Unitree Technology’s August 10 online share subscription opened with one of the most aggressive valuation gaps seen in China’s robotics market, pricing the humanoid-robot maker at 219.23 times earnings compared with an industry average of 38.56 times. The offering’s bookbuilding phase drew valid demand exceeding 2,618 times the available allocation, according to the company’s prospectus and offering materials, setting up an exceptionally tight retail lottery for the STAR Market debut.
The company raised about 61 billion yuan through the sale of roughly 40.44 million shares, giving it an implied post-issue valuation near 610 billion yuan based on disclosed figures. Only 6.471 million shares were initially reserved for online subscribers, equivalent to 16% of the total deal, while strategic placements and offline bookbuilding accounted for the remaining 84%.
At 500 shares per lot, the online allocation leaves fewer than 13,000 lots available. Based on the number of valid subscription numbers disclosed in the offering process, the implied chance of receiving an allocation is estimated at roughly 0.02% to 0.03%, or about two lots per 10,000 subscription numbers.
That scarcity will also shape early trading once the shares begin changing hands. Unitree is expected to have about 404 million shares outstanding after the offering, but only an estimated 29.77 million shares, or 7.36% of total capital, are expected to be freely tradable on the first day. More than 90% of shares will be locked, creating a market where a small publicly available float sits against a valuation measured in the hundreds of billions of yuan.
Premium pricing rests on profits and humanoid sales growth
Founder Wang defended the company’s valuation during an online roadshow on August 7, arguing that Unitree’s financial profile differs from many robotics peers that remain loss-making. The roadshow lasted around three hours and attracted questions focused on the company’s earnings, pricing and the durability of demand for humanoid machines.
Unitree’s disclosures show revenue rising from 159 million yuan in 2023 to 1.699 billion yuan in 2025, a compound annual growth rate of 226.78%. Adjusted net profit moved from a loss exceeding 18 million yuan in 2023 to 591 million yuan in 2025. Operating cash flow reached 670 million yuan last year, while the company reported 1.419 billion yuan in cash and limited interest-bearing debt.
Humanoid robots became the central driver behind that expansion. Revenue from the segment rose from about 2.96 million yuan in 2023 to 868 million yuan in 2025, lifting its share of Unitree’s sales from less than 2% to 51.78%. The business surpassed quadruped robots as the company’s largest source of growth.
The company reported shipments of more than 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025, ranking first worldwide according to figures included in its disclosures. Its blended gross margin rose from 44.22% in 2023 to 60.13% in 2025, while humanoid robots generated a 63.18% gross margin.
Those numbers explain why the offering is being valued more like a high-growth hardware platform than a conventional industrial-equipment manufacturer. They also leave little room for a material slowdown in revenue growth or a sharper-than-expected erosion in prices.
Sales growth is slowing as robot prices decline
Unitree’s first-quarter results for 2026 show that the pace of expansion has already moderated. Revenue for the period reached 423 million yuan, up 68.49% from a year earlier, compared with annual revenue growth of more than 330% in 2025. Adjusted net profit attributable to the parent company fell 52.55% year on year to 40.25 million yuan.
The company projected adjusted net profit for the first half of 2026 at between 236 million yuan and 283 million yuan, representing a year-on-year decline of 6% to 22%. The guidance points to a more demanding phase in which Unitree must maintain margins while volumes rise and average selling prices fall.
Its disclosures show the average selling price of a humanoid robot dropping from around 590,000 yuan in 2023 to about 160,000 yuan in 2025. Unit costs also declined, from 73,200 yuan in 2023 to 62,200 yuan during the first three quarters of 2025, a reduction of roughly 15%.
Price reductions can expand the potential market for robots, particularly in education, research and light industrial use. Yet the speed of the selling-price decline is far greater than the disclosed cost reduction, placing more weight on production scale, component efficiency and higher-value software capabilities to preserve profitability.
Education customers remain the largest source of demand
Regulatory responses cited in Unitree’s filings show that its commercial base remains concentrated in scientific research and education. Those customers generated 73.60% of humanoid-robot revenue during the first three quarters of 2025.
Commercial consumer applications contributed 17.39%, while industry applications represented 9.01%. Within the industrial category, less than 30% of revenue came from deployments in areas such as intelligent manufacturing and industrial inspection, according to the company’s responses.
The breakdown suggests Unitree has established strong demand from early adopters but has yet to derive most of its humanoid revenue from large-scale industrial deployment. Research institutions and education customers can support early unit sales and product iteration, although they do not necessarily provide the recurring order volumes associated with factory automation programs.
Unitree is directing more than 20 billion yuan of offering proceeds toward an intelligent robot model research-and-development project covering “brain” and “cerebellum” systems. In humanoid robotics, the “brain” generally refers to systems that interpret instructions and plan actions, while the “cerebellum” handles motion control, balance and real-time physical coordination.
The prospectus states that Unitree’s in-house general embodied large model had not yet been deployed at scale to robot terminals. Wang said remote controls remained part of the product design as a safety redundancy measure when AI models misjudge conditions. Company materials also acknowledge limits in how well humanoid robots generalize across complex environments.
Strategic buyers and overseas exposure add further variables
Three portfolios managed under China’s National Social Security Fund subscribed to about 141 million yuan of shares in the strategic placement. DeepSeek was also allocated about 141 million yuan in shares and agreed to a 36-month lock-up period, according to the deal materials.
Pre-IPO shareholders stand to record large paper gains at the offer price. Variable Capital, which invested 2.09 million yuan in 2018, was shown with a return multiple above 174 times. Sequoia China’s cumulative investment of around 102 million yuan was associated with a stake valued close to 3 billion yuan. Entities related to Meituan held a combined 9.65% stake, carrying a paper gain above 3.6 billion yuan at the issue price.
Unitree also faces a more crowded competitive field. Xiaomi, BYD and Xpeng have all entered embodied-intelligence-related development, while Tesla has continued work on its Optimus humanoid program. Unitree disclosed that overseas markets accounted for more than 43% of revenue, exposing the company to export restrictions and geopolitical risk alongside demand from foreign customers.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission recently placed advanced Chinese robots on a restriction list, according to market briefings cited in the offering materials. With a limited first-day float, slowing near-term profit growth and a valuation far above the industry benchmark, Unitree’s market debut will test whether traders view its lead in humanoid shipments as sufficient evidence that it can convert early research demand into durable commercial scale.
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