# Unitree's IPO Drew 9.8 Million Bids for Just 9.7 Million Shares > Source: > Published: 2026-08-11 02:30:43+00:00 *Unitree's Shanghai IPO is less a simple robot listing than a test of how badly Chinese retail investors want a piece of humanoid hardware.* Do the math and it stops looking like investing. It looks like a lottery. Unitree Robotics is coming to Shanghai's STAR Market with the kind of demand that tells you plenty about China's robot boom - some of it uncomfortable. When a company that sells robot dogs and humanoids becomes one of the hottest listings in the country, you're no longer watching a niche hardware story. You're watching public-market money chase the next national champion. The Hangzhou-based company is expected to list at a valuation of about $9 billion, with Investor's Business Daily reporting this week that the IPO price was set at $22.34 a share. Earlier filings cited by the South China Morning Post showed Unitree seeking 4.2 billion yuan for robot-body development, embodied AI models, new products and manufacturing capacity. That is the useful part of the deal. The less useful part is the scramble around it, where retail buyers are fighting for a thin slice of a company whose best economics were already captured before the public market arrived. ## The robot story is real Unitree is not just a pitch deck with a walking demo. The company reported 1.71 billion yuan in 2025 revenue and about 600 million yuan in adjusted profit, according to the prospectus figures reported by the South China Morning Post in March. It also said 2025 humanoid shipments topped 5,500 units. That number matters because most humanoid robot companies are still selling pilots, promises and glossy videos. Unitree is shipping machines. You can see why investors are interested. The company's H1 and G1 humanoids have become fixtures in viral clips, from synchronized dance routines to martial arts demonstrations, while its quadruped robots built the early commercial base. The flash gets the attention. The filing numbers explain why the IPO moved so fast. Unitree's application was accepted by the Shanghai Stock Exchange on March 20, cleared the listing committee on June 1 and received China Securities Regulatory Commission registration approval on July 2. That is 104 days from formal acceptance to registration approval. For a hard-tech company on the STAR Market, that speed says Beijing wants a visible robotics winner in public markets. ## China has seen this frenzy before The comparison with chip listings is the best warning label. ChangXin Memory Technologies drew more than 9.4 million investor accounts in its July IPO, with the South China Morning Post reporting a final online allotment rate of just 0.47 per cent after a clawback. Moore Threads, the Chinese GPU maker, had its retail portion oversubscribed about 2,750 times. MetaX raised $585.8 million in December 2025, and Bloomberg reported its retail tranche was 2,986 times oversubscribed. Those are not normal investing conditions. They are lottery conditions. China's online IPO system lets investors apply without putting up cash first, so hot offerings can pull in millions of entries from people hoping for a small allocation and a first-day pop. If you're a retail investor, the company can be excellent and the trade can still be absurdly hard to win. Both things can be true. Unitree fits that pattern, but with a different kind of appeal. CXMT and Moore Threads sit inside China's semiconductor self-reliance push. Unitree sits inside the newer race to turn embodied AI into a manufactured product. The political and financial logic is similar: find a domestic champion, back it early, then let the public market put a price on the story. ## Wang Xingxing keeps control Founder Wang Xingxing is the human number behind the listing. He founded Unitree in 2016 after a short stint at DJI, and the South China Morning Post has reported that he holds a 23.8 per cent direct equity stake and nearly 69 per cent of voting rights. That is real control. Public shareholders may get exposure to the company, but real say over its direction stays with him. Frankly, that may be exactly what makes the company attractive. Unitree has moved quickly because it has an engineer-founder with a clear product bias and a manufacturing model built around lower-cost robots. But the same structure means new investors are mostly buying into Wang's judgment after the largest upside has already moved through private hands. That is the uncomfortable part of a red-hot IPO. Unitree looks like one of the more credible humanoid robotics companies in the world, with revenue, profit and shipment figures most rivals would love to have. Retail buyers are not wrong to want exposure. They are just late to the cleanest part of the trade. The people who had the best odds were already inside: Wang, early venture backers, strategic investors and suppliers tied to the robotics chain. Everyone else is left hoping the allocation notice falls their way. **Also read:** [Razer and NUS Open a Joint AI Lab to Build Project AVA's Brain](https://startupfortune.com/razer-and-nus-open-a-joint-ai-lab-to-build-project-avas-brain/) • [Billing Vendor Unlimited Technology Systems Breach Exposes 3.8 Million Patients](https://startupfortune.com/billing-vendor-unlimited-technology-systems-breach-exposes-38-million-patients/) • [Razer Buys StreamElements After Creators Went Unpaid for Months](https://startupfortune.com/razer-buys-streamelements-after-creators-went-unpaid-for-months/)