Unitree Shares Soar as Much as 629% on Shanghai Debut
Unitree started trading in Shanghai on Wednesday, and the first print was not shy. Associated Press reports shares initially soared as much as 629% on the STAR Market debut. The Hangzhou company raised about 6.1 billion yuan ($904 million) at 150.80 yuan ($22.36) a share. As of midday, AP says the stock was still up nearly 500%.
Nikkei Asia, in an updated report the same day, said shares jumped 460% on the first session.
This is a new chapter from the CSRC registration we covered earlier. Paper approval is not a tape. Today there is a tape.
What listed, and what it sold last year
AP calls Unitree the first publicly traded humanoid robotics maker in mainland China. Founder Wang Xingxing started the firm in 2016 in Hangzhou. Proceeds, the company said, go to advanced robot R&D and a manufacturing base.
Omdia, cited by AP: of roughly 15,000 humanoid robots shipped globally last year, Unitree and AGIBOT each shipped more than 5,000.
Unitree reported about 1.7 billion yuan (about $250 million) in 2025 revenue, mainly humanoids and quadrupeds. More than 40% of that was overseas. The U.S. was roughly 13% of revenue last year, before the FCC banned imports of new foreign-made humanoids and quadrupeds. Unitree said the ban applies to its new models. Existing models can still be sold, with the risk that Washington widens the net.
UBTECH, listed in Hong Kong, fell 10.6% on Wednesday, AP reports.
The other half of the day
The listing landed on the same Wednesday as the World Robot Conference in Beijing. AP’s floor story has Unitree robots boxing, dancing, and playing ping pong. That is the show. The exchange is the bid.
Morningstar analyst Kangyuxiao Li, quoted by AP:
“The real competitive test will be whether companies – Chinese or American – can achieve reliable performance and attractive returns on investment in large-scale industrial and commercial deployments.”
Li also said the IPO “gives mainland investors direct exposure to one of the sector’s leading companies.”
A Human’s Take
A 629% open is a crowd, not a factory. Midday still near 500%, Nikkei’s 460% first-day figure, and a $904 million raise tell you the tape wanted a humanoid name.
I care whether the 5,000-plus units Omdia counts work a shift after the lockup. The FCC already cut the easy U.S. story for new models. If the manufacturing-base spend in the prospectus turns into robots that survive hour six, the listing will have meant something besides a first-day multiple.