- China’s humanoid robot champion sees investor demand surge ahead of STAR Market debut
- A blockbuster valuation highlights growing bets on embodied AI and large-scale robot manufacturing
Unitree (宇树科技), widely regarded as China’s leading humanoid robot startup, opened subscription for its STAR Market IPO on August 10, with investors scrambling for a piece of the company’s public debut that could create a new wave of young technology millionaires.
The company, trading under stock code 688836, set its offering price at 150.8 yuan ($22.36) per share, valuing the company at about 60.99 billion yuan after the listing.
Investors applying online will need to commit 75,400 yuan for one lot of 500 shares.
Demand is expected to far exceed supply. Unitree’s online offering consists of only 6.47 million shares, equivalent to roughly 12,900 available winning lots.
Several brokerages estimate the winning probability could fall between 0.02% and 0.05%, making it one of the most competitive new stock offerings in China this year.
With A-share IPOs averaging a 276% gain on the first trading day in 2026, a successful subscription could potentially generate more than 200,000 yuan in paper gains, further fueling investor enthusiasm.
Early employees stand to benefit
Unitree’s wealth creation story began years before its IPO.
In 2017, when the company was still in its early technology development stage, Unitree granted stock options to 17 core employees at an exercise price of just 1 yuan per share.
Based on the IPO price, those early options represent gains of more than 150 times.
Before the listing, 14 employees held shares representing 5.93 million shares, of which 11 had exercised options covering 5.11 million shares.
At the IPO price, those holdings are worth about 771 million yuan, translating into an average paper value of roughly 70 million yuan per person.
The IPO is also bringing a broader group of employees into the company’s ownership structure.
Two employee asset management plans will participate in the strategic placement, with 171 employees subscribing for a combined 271.5 million yuan worth of shares.
More than 150 of those employees are reportedly born after 1990, meaning the IPO could create a group of young technology professionals with multi-million-yuan paper wealth.
Wang Xingxing’s fortune tied to robot boom
Founder and CEO Wang Xingxing (王兴兴) will remain firmly in control after the listing. He holds a combined 33.36% stake before the IPO, representing a stake value of about 20.3 billion yuan at the offering price.
A recent research note from CICC estimates Unitree’s potential market capitalization could eventually reach 109 billion yuan, which would push Wang’s personal wealth above 36 billion yuan.
A bet on embodied AI
Beyond the wealth creation story, Unitree’s IPO represents a broader market bet on China’s ambitions in embodied AI.
The company’s supply chain is about 90% localized, and proceeds from the IPO will support the construction of a manufacturing base designed for annual production capacity of 75,000 humanoid robots.
At a valuation equivalent to roughly 219 times earnings, Unitree’s debut shows that investors are willing to price in the long-term potential of China’s combination of advanced manufacturing and embodied AI.
For global robotics players and investors, Unitree’s listing offers a signal that the competition is moving beyond laboratory breakthroughs toward industrial-scale production — and the race has only begun.
