World’s top humanoid maker and its dancing robots waltz towards record IPO listing in China

By John Liu, CNN

(CNN) — The world’s largest humanoid robot maker by sales is set to list in Shanghai on Wednesday, with the initial public offering already having raised 6.1 billion yuan ($905 million) and more than 8,000 times oversubscribed, a record for the city’s tech-focused STAR market, which is seen as China’s version of the Nasdaq.

Having captured global attention with its dancing and kung-fu fighting androids, China’s Unitree has become the poster child of the country’s robotic advancement.

On Monday, the Hangzhou-based company unveiled a new humanoid robot dubbed “Superman” which it said can jump as high as two metres and run at a speed of 12.66 metres per second.

Unitree shot to national prominence last year after its robots took to China’s biggest stage, the annual Lunar New Year gala, with sleek dancing choreography. Since then, the company has emerged as a key strategic firm in the country’s ambition to dominate future technology, with its founder Wang Xingxing seated in the front row at President Xi Jinping’s rare symposium with top tech businesses last year.

As China’s economic growth slows and its workforce shrinks, Beijing has bet billions of dollars on humanoid robots as the next disruptive product, seeing them as the “new high ground of technological competition and a fresh frontier for future industries,” according to a 2023 policy document.

Getting ahead in the burgeoning industry could also boost China’s standing in the intensifying competition with the US on artificial intelligence and advanced technology.

The market debut will make Unitree the first humanoid robot maker to be listed in mainland China. Other Chinese android firms, including UBTECH and Dobot, have been trading in Hong Kong, while Agibot, another frontrunner in the sector, is pursuing an IPO in the city.

“Unitree IPO is regarded as a key milestone for the humanoid industry and can serve as a benchmark for other IPOs in the pipeline,” said Ethan Qi, associate director at market analysis firm Counterpoint Research.

China already dominates humanoid robot sales globally. Last year, Chinese firms accounted for the vast majority of global android deliveries, far outpacing American competitors like Tesla, Figure AI and Boston Dynamics.

However, the technology remains under both hardware and software constraints, with bipedal robots still years away from full-scale deployment, whether on factory floors or at home, experts say.

For now, research and educational institution use accounted for the majority of Unitree’s sales, while industrial deployments remained less than 10% in the first three quarters of 2025, its earlier filing showed.

“Unitree has demonstrated strong technology and commercial traction, but moving from demonstrations and early deployments to widespread industrial adoption will take time,” said Kangyuxiao Li, equity analyst at Morningstar, a financial services firm.

Proceeds from the IPO, according to its prospectus, will be used for the research and development of embodied AI model and robot hardware, as well as factory expansion.

Going gaga over Unitree

Unitree may not be a household name yet. But if you have scrolled past videos of human-like robots performing backflips or dancing to Lady Gaga’s Abracadabra on America’s Got Talent, you have likely seen the company’s products.

Founded in China’s eastern tech hub of Hangzhou in 2016, Unitree is backed by several well-known Chinese companies, ranging from food delivery giant Meituan, tech mammoth Tencent, Alibaba and AI startup DeepSeek.

Besides humanoid robots, the firm also makes quadrupled robots, known as robot dogs, which accounted for about 42% of its revenue last year.

In just two years, its revenue skyrocketed more than 10 times to nearly 1.7 billion yuan ($252 million) in 2025, its prospectus showed.

Unitree is also one of the few companies in the field which has achieved profitability, delivering a net profit of 278 million yuan ($41 million) last year.

Last year, it delivered more than 5,500 humanoid robots across the world, making it the world’s largest seller of androids.

Despite being a frontrunner in the industry, Qi of Counterpoint Research cautioned that Unitree’s edge appears to rely mostly on hardware and motion control capability, and that they need to beef up their research and development investment in embodied AI models, which serves as the machines’ brains.

In an apparent bid to address such a weakness, a partnership between Unitree and US tech giant Nvidia was announced in June for research and development.

Geopolitical restrictions

The future of Unitree, however, hinges beyond its product competitiveness.

In June, Unitree was added to the US government’s blacklist of Chinese military-linked companies and barred from doing business with the Pentagon.

And last month, Washington banned new humanoid and quadruped robot imports from foreign manufacturers, calling them a national security risks – in a move aimed at China.

While the restrictions do not cover existing models approved to be sold in the US, it could hurt future sales for companies like Unitree, particularly as over 40% of its revenue is generated overseas.

Unitree has said in its prospectus that it “may be unable to sustain rapid growth in overseas sales and could even see its performance decline” if the US continues to impose restrictions.

Beyond borders, Ming Lee, head of Greater China autos and industrials research at BofA Global Research, said Unitree also has to show it can successfully deploy its robots across various industry applications, and building up its embodied-AI system.

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