China built robots that can do backflips

As retail excitement around the listing of China's best-known humanoid maker, Unitree Robotics, reaches fever pitch, skeptics are questioning how long it will take before these robots can move beyond running and acrobatics to perform genuinely useful work.

The Hangzhou-based startup priced its IPO at 150.8 yuan ($22.4) a share, raising $900 million and valuing the company at 61 billion yuan, or about $9 billion.

Investors expect a big first-day pop from Unitree, when its shares start trading on Shanghai's STAR market later this month, making it the first humanoid robot firm to list on the mainland.

Unitree's offering saw record retail demand in Shanghai's STAR market, with the online tranche oversubscribed more than 5,000 times, translating to a historically low lot-winning rate of 0.018%. Its IPO also attracted strategic investors including AI startup DeepSeek.

A Unitree-linked pre-IPO perpetual contract on Hyperliquid was trading at roughly four times its IPO price as of Friday, as investors turn to crypto-derivative exchanges to bet on stocks before trading begins.

Celebrated for throwing kung fu kicks and bouncing back from knockdowns, Unitree's robots still face questions over whether the technology can scale commercially, with AI and software constraints unresolved.

"For these humanoid robots, to be honest, they're fascinating. They can dance and all that – but never seen them doing any real housework," said Hao Hong, managing partner of Lotus Asset Management.

In its prospectus , Unitree said that progress for large-scale commercial adoption may be slower than expected, as robotic hands are still not precise or durable enough for sustainable use.

Hong noted that retail investors are piling in partly because there are so few humanoid robotics companies to invest in.

Dominik Pross, equity analyst at VP Bank, says even advanced humanoid robots can typically handle only a small number of tasks – and for just a few hours before having to recharge their batteries. Most humanoid models run for up to four hours while sitting idle.

"Robots have to be specifically trained for each and every task entrusted to them, even the simplest," he said, adding that complex everyday activities are not yet within reach.

More robotics listings are set to follow. Unitree rival AgiBot and Leju Robotics are seeking to go public in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, respectively. LimX Dynamics founder Will Zhang told CNBC last month that "listing is a must."

Lower-cost manufacturing has helped China pull ahead of global rivals in robotics.

Wood Mackenzie expects the global humanoid robot fleet to grow more than 90% annually through 2035 to surpass 10 million units. Annual shipments are projected to top 4 million by then. China is already the dominant player, accounting for more than 70% of global industrial robot installations and nearly 90% of all humanoids deployed last year, according to the research firm.

Average humanoid robot prices have plunged 93% between 2020 and 2025 to $58,000, according to Wood Mackenzie. The firm projects that Unitree's $16,000 flagship G1 model costs just $82 a year in electricity to run for eight hours a day, but says wider adoption could add pressure to electricity systems already stretched by AI data centers.

SemiAnalysis estimates that Unitree has cut the pre-tax price of its G1 EDU model – a customizable one built for research – by more than 45% since last year to $27,300, while maintaining a 67% gross margin.

Falling robot prices and Chinese government support – including investing in domestic manufacturers' shift from labor-intensive work to automation – are helping fuel interest and attracting funds into the emerging sector, said Linda Sui, founder of research firm Smart Analytics Global. While higher production volumes helped bring down costs, it will take time to test the robots' return on investment, Sui said.

Analysts say Unitree's edge lies in its manufacturing scale and cost structure. Unitree's revenue more than quadrupled last year, but first-quarter adjusted profit fell more than 52% as spending on R&D and marketing rose.

Skeptics say much of Unitree's current demand is still concentrated in research and demonstrations. Nearly three-quarters of its humanoid revenue came from research and education in the first nine months of 2025, while corporate tours made up more than half of its still-small industrial business, a company filing showed.

"Unlike many early-stage robotics companies, the Unitree story is backed by real revenue growth," said Jeff Ko, chief analyst at CoinEx. Still, he said, Unitree's lofty $9 billion valuation – over 200 times last year's earnings – was pushed even higher in crypto markets, pointing to a speculative element.

The IPO frenzy held up even after the U.S. moved to ban imports of foreign-made humanoid and four-legged robots last month, a move seen as targeting Chinese technology products.

Unitree may be "particularly exposed," deriving 13% of its revenue last year from the U.S., according to SAG.

Unitree's lower-cost robots have become a go-to choice for research humanoids at U.S. universities, but some researchers are unfazed about new restrictions because small-batch imports for testing and development remain exempt. Unitree's four-legged robots were also used in U.S. state correctional systems and military settings, according to the House Select Committee on China, raising national security concerns.

Another major geopolitical risk is the possibility that Chinese robotics companies could lose access to Nvidia's hardware and software stack, said SAG's Sui. China's industry leaders are among the early users of Nvidia's platforms for powering robots.

"Chinese robot producers are not yet in a position to do without Western components completely," said VP Bank's Pross.

But China's dominance in rare earths, used in the actuators and motors of humanoid robots, gives the country's players significant leverage over global pe...

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