Unitree shares close up 460% in Shanghai debut

Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree closed 460 percent above its offering price in its Shanghai market debut on Wednesday, after its shares briefly rose as much as 629 percent at the open.

The Hangzhou-based company's stock opened as high as 1,100 yuan, compared with its 150.80 yuan offering price, before closing at 845 yuan. Unitree listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's tech-focused STAR market after raising more than $900 million in its initial public offering.

The debut coincided with the opening day of the World Robot Conference in Beijing, where Unitree's booth drew visitors and reporters. Displays included a three-metre-tall GD01 robot, a small humanoid returning ping-pong serves and eight robots dancing to a 1990s Chinese pop song.

Unitree unveiled a humanoid robot called “Superman” on Monday and said it could jump as high as two metres and run as fast as 12.66 metres per second. Its robots had previously drawn attention during China's annual Spring Festival gala, where they performed kung fu movements and jumped over tables.

Commercial uses for humanoid robots remain limited, with many machines still used for research or display. Renjie Guo, founder and chief executive of robotics engineering company Zeroth, said Unitree products are used by Chinese academics and by US technology companies including Nvidia, Google and Amazon.

The Chinese government has designated robotics a strategic industry and says that by last year more than 140 Chinese companies had launched more than 330 humanoid robot models. Robotics companies are investing in physical AI, technology that allows robots to move and interact with the world autonomously.

The sector has also become part of the US-China technology race. Washington added Unitree in June to a list of companies it accused of aiding the Chinese military. In July, the Trump administration added humanoid and quadruped robots, including from China, to a list of products and companies barred from import into the United States on national security grounds.

Stephen Innes, global strategist at Quintex Intel, said the share move showed that “embodied AI has become the new object of desire”. Tianyu Zang, a partner at Beijing-based venture capital firm Jinqiu Capital, said Unitree's IPO was a “primary school graduation ceremony” moment for China's humanoid robotics industry and that the sector now faced a longer test over real-world deployment.