Unitree prices its STAR Market IPO: the first listing of a humanoid robot maker

Unitree, the Chinese company known for its quadruped robots and the G1 and H1 humanoids, became the first company in the world focused on humanoid robots to go public. On August 6 it priced its initial public offering on Shanghai's STAR Market (China's tech board) at 150.80 yuan per share, raising roughly 900 million dollars at a starting valuation of about 9 billion.

The market response was off the charts. When subscriptions opened on August 10, retail demand exceeded the available shares by roughly 8,000 times: for every share on sale there were eight thousand bids. A sign that China's humanoid robotics fever now resembles the generative AI frenzy of two years earlier.

Behind the enthusiasm there are hard numbers but also caveats. Unitree genuinely ships robots at volume (the small G1 humanoid can even be bought on Amazon for $17,990) and China dominates global humanoid shipments. But the company's own prospectus admits that today's humanoids do not yet perform useful autonomous work: most revenue comes from quadrupeds and the research market, while "real" physical labor remains a promise.

For the sector, the listing is a watershed regardless: it puts a public, verifiable price on an industry so far valued only in the private rounds of companies like Figure or 1X, and it raises the capital pressure on Western competitors.