Unitree Technology’s shares surged as much as 629.44% in their Shanghai STAR Market debut on Aug. 19, briefly giving the humanoid and quadruped robot maker a market value of 445 billion yuan ($62 billion). The opening spike from the 150.80-yuan IPO price to 1,100 yuan was driven largely by an unusually tight supply of tradable shares, with only 7.44% of the company’s post-listing stock available to change hands on the first day.
The stock later traded near 892 yuan, valuing Unitree at about 361 billion yuan. More than 15.3 billion yuan of shares had changed hands, while turnover reached 55.25%, according to Shanghai market trading data. The debut gain exceeded the 466.61% average first-day increase recorded by STAR Market IPOs this year.
Unitree’s listing has rapidly become a test of public-market appetite for China’s robotics sector, where companies are competing to turn advances in artificial intelligence, motion control and component manufacturing into commercially viable machines. Yet the company’s opening valuation also places demanding expectations on a business whose revenue remains heavily concentrated in research and education customers rather than industrial deployment.
A small tradable float shaped the opening price
Unitree issued 40.4464 million shares in the offering, equal to about 10% of its enlarged share capital. Following the allocation process, only 30.0877 million shares were available for public trading at the listing, representing 7.44% of the company’s 404 million post-issue shares, according to the company’s prospectus and IPO disclosure documents.
That structure left a relatively small pool of stock for buyers seeking exposure to a high-profile robotics company on its first trading day. The result was a sharp rise at the open and unusually heavy turnover as early buyers and short-term traders exchanged the limited available shares.
The online offering attracted roughly 9.78 million subscription accounts, while the final online allotment rate was 0.0181%. There were 19,414 winning allotment numbers, each covering 500 shares. At the IPO price, one lot required 75,400 yuan in payment and was worth about 550,000 yuan at the 1,100-yuan opening price, implying an initial paper gain of roughly 475,000 yuan.
The STAR Market does not apply its normal 20% daily price limit during a newly listed company’s first five trading sessions. That framework can amplify price swings in IPOs with limited free floats, especially where demand is concentrated around a fast-growing technology theme.
Strategic holders and founder stakes limit immediate supply
Nine strategic-placement participants received a combined 8.09 million shares worth about 1.22 billion yuan at the IPO price. Their shares are subject to lock-up periods of as long as 36 months, reducing the quantity of stock that can immediately enter the market.
DeepSeek received 933,400 shares worth about 141 million yuan, with a 36-month lock-up, according to Unitree’s IPO materials. Three portfolios managed by China’s National Social Security Fund received the same number of shares, each subject to a 12-month restriction.
Tencent, PetroChina Kunlun Capital, China Southern Power Grid and China Telecom’s Tianyi Capital each received about 900,000 shares, valued at roughly 136 million yuan at the offering price. These holdings do not determine Unitree’s operating performance, but their lock-ups further tightened the supply-demand balance during the debut.
Wang Xingxing, Unitree’s chairman, general manager and chief technology officer, remained the company’s largest shareholder. He directly held 86.71 million shares, or 21.44% after the offering, and controlled another 9.54% through Shanghai Yuyi, according to the prospectus. His combined stake was about 31%.
Meituan-linked entities held about 35.12 million shares through Hanhai Information, Chengdu Longzhu and Galaxy Z. Astrend IV, an overseas vehicle associated with Shunwei Capital, held 16.11 million shares, or roughly 3.98% of the enlarged share capital.
Valuation moves ahead of current business mix
At the IPO price, Unitree was valued at 35.89 times projected 2025 post-dilution sales, above the average cited for comparable companies in its prospectus. The company also disclosed a headline post-dilution price-to-earnings multiple of 219 times, or 92.92 times based on its 2025 net profit adjusted for non-recurring items.
Unitree reported adjusted net profit of 6 billion yuan for 2025 in the figures provided in its listing materials, alongside humanoid robot shipments exceeding 5,500 units. The company said those deliveries ranked first globally by shipment volume.
Its revenue base, though, remains concentrated in scientific research and education, which contributed more than 70% of revenue in the disclosed figures. Industrial applications accounted for about 9%. That split places the company’s market valuation ahead of the degree to which factories and other industrial customers currently contribute to sales.
Unitree also reported that adjusted net profit in the first quarter of 2026 fell 52.55% from a year earlier. Quarterly performance can fluctuate as robotics makers manage production schedules, product launches and customer deliveries, but the decline adds pressure for the company to show that rising shipment volumes can translate into steadier earnings growth.
Overseas sales and competition remain central
Overseas revenue accounted for 43.65% of Unitree’s total revenue in 2025, according to the prospectus. The U.S. share declined to 13.30% from 18.39% in 2023, while six core products had obtained U.S. Federal Communications Commission certification: the G1, H2 and R1 humanoid models, along with the Go2, B2 and A2 quadruped robots.
Unitree stated that a change in U.S. rules would affect certification for new models rather than sales of products already certified. The company’s international revenue exposure means market access, product compliance and export conditions remain practical considerations alongside demand from universities, developers and enterprise customers.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has said the country has more than 400 complete robot models, more than half of the global total. The ministry also said Chinese companies account for nearly 70% of global quadruped robot market share and that domestic sourcing of core components exceeds 70%.
Unitree’s first-day jump puts it above several domestic listed robotics peers by market value, including UBTECH and Dobot, based on the comparison figures in the company materials. Its valuation also approaches estimates attached to private overseas developers such as Figure AI, despite major differences in product focus, production scale and commercial maturity.
The debut has given Unitree substantial public-market visibility and a large equity valuation, but the next stage will be measured less by its first-day trading range than by whether it can expand industrial revenue, protect margins and convert its robot shipment lead into recurring commercial demand.
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