The shares of Unitree Robotics, the Chinese manufacturer of humanoid robots, have fallen by over 45% since the Shanghai Stock Exchange premiere on August 19, between fears of a bubble and doubts about technology.
© Lusa
25/08/2026
by
Lusa
Osecurities closed today at 620.8 yuan (79.21 euros) per share, which remains almost 300% above the price fixed by the company for the initial public offer (IPO), but represents a 45.2% drop compared to the 1,100 yuan (140.34 euros) they opened in the opening session, closed with a valuation of 460%.
The technological stock market has thus gone from more than 66 billion dollars (EUR 56.7 billion) to around USD 36,270 million (EUR 31.1 billion) in less than a week.
Unitree sold 40.4 million shares for around 904 million dollars (EUR 775 million) in the Shanghai STAR market, known as the ‘Chinese Nasdaq’ due to its stake in technology companies, in an operation that aroused strong interest among investors.
In the subscription phase, demand exceeded more than 8,000 times the number of available shares.
However, although the advances of Chinese robots have returned in recent days to attract global attention, thanks to the sporting competitions they participate in in Beijing, some analysts have already questioned, before the exchange, whether technology is mature enough to be applied in daily tasks.
The company itself warned that large-scale marketing may “be more than expected”, since, for example, robotic hands are not yet accurate and resistant enough.
The founder of Unitree, Wang Xingxing, predicted that the “ChatGPT moment” of humanoid robots will arrive when they manage to perform, by instructions, about 80% of the tasks in 80% of environments they do not know before, a milestone that may take “between two and ten years”.
Currently, a robot trained with sufficient data can approach a 100% efficacy rate in “fixed scenarios”, but this value “falls considerably” as soon as the objects that have to be manipulated or the environment in which it works change, the entrepreneur explained.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Hangzhou, eastern China, Unitree develops quadruped and humanoid robots, being the world's largest seller, which already account for more than half of the company's revenue.
Technological technology also produces components such as robotic hands, collaborative arms and sensors.
According to the official Chinese press, 90% of the company’s supply chain is national production and all essential components are of own development, something that reflects the “force” of this emerging sector in China.
Robotics is considered strategic by the Chinese authorities as part of the country's commitment to advanced technologies and industrial applications of artificial intelligence (IA).