Unitree Robotics Surges 460% in Shanghai STAR Market Debut, Becomes First Listed Humanoid Robot Maker in Mainland China

Hangzhou-based humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics made its trading debut on Shanghai's STAR Market on August 19, opening at 1,100 yuan — a 629% jump from its 150.80 yuan IPO price — before settling to close at 845 yuan, a 460% first-day gain, SCMP and CNBC reported. The closing price valued the company at roughly 342 billion yuan (~$50 billion), with the intraday opening pop briefly implying a ~445 billion yuan (~$66 billion) valuation. Unitree raised about 6.1 billion yuan ($904 million) by issuing 40.45 million shares, or 10% of enlarged capital, in an offering that was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors — exceeding the average 279% opening-day pop for Chinese IPOs so far in 2026 — even as China's benchmark index fell 3% the same day. Founder Wang Xingxing, 36, holds roughly 121.4 million shares worth about 103 billion yuan at the close. Prior investors benefited sharply: Tencent-backed and Meituan holds an 8.7% post-IPO stake worth roughly 30 billion yuan, about a 70x return, while AI lab DeepSeek — an IPO cornerstone investor — put in approximately 140.8 million yuan. Unitree is best known for its backflipping and dancing humanoid and quadruped robots, and its listing makes it the first general-purpose robotics company on a mainland China public market, underscoring Beijing's push to translate its AI and manufacturing base into an embodied-AI/humanoid robotics lead alongside the chip and model races.