On September 1st, topics like “Unitree employees claim reimbursements over 100 yuan need Wang Xingxing’s approval” and “Unitree employees say the reward-and-punishment system is all stick and no carrot” went viral online. In response, Unitree Robotics told The Paper: “Much of this content is inaccurate — don’t take it seriously.”
Earlier reports painted a picture of Wang Xingxing as a direct, no-nonsense boss: he’s reportedly tough in communication, asks employees not to leak company news, stays laser-focused on products — even discussing the length of a screw with frontline staff — obsesses over cost control, insisting every penny counts, and rarely chats about anything outside work.
Founded on August 26, 2016, with Wang Xingxing as its legal representative, Unitree Robotics focuses on R&D, manufacturing, and sales of high-performance general-purpose humanoid robots, quadruped robots, robot components, and embodied intelligence models.
On August 19th, Unitree Robotics (688836.SH) officially debuted on the STAR Market, becoming the first “humanoid robot stock” on A-shares. Its opening price was 1,100 yuan per share, surging 629.44% — a staggering 949.20 yuan above its IPO price of 150.80 yuan — pushing its market value to 444.9 billion yuan.
The company raised a total of 6.099 billion yuan in its IPO, significantly oversubscribed compared to the planned 4.202 billion yuan in its prospectus. After deducting issuance costs, net proceeds were approximately 5.917 billion yuan. Over 85% of the raised funds is earmarked for R&D, allocated to four major projects: intelligent robot model development, robot hardware R&D, new product development, and construction of an intelligent robot manufacturing base.
According to the prospectus, Wang Xingxing — Chairman, General Manager, and CTO — directly holds 86.7149 million shares, representing 21.4395% of the company’s total share capital post-issuance. He also indirectly holds a 9.5367% stake through the equity incentive platform Shanghai Yuyi.
Combined, his direct and indirect holdings total roughly 30%, with a market value exceeding 100 billion yuan — making him the wealthiest person born in the 1990s. For context, according to the 2025 New Fortune Magazine list of post-90s entrepreneurs, Liu Jingkang, founder of Insta360, had previously topped the list with 20.2 billion yuan in personal wealth.
And it’s not just Wang Xingxing — Unitree’s core technical staff have also become millionaires (or rather, billionaires) overnight thanks to the IPO. Pre-issuance, the company established the equity incentive platform Shanghai Yuyi, which held 39.8286 million shares, or 10.9414% of the company. Key personnel including mechanical structure lead Yang Zhiyu, sales & service system head Chen Li, and algorithm & software lead Zhang Yangguang indirectly hold 0.49%, 0.26%, and 0.15% respectively through Shanghai Yuyi. Based on a 350 billion yuan market cap, their respective holdings are worth 1.715 billion yuan, 910 million yuan, and 525 million yuan.
Unitree’s shareholder roster also reads like a who’s who of China’s tech and investment elite, all enjoying massive paper gains from the listing. DeepSeek, High-Flyer Quant, and Jiuan Asset — all linked to Liang Wenfeng — together secured approximately 1.1916 million shares through strategic placement and offline IPO subscription, pocketing paper gains exceeding 1.1 billion yuan. Astrend IV, an affiliate of Shunwei Capital founded by Xiaomi’s Lei Jun, holds 16.106 million shares with gains surpassing 15.2 billion yuan.
Notably, the Meituan ecosystem is Unitree’s largest external shareholder, holding a combined approximately 35.1236 million shares through Hanhai Information, Chengdu Longzhu, and Galaxy Z, with paper gains exceeding 33.3 billion yuan.
Other shareholders, per the prospectus, include Tencent Technology directly holding 2.17917 million shares, Alibaba Group’s indirect wholly-owned subsidiary Hangzhou Haoyue holding 1.634346 million shares, and Ant Group’s wholly-owned subsidiary Shanghai Yunyang holding 817,236 shares as of the prospectus signing date.
Sequoia Capital China holds a combined 7.11% stake in Unitree, making it a significant institutional investor. China Renaissance (Huaxing) also holds a 5.45% stake through Jingwei No.1 and Jingwei No.3.
However, the initial glory was short-lived. By the close of trading on September 1st, Unitree’s stock rose a modest 1.1% to 571.1 yuan per share, giving it a market value of about 231 billion yuan. Compared to its opening price of 1,100 yuan on listing day, the stock has nearly halved, with market value shrinking by nearly 200 billion yuan.
At an online investor conference held earlier this month for the company’s STAR Market listing, Chief Financial Officer Wang Feng addressed questions about employee compensation payable. He noted that at the end of 2023, 2024, and 2025, the company’s accrued employee compensation stood at 17.989 million yuan, 34.1517 million yuan, and 65.2244 million yuan respectively, accounting for 21.24%, 14.36%, and 11.74% of current liabilities.
According to the prospectus, from 2022 to 2024, total compensation for directors, senior management, and core technical personnel (excluding share-based payments) was 4.843 million yuan, 5.346 million yuan, and 8.6389 million yuan respectively. In 2024, Wang Xingxing earned 2.4952 million yuan, while CFO Wang Feng received 466,800 yuan.
In the first nine months of 2025, compensation for this core group reached 8.5909 million yuan, nearly matching the full-year 2024 level. As profits have scaled, core compensation as a percentage of profit dropped from 8.68% the previous year to 5.02%.
As of the end of September 2025, Unitree employed 480 people, including 175 R&D personnel — 36.46% of the workforce. The R&D team comprises 4 PhDs and 69 master’s degree holders, spanning 12 critical roles including AI algorithms, motion control, and perception-interaction. In the first three quarters of 2025, the company’s R&D expenses totaled 90.2094 million yuan, of which employee compensation was 57.0798 million yuan, accounting for 63.27%.
On August 27th, Unitree’s official WeChat account announced a commitment to annually sponsor “genius teens” with no strings attached. Applicants must be between high school and master’s degree graduation, with absolutely no restrictions on project topics — everything from chip manufacturing, AGI, micro-robots, controlled nuclear fusion, limb regeneration, to superconducting materials is fair game. Selected applicants will receive 10,000-20,000 yuan in staged, no-strings-attached funding based on their project proposals and progress, with no upper limit for exceptionally outstanding candidates.
