Shares in Humanoid Robot Company Unitree Shoot Up 600% on China's Stock Market

A Chinese company that builds humanoid robots had a stunning debut on China's stock market on Wednesday. The company, called Unitree — officially known as Yushu Technology Co — saw its share price jump more than 600% on its very first day of trading. Unitree is famous around the world for videos of its robots doing martial arts, running at Olympic speeds, and dancing on stage with pop stars.

Unitree's shares opened at an IPO price of 150.8 yuan — about £16 — and shot up to as high as 1,100 yuan during the day. That is more than seven times the starting price. By the end of trading, gains had settled at close to 500%, which is still an extraordinary rise for a single day.

Investors are eager to find winners in the robotics industry, which has become one of the most competitive areas in technology. Humanoid robots — machines built to look and move like people — are seen as a key part of the future of artificial intelligence. Unitree was founded in 2016 and shipped more than 5,500 humanoid robots last year alone.

The global market for human-like robots is expected to grow very fast. Analysts believe sales could climb from around $2 billion in 2025 to $300 billion by 2035. That kind of growth explains why so many investors were excited to buy shares in Unitree when it went public.

Regular Chinese investors were especially eager to get in on the deal. The portion of shares set aside for everyday, non-professional buyers was oversubscribed by thousands, meaning far more people wanted to buy than there were shares available. Unitree is one of only a handful of humanoid robot makers in the world that are listed on a public stock market.

Unitree's biggest competitor, a company called AgiBot, is still private and not yet on any stock exchange. A smaller rival, UBTech, trades on the Hong Kong stock market. At least six other Chinese humanoid robot companies are preparing to go public soon, including Deep Robotics and Leju Robotics.

Wang Xingxing, who founded Unitree and still leads it as chief executive, owns about one-fifth of the company. Because the share price rose so dramatically, his personal wealth on paper is now worth more than $12 billion, according to Reuters. That is a massive change in fortune tied directly to one day of trading.

Unitree's stock market debut happened on the same day as the opening of the World Robot Conference in Beijing. Hundreds of companies — most of them Chinese — gathered there to show off new products and the latest advances in robot technology. The timing made Unitree's launch even more high-profile.

However, Unitree also faces some serious challenges, especially from the United States. Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission banned imports of future foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots, citing national security concerns. This summer, the Pentagon also added Unitree to a list of Chinese companies it considers connected to China's military, calling it a 'contributor to the Chinese defence industrial base.' Unitree has said its robots are only meant for civilian use.

Despite these concerns, Unitree has strong backing from some of China's biggest technology companies, including Tencent and Alibaba. That support gives the company deep resources to keep building and improving its robots. For now, Unitree's market debut stands as one of the most dramatic first days on a stock exchange in recent memory.