By NUPIAO News Desk
After months of anticipation, A-shares finally have their very first “humanoid robot stock”—and what an entrance it was.
On August 19, Unitree Robotics (688836.SH) officially rang the bell on Shanghai’s STAR Market, opening at ¥1,100 per share. That’s a jaw-dropping 629.44% jump from its IPO price of ¥150.80, adding ¥949.20 to each share in a single stroke. The company’s market valuation? A staggering ¥444.9 billion.
Let’s put those numbers in perspective. The diluted P/E ratio for this offering hit 219.23 times—more than five times the industry average of 38.56. The company floated 40,446,434 shares, accounting for 10.00% of its post-issuance total share capital, with no secondary share sales involved.
Here’s a fun stat for you: nearly 9.78 million retail investors piled into the online subscription round, edging past Changxin Technology’s 9.43 million to set a new record for the most subscribers in STAR Market history. But here’s the kicker—the winning rate was a microscopic 0.0181%, the lowest online allocation rate the STAR Market has ever seen. If you managed to score an allotment, consider yourself incredibly lucky. Market watchers have already dubbed it “the hardest new stock to win.”
According to Unitree’s issuance results announcement, online investors gave up on just 8,734 shares—about ¥1.3171 million in total—while institutional investors didn’t abandon a single share. The overall subscription picture was remarkably healthy, a clear signal that market players were genuinely eager to get in on this one.
Wind data shows that all 14 new stocks listed on the STAR Market this year opened at least 64% above their issue prices. But none of them priced their IPOs anywhere near Unitree’s level. The previous high was Hengyunchang at ¥92.18 per share. Even Lianxun Instruments—once crowned the “king of A-share stocks”—had an issue price of just ¥81.88, with its intraday peak on debut capped at ¥859.88. Unitree didn’t just break the mold; it shattered it.
All told, Unitree raised ¥6.099 billion from this offering, significantly overshooting its planned target of ¥4.202 billion. After deducting issuance costs, net proceeds came to approximately ¥5.917 billion. Here’s what’s really impressive though: more than 85% of those funds are earmarked for R&D, covering four key pillars—intelligent robot model development, robot hardware R&D, new product innovation, and construction of a smart robot manufacturing base.
Before the listing, founder Wang Xingxing directly held 86,714,964 shares, representing 23.8216% of the company. Add in his indirect stake of 9.5367% through the employee equity incentive platform Shanghai Yuyi, and his combined ownership reaches 33.3583%—worth roughly ¥18.312 billion at market value. Not a bad day at the office.
But Wang isn’t the only one celebrating. Meituan emerges as the biggest external winner here, holding a combined 9.65% pre-IPO stake through three entities: Hanhai Information Technology, Galaxy Z, and Chengdu Longzhu. That makes the food delivery giant the largest external institutional shareholder. Close behind, Sequoia China commands 7.11% through platforms like Ningbo Sequoia and Xiamen Yaheng, securing its spot as the second-largest institutional investor.
The strategic placement round deserves special attention. Unitree allotted 8,089,300 shares—20% of the total offering—to nine institutions, including DeepSeek, Tencent-affiliated entities, PetroChina’s Kunlun Capital, China Southern Power Grid’s industrial finance arm, and Tianyi Capital. Employee asset management plans and sponsor follow-on investments were also part of the mix. Notably, three companies under DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng collectively secured 1,191,600 shares, worth approximately ¥180 million.
The institutional stampede didn’t stop there. Mutual funds like E Fund, China Southern, and ICBC Credit Suisse, along with top-tier quantitative private funds, all grabbed allocations. Early-stage backers including China Growth Capital and Shunwei Capital are also sitting on substantial paper gains now that the company has gone public.
Industry observers see this as more than just a successful IPO. Unitree’s listing, they argue, establishes a public pricing benchmark for humanoid robot companies—a critical step that shifts market logic from speculative theme-chasing to genuine industry valuation.
Looking at the fundamentals, the prospectus paints an intriguing picture. In 2025, Unitree shipped over 5,500 humanoid robots, and for the first time, revenue from humanoid robots surpassed its quadruped robot business to become the company’s largest income source. But here’s the reality check: revenue is still heavily concentrated in research and education procurement. Large-scale adoption in industrial and household consumer markets remains an unfinished chapter.
For the first half of 2026, Unitree posted revenue of ¥1.152 billion, up 48.54% year-over-year. Net profit came in at ¥274 million, a dramatic turnaround from the ¥32.02 million loss recorded in the same period last year. The company explains that the previous year’s figures were dragged down by ¥349 million in non-recurring share-based compensation expenses. Excluding those one-time items, adjusted net profit actually declined 19.34% year-over-year, primarily due to significant increases in R&D and selling expenses during the period.
Operating cash flow for the first half stood at ¥232 million, down 32.53% from a year earlier. The company attributes this to cash outflows for purchases, period expenses, and employee compensation growing at a faster clip than cash inflows from product sales.
Looking ahead, Unitree faces a mountain of challenges. On one side, Tesla’s Optimus, Boston Dynamics, and a slew of domestic players are all pouring resources into the space, intensifying competition by the day. On the other, while Unitree’s hardware motion control capabilities are genuinely best-in-class, its embodied large model capabilities remain a recognized weakness. The iteration speed of key components like dexterous hands and the pace of downstream scenario expansion will directly shape how the capital markets judge the company’s long-term value.
Right before its listing, Unitree unveiled its “Superman” humanoid robot—a machine capable of jumping 2 meters high and hitting a top speed of 12.66 m/s. It’s a vivid demonstration of the company’s hardware iteration velocity. But the real question—the one that will define its post-IPO journey—is whether Unitree can convert these technical advantages into large-scale, repeatable orders. That’s the exam the “first humanoid robot stock” must now pass.
