Chinese humanoid and quadruped robot maker Unitree Robotics debuted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on August 19, 2026. At the start of trading, the company's shares exceeded their IPO price by 629%. The company raised about 6.1 billion yuan ($905 million), and its market capitalization during the first transaction reached approximately $66 billion, making the listing one of the brightest examples of investor frenzy around physical AI, writes Bloomberg.
Unitree became the first publicly traded company from mainland China to specialize specifically in humanoid robots. Its debut also attracted the attention of the crypto market: even before trading began in Shanghai, traders on Hyperliquid, through a perpetual contract on Unitree shares, essentially formed their own valuation of the company.
Crypto Traders Predicted Growth But Underestimated Its Scale
According to Hyperliquid, the synthetic Unitree market was trading at approximately $92-$94 per contract last week. This corresponded to a company valuation of about $38 billion — more than four times higher than the approximately $9 billion at which Unitree conducted its IPO, according to Allium Research.
However, the actual debut turned out to be even stronger. At the price of the first trade, the company was valued at approximately $66 billion — about 75% higher than the level factored in by crypto traders.
This does not refer to ordinary Unitree shares. The contract on Hyperliquid is a perpetual futures contract that allows betting on the change in share price without ownership rights to the shares themselves. It was listed by a third-party developer, xyz.trade, using Hyperliquid's infrastructure, CoinDesk noted.
This gave crypto investors the opportunity to trade expectations about the IPO around the clock, even before the opening of the Chinese stock market.
After trading began, the UNITREE-USDC contract also surged sharply: on the morning of August 19, its price was around $121, having briefly exceeded $140 earlier. Trading volume reached $64 million, while open interest stood at about $29 million.
Meanwhile, the actual shares themselves, after an initial price of 1,100 yuan ($163), pulled back to approximately 884 yuan ($131) but still remained nearly six times more expensive than the IPO price.
For comparison, before SpaceX's IPO in June, crypto traders using a similar mechanism valued the shares at approximately $170. During the first trading session, they exceeded $176 and ended the day at $161 — almost exactly at the level predicted by the crypto market.
The SpaceX market on Hyperliquid was significantly larger: open interest immediately before the IPO reached about $216 million, and over $150 million was traded in 24 hours.
Unitree Secures Billion-Dollar Valuation Amid Physical AI Boom
The strong debut of Unitree reflects not only speculative interest in the IPO but also growing investor attention to physical artificial intelligence — systems that combine AI with robots and other physical devices.
According to Bloomberg, the company delivered over 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025, ranking first in the world for this metric. Cumulative sales of its quadruped robots exceeded 33,000 units.
Financial indicators also demonstrate rapid business growth:
- Unitree's revenue in 2025 grew to 1.7 billion yuan from 393 million yuan a year earlier;
- net profit amounted to 278 million yuan;
- gross margin exceeded 60%;
- the company plans to allocate about 4.2 billion yuan from the IPO proceeds to the development of physical AI models, humanoid robot research, new products, and production expansion.
The company also received support from strategic investors. About 20% of the offering was allocated to them, including the Chinese AI company DeepSeek, an investment arm of Tencent, and subsidiaries of large state-owned companies.
DeepSeek received 2.31% of Unitree's shares with a three-year lock-up period. The collaboration involves using the company's AI developments to create physical intelligence models for humanoid robots.
Amid Unitree's debut, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ian Ma stated:
"Unitree's meteoric rise on its debut day signals strong appetite for China's physical AI sector. IPO proceeds should accelerate AI development and commercialization. The strong debut could also provide a favorable valuation benchmark for Ubtech and other Chinese robotics competitors preparing for IPOs."
According to JPMorgan's estimate, the humanoid robot market could grow from about $2 billion in 2025 to $300 billion in 2035. China already holds about 75% of the global humanoid robot market, with its advantage stemming from large-scale production, developed supply chains, and lower costs: materials for one robot cost about $46,000 compared to $131,000 in the US.
At the same time, the market is already showing signs of overheating. Unitree's shares were trading at levels during the debut that significantly exceed valuations based on the company's financial metrics.
"There are no fundamental reasons for such a stock price increase. It's driven by retail frenzy. Valuations are sky-high, and prospects are uncertain considering the early stage of development and adoption of humanoid robots," noted Wei-Sern Ling, Managing Director at Union Bancaire Privée.
Meanwhile, analysts emphasize that shipment volumes alone do not guarantee technological leadership. Unitree, like other humanoid robot makers, must prove its ability to translate pilot projects and demonstrations into large-scale commercial use.
User opinions on X also showed mixed perceptions of Unitree's rapid rise: some called the company's debut a signal of a new phase in Chinese robotics and expect a wave of competitor IPOs, while others consider the company's valuation to be inflated.
In particular, Rui Ma noted that with a market capitalization of about $54 billion, Unitree is valued at approximately 130 times its projected 2026 annual revenue, calling the company "overvalued." At the same time, John Koetsier drew attention to the difference with the American Agility Robotics, which is valued at approximately $4 billion.
Recall that Elon Musk predicted exponential growth in the number of humanoid robots by 2040 and their surpassing humanity in numbers.
Furthermore, Barclays stated that the adoption of humanoid robots in China could replace 37 million jobs over 10 years.
