On August 19, Unitree Robotics (688836.SH) began trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market. The IPO was priced at 150.80 yuan, and shares opened at 1,100 yuan — up 629.44% from the offer price — pushing the opening market capitalization to 444.9 billion yuan. The stock then pulled back through the session to close at 845 yuan, for a first-day gain of 460.34% and a closing market cap of 341.8 billion yuan. Based on a standard lot of 500 shares, an investor who sold at the opening price would have booked a paper gain of about 474,600 yuan per lot; at the closing price, that gain was closer to 349,300 yuan.
Demand for the IPO was already visible at the subscription stage. A total of 9.7846 million valid online subscription accounts took part, surpassing the previous record of 9.43 million set by ChangXin Memory Technologies and making it the most heavily subscribed offering since the STAR Market opened. The winning-allotment rate came in at just 0.018%, the lowest in the market's history. Unitree raised a total of 6.099 billion yuan by issuing 40.4464 million shares, at an issue price-to-earnings ratio of 219.23.
DeepSeek and Tencent among the strategic investors
The offering set aside 8.0893 million shares — 20% of the total issuance — for strategic placement. Among the nine institutions allotted shares were DeepSeek, entities affiliated with Tencent, PetroChina's Kunlun Capital, and State Grid Yingda. On listing day, the market also tallied up paper gains for early backers: founder Wang Xingxing holds roughly 30% of the company, a stake now worth more than 100 billion yuan at the closing market cap; 171 employees who took part in the strategic placement saw their holdings rise in value, with 23 of them crossing 10 million yuan on paper; DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, Xiaomi's Lei Jun, and entities linked to Meituan also recorded substantial paper gains.
Unitree's business rests on two product lines. The company says both its quadruped robots and humanoid robots rank first globally by shipment volume, with humanoid robot shipments exceeding 5,500 units in 2025. Full-year 2025 revenue came to 1.699 billion yuan, up 335% year over year, with non-GAAP net profit above 600 million yuan.
First-half revenue up 48%, but non-GAAP profit down 19%
The most telling comparison in Unitree's prospectus is between two sets of first-half 2026 figures: revenue of 1.152 billion yuan, up 48.54% year over year, against non-GAAP net profit attributable to shareholders of 244 million yuan, down 19.34% year over year (net profit attributable to shareholders was 274 million yuan). Revenue is still growing fast, but profit growth has reversed — a sign that spending on humanoid robot mass production, price cuts, and R&D is eating into gross margin.
Set that profit level against the valuation and the math gets stretched: on a closing market cap of 341.8 billion yuan against 2025 non-GAAP net profit of just over 600 million yuan, the static price-to-earnings ratio works out to roughly 500 times; even simply annualizing first-half 2026 profit leaves the multiple far above what's typical for Chinese hard-tech companies. What the market is paying for now is whether the "world's largest shipment volume" position can convert into profit within two or three years — the current financial statements are only a starting point.
Unitree's playbook has consistently been to compress costs through scale: its consumer-grade quadruped robots and entry-level humanoid robots are priced persistently below rivals, using shipment volume to spread out R&D and manufacturing costs. Capital markets have put a premium on that approach — and the same playbook explains why non-GAAP profit fell even as revenue rose 48%.
Two things to watch next for the "first humanoid stock"
The first is the pace of lockup expirations and share sales. Once the lockup period ends for strategically placed shares and early investors, whether the roughly 340-billion-yuan market can absorb the added liquidity will be the main variable for the stock going forward; the trading patterns around MiniMax's and Zhipu AI's Hong Kong lockup expirations offer an earlier preview of what that might look like.
The second is the relationship between shipment volume and unit price. The data disclosed in Unitree's listing filings covers only 2025 and the first half of 2026; its first quarterly report as a public company will be the first time quarterly shipments, capacity ramp-up, and gross margin are laid out for investors. The 629% opening-day pop will be remembered, but the company's long-term pricing anchor will be set by that quarterly report.
Sources: Shanghai Stock Exchange announcements, Unitree Robotics prospectus, CocoLoop, IT Home, Sina Finance, Cailian Press; figures verified for issue price, opening and closing prices, market capitalization, subscription accounts and allotment rate, strategic placement institutions, and 2025/first-half 2026 revenue and profit.