Unitree Robotics IPO on Shanghai STAR Market Sees Massive Demand

Unitree Robotics, a leading Chinese humanoid robot maker, has opened subscriptions for its initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market, setting the stage to become the first mainland-listed company in the sector. The offering, priced at 150.80 yuan per share, is expected to raise approximately 6.1 billion yuan, or about $904 million, and values the company at roughly 61 billion yuan, or $9 billion.

The IPO has attracted extraordinary demand from retail investors. According to an exchange filing released on August 10, the retail portion of the offering was 5,526 times subscribed, with individual investors submitting 9.8 million orders. This intense interest resulted in a final winning rate of just 0.0181%, meaning roughly one in every 5,525 applicants received an allocation. Offline institutional demand was also robust, with subscriptions totaling 71.463 billion shares, or 2,760 times the offering before strategic placement.

The strong investor appetite underscores the growing focus on "embodied AI," a category that pairs artificial intelligence with physical machines capable of moving and interacting with the real world. Beijing has made this sector a...