Unitree targets $619 million IPO, testing Chinese robotics values

Published: 2026-07-06T10:28:50.000Z

Unitree Robotics is about to find out what the world really thinks a Chinese humanoid robot company is worth. China's regulator cleared the Hangzhou firm to list on Shanghai's STAR Market, targeting roughly 619 million dollars at a valuation close to six billion dollars.

Unitree Robotics is about to find out what the world really thinks a Chinese humanoid robot company is worth. China's securities regulator cleared the Hangzhou firm on 3 July to list on Shanghai's STAR Market, the last hurdle before it can price shares and float as early as late July. The plan is to raise roughly 4.2 billion yuan, about 619 million dollars, by selling at least 40.45 million shares, a stake of a little over 10 per cent that implies a total valuation somewhere around 42 billion yuan, or close to six billion dollars. It would make Unitree the mainland's first big humanoid robotics listing, and a benchmark the whole sector will be measured against. What sets Unitree apart from the crowd is almost boringly simple, which is that it makes money. The company reported revenue of about 1.7 billion yuan last year alongside an adjusted profit of around 591 million yuan, a rarity in a field where most players are burning cash. The contrast with its Hong Kong-listed rival UBTech is stark, since that firm booked more revenue but still finished the year deep in the red. Founded in 2016 by the engineer Wang Xingxing, Unitree built its name on nimble quadruped robot dogs before pivoting hard into humanoids, which have since become a fixture of viral videos and even a kung fu routine on Chinese state television. Humanoids now make up more than half its core revenue, up from barely a fiftieth two years ago. The timing is deliberate. China's onshore share market is stirring back to life after a long lull, with first-half listings raising markedly more than a year earlier, and a wave of robotics firms is queuing up behind Unitree, from AgiBot and EngineAI to Deep Robotics and Leju. The proceeds are earmarked for developing robot brains, refining the machines' bodies and building a smart manufacturing base, as Unitree chases a target of shipping 20,000 humanoids this year. The obvious complication is politics, after the US defense department added the firm to a list of companies it links to China's military in June, a label that clouds its Western prospects. The Gulf is one place where that cloud matters less, and adoption is already under way. Unitree's cheapest R1 humanoid is being sold into the United Arab Emirates through AliExpress, while its G1 model is available locally from around 70,000 dirhams via regional integrators pitching it for luxury hospitality and facility monitoring. With affordability driving uptake across GCC industry, and Saudi Arabia and the UAE both hunting for embodied AI to feed Vision 2030 and their own tech strategies, Gulf buyers can hedge between American ambition and Chinese price in a way Washington's restrictions make harder elsewhere.