World’s to Humanoid maker and a record IPO

Picture Credit: by CNN

If you have ever watched a humanoid robot perform backflips, dance to Lady Gaga, or throw kung-fu kicks on your social media feed, you have almost certainly been watching a Unitree machine. This week, the Hangzhou-based company behind those viral moments made its stock market debut, and Wall Street, or rather Shanghai's equivalent, lost its mind.

Unitree shares surged more than 600% on their first day of trading on the STAR market on Wednesday, after an IPO that raised 6.1 billion yuan, roughly $905 million, and was oversubscribed more than 8,000 times. That oversubscription figure is a record for the STAR market, China's tech-focused exchange widely regarded as its answer to the Nasdaq.

The numbers behind the company are equally striking. Revenue grew more than tenfold in just two years, reaching nearly $252 million in 2025. Unitree delivered more than 5,500 humanoid robots globally last year, more than any other company on earth, making it the world's largest seller of androids by volume. Unlike most of its competitors, it is already profitable, posting a net profit of $41 million last year.

Picture Credit: by Nikkei Asia

The debut arrives at a moment of intense strategic significance. Beijing has identified humanoid robots as a core frontier in its competition with the United States on advanced technology, and Unitree has become the poster child of that ambition, its founder personally invited to sit in the front row at a rare symposium between President Xi Jinping and China's top technology executives last year.

But the road ahead carries serious obstacles. In June, Unitree was added to the US government's blacklist of Chinese military-linked companies. Last month, Washington banned new humanoid and quadruped robot imports from foreign manufacturers entirely, citing national security concerns, a move squarely aimed at China. With over 40% of Unitree's revenue generated overseas, the company's own prospectus acknowledged it "may be unable to sustain rapid growth in overseas sales" if US restrictions continue to tighten.

China's robot revolution is real. Whether it can survive the geopolitical headwinds is a different question entirely.