On the evening of August 6, Unitree Robotics published its STAR Market IPO pricing announcement, setting the offer price at 150.80 CNY per share. Based on an issuance of 40.446 million shares (10% of post-issue total share capital), the market capitalization at issuance is approximately 60.993 billion CNY. The subscription date is August 10 (online and offline, ticker 688836), with payment due August 12 (T+2).
Pricing and Valuation
- Issuance P/E of 219.23x, versus an industry average P/E of 38.56x
- Gross proceeds of ~6.099 billion CNY, net 5.917 billion CNY — 45% above the 4.202 billion CNY originally planned in the prospectus
- Valuation jumped within a year: from 12.7 billion CNY at the last pre-IPO round (June 2025) to 61 billion CNY at issuance — an increase of ~48.3 billion CNY, or 3.8x
- Ten-year view: from 13.33 million CNY at the 2016 seed round to 61 billion CNY — a 4,573x increase
- Allocated 933,390 shares (2.31% of this issuance), worth ~141 million CNY
- 36-month lock-up — the longest among all strategic investors
- Stated strategic intent per the announcement: "focus on AI large model and embodied intelligence R&D and product development, integrating both parties' technical strengths to improve embodied robots' understanding and generalization in complex scenarios"
- National Social Security Fund (combinations 601, 502, 109): 933,400 shares combined
- PetroChina Kunlun Capital, China Southern Grid Industrial Finance Holdings, Tianyi Capital, and Tencent (Shanghai Qishan Investment): 903,290 shares each
- CITIC Securities Investment (sponsor follow-on investment): 808,900 shares, 24-month lock-up
- Employee Asset Plan No. 1 (executives): 1.356 million shares, 12-month lock-up; Employee Plan No. 2 (core staff): 444,300 shares, 36-month lock-up
- 2023: revenue 159 million CNY, net loss of 11.15 million CNY
- 2024: revenue 393 million CNY, net profit 95.47 million CNY (first profit)
- 2025: revenue 1.699 billion CNY, non-GAAP net profit 590 million CNY
- 2026 Q1: revenue ~423 million CNY (+68.49% YoY), non-GAAP net profit down YoY (large increases in R&D and sales expenses)
- 2026 H1 guidance: revenue 1.052–1.128 billion CNY (+35.62% to +45.41% YoY), net profit attributable to parent 258–306 million CNY
- 2025 humanoid robot shipments: over 5,500 units
- Intelligent robot model R&D (the company says "nearly half" of proceeds, betting on both WMA and VLA technical routes)
- Robot body (hardware) R&D
- New intelligent robot product development
- Intelligent robot manufacturing base construction
- IT Home, Aug 6: https://www.ithome.com/0/986/699.htm
- IT Home prospectus summary: https://www.ithome.com/0/983/890.htm
- Securities Times, Aug 6, "Unitree IPO pricing revealed; DeepSeek among 9 strategic investors": https://www.stcn.com/article/detail/4062750.html
- Securities Times, Aug 6, "Unitree prices at 150.8 CNY; DeepSeek participates": https://www.stcn.com/article/detail/4062608.html
- Caijing, Aug 7, "Unitree's Aug 10 STAR Market IPO": https://gu.qq.com/resources/shy/news/detail-v2/index.html?id=SN20260807142246a6f93ac2
- Tencent News, Aug 8, "DeepSeek allocated Unitree IPO shares worth ~141 million CNY": https://new.qq.com/rain/a/20260808A04PE900
- Whether the 220x P/E is justified depends on actual shipments and net profit delivery in 2026 H2 – 2027 H1
- The specific technical path of the DeepSeek–Unitree partnership (WMA vs. VLA hierarchy) is not disclosed in the announcement
- The valuation jump (12.7B → 61B CNY) occurred within one year, with no comparable anchor
- 2026 Q1 non-GAAP net profit declined YoY per the prospectus, indicating clear cost pressure during expansion
- Customer distribution (ToB/ToG/ToC) and unit prices of Unitree's 5,500+ units shipped in 2025 are undisclosed
- The industry-average P/E of 38.56x (CSI classification methodology) requires independent verification
- Overseas sales share (North America, Europe, Southeast Asia) and FX risk are undisclosed
Strategic Investor Lineup
Nine strategic investors received a combined 8.089 million shares. The most notable is DeepSeek (Hangzhou DeepSeek AI Fundamental Technology Research Co., Ltd.):Other strategic allocations:
Fundamentals
Use of Proceeds
Notable Details
The DeepSeek–Unitree strategic pairing is not ordinary financial investment. From the announcement's wording, Unitree appears to position DeepSeek as a model supplier — the "brain" of embodied intelligence via VLA/WMA, while Unitree builds the "body." DeepSeek's 36-month lock-up implies a bet on 3+ years of technical coupling. This mirrors a broader trend of Chinese embodied-AI companies tying themselves to leading model developers: Zhiyuan (Agibot) with its in-house Lingxi, Galbot building its own models, and Unitree choosing DeepSeek.
P/E of 219x vs. the industry's 38.56x is the market's concept premium for the "first humanoid robot stock." Comparable peers such as Leader Harmonious Drive, Estun, and Wuzhou Xinchun trade at 30–60x P/E — Unitree is ~6x higher. Peers generally have revenue in the tens of billions CNY with 0.5–1.5 billion net profit; Unitree's revenue is only 1.699 billion CNY but with a visibly steeper growth curve. Whether 220x holds depends on actual shipments and profit delivery after 2026 H1.
Founder Wang Xingxing (born in the 1990s, started with quadruped robots from an academic project in 2016) shipped over 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025 — globally second only to Tesla Optimus (thousands cumulative in 2025, exact figures undisclosed), and clearly ahead of Figure AI (~200–500 units in 2025), 1X Technologies (ramping production), and Apptronik (preparing Apollo mass production).