The Shanghai Stock Exchange said on Friday it had accepted the initial public offering application of Unitree Technology, which is seeking to raise 4.2 billion yuan (HK$4.8 billion), according to document published by the exchange, in a test of investor interest in humanoid robots.
Unitree’s robots were the star of Chinese state media’s Spring Festival gala last month, which featured a technically ambitious martial arts sequence performed by over a dozen humanoid robots twirling swords and nunchucks alongside human dancers.
The robots’ complex choreography, complete with mid-air somersaults, displayed clear mechanical advances compared to their dance performance on the same TV programme last year.
FRONTIER INDUSTRY
Unitree’s IPO would be one of China’s biggest onshore tech listings in years, and comes as Beijing steps up efforts to support its tech champions in tapping capital markets for their funding needs.
Unitree’s operating income grew 335 percent year-on-year in 2025, reaching 1.708 billion yuan, its prospectus said, while its net profit soared by 674 percent.
Humanoids have become the firm’s key growth engine as their share of main business revenue rose to 51.5 percent in January-September 2025 from 27.6 percent in 2024, even though the shift into the lower-priced G1 model trimmed gross margin, according to the document.
Humanoid robots represent a frontier industry that China is well-positioned to lead, thanks in part to its diverse and largely self-sufficient manufacturing supply chains.
China views embodied artificial intelligence as a key future strategic industry alongside quantum, 6G, nuclear fusion and brain-computer interfaces.
China plans to widen the deployment of humanoid robots and AI automation in production lines nationwide - part of an initiative to apply AI throughout society and raise economic productivity.
However, real-world factory deployment remains limited for now. Unitree’s prospectus said its humanoid industry-application revenue mainly came from enterprise reception and tour-guide use, intelligent manufacturing and intelligent inspection, with enterprise tour-guide use accounting for roughly 50 percent to 70 percent.
Unitree shipped over 5,500 units last year, occupying 32.4 percent of the global humanoid market, the document said.
Founded in 2016, Unitree leads the industry in both production and sales, becoming a go-to choice for Chinese universities researching robotics, as well as a common sight in entertainment and sporting events all over China.
Reuters
