A spectacular debut
Unitree Robotics, the world’s biggest humanoid robot maker, made its stock market debut on Shanghai’s Star Market in August, with shares soaring more than 600% at the open. The Chinese company’s shares rose to as high as 1,100 yuan on the first day, well above the initial public offering price of 150.8 yuan, before paring gains to finish the session up more than 460%.
The listing marks a milestone for Beijing’s ambitions in robotics and for China’s efforts to catch up in the global AI race. Unitree is the first humanoid robot maker to be listed on mainland China, according to BBC reporting.
The IPO was priced at a valuation of about 61 billion yuan ($11.5 billion), as reported by The Straits Times. Retail demand was extraordinary: the tranche of shares set aside for individual investors was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed, according to The Straits Times. The Guardian also reported that the retail tranche was oversubscribed by thousands.
The company
Unitree, officially known as Yushu Technology Co, was founded in 2016 by Wang Xingxing, who remains its chief executive and owns about a fifth of the business, according to The Guardian. The spike in the share price pushed his personal wealth to more than $12 billion on paper, the outlet reported.
The company shipped more than 5,500 humanoid robots last year, according to multiple reports. It is one of the few profitable firms in the sector, having delivered a net profit of 278 million yuan in 2025, BBC reported.
Unitree has gained global trademark. Its robots have performed martial arts at the Spring Festival Gala in February and participated in the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, where 200,000 Unitree robots took part, according to BBC. Two Unitree robots also demonstrated fighting at the World Robot Conference, which opened in Beijing on the same day as the share debut, according The Guardian.
The company is backed by Chinese tech giants Tencent and Alibaba, The Guardian reported. Its robot dogs start at $2,700, compared with Boston Dynamics’ Spot at about $70,000, and its G1 humanoid costs $13,500, as reported by BBC.
The humanoid robot market is projected to grow from about $2 billion in 2025 to $300 billion by 2035, according to The Guardian. Analysts have said that China controls half of the global humanoid robot market, with China shipping 97% of the world’s humanoid robots in the first half of 2026 and accounting for 82% of global shipments today, as reported by Forbes.
US-China rivalry
The listing comes amid a broader US-China rivalry in robotics. The US Federal Communications Commission added “advanced robotic devices” to its Covered List in late July, blocking future imports of foreign-made robots on national security grounds, as reported by both BBC and Forbes. The Pentagon has added Unitree to its list of Chinese military companies, describing it as a “contributor to the Chinese defence industrial base,” according to BBC and The Guardian. United States has said its robots are for civilian use.
The FCC ban includes humanoid robots, quadrupeds, vacuums, and lawnmowers, according to Forbes. The issue: US builders like Figure, Apptronik, and Boston Dynamics remain dependent on Chinese suppliers, according to Forbes. The cost of building a humanoid robot without Chinese suppliers is 2.85 times more, estimated Jan Liphardt, the founder and CEO of OpenMind, a firm that ranks countries' readiness for AI-powered robots. The cost issue is compounded by the dense web of suppliers that China has built, Forbes reported.
According to IDC projections cited by Forbes, the ban will reduce US humanoid robot volumes by 41% in 2027 and 58% by 2030, leading to over $6 billion foregone revenue from 2026 to 2030. The same report noted that the OpenMind index, which measures AI readiness, ranks China first, Japan second, and the US third.
Forbes quoted several industry executives who expressed concern about the long-term health of the American industry if it relies on costly supplier shifts. Architect one CEO said failure looks quiet and urged the US to be an early and ambitious buyer of robots. Another executive at a US firm said the drone supply chain can be fairly independent in 12-18 months, and fully independent in 24 months.
Perspectives
The US and China have different approaches to robotics regulation: US officials emphasize national security and Bans on foreign robots, as seen in the FCC's decision of the US Pentagon listing of Unitree as a Chinese military company. China, on the other hand, has made robotics a national industrial priority, encouraging companies like Unitree to grow and invest heavily in the sector.
Industry opinion on the FCC ban is mixed, with some US executives urging the government to be more ambitious in supporting domestic robotics, while others are concerned about the US’s dependence on unnamed Chinese components and the risk of a botched transition. As one CEO put it in Forbes, the failure looks “quiet” if the US doesn't act with ambition, but a group is visible if it does so.
Experts also note that the practical usefulness of robots remains a challenge, as The Straits Times pointed out in its coverage, referencing Singapore’s aging society as a demographic that could benefit from such robots. However, some are worried that the hype may make the discourse,
There is no consensus on whether the FCC ban helps or hurts the American industry. That has been raised by Forbes, and the debate is likely to continue as the robotics market grows on both sides of the Pacific.