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Wency Chen

Shares in Chinese robotics star Unitree Robotics rebounded on Thursday following five straight days of losses that erased nearly half of its market value, although it did little to cool fears of a Chinese humanoid robot bubble.
The stock rose nearly 4 per cent to close at 615 yuan on Thursday, giving the company a market capitalisation of 248.8 billion yuan (US$37 billion), after touching a record low of 571 yuan on Wednesday.
That low marked a 48 per cent drop from its peak of 1,100 yuan on its August 19 debut, wiping out 200 billion yuan in market value.
“Given that level of uncertainty, Unitree’s high valuation is probably not justified,” said Dong Chen, chief investment officer for Asia at Bank J. Safra Sarasin, citing the stock’s lofty price-to-earnings ratio and the difficulty in staying ahead in an “infant level” industry where competition was intensifying.
The Hangzhou-based company opened 629 per cent higher when it debuted on Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style Star Market last Wednesday. The market exuberance contrasted with the demeanour of founder Wang Xingxing, who was poker-faced at the bell-ringing ceremony.
As mainland China’s first listed humanoid robot maker, Unitree’s debut was closely watched as a valuation benchmark for a clutch of highly valued, private embodied-AI unicorns seeking an initial public offering. Leading players such as Galbot already command valuations of more than 20 billion yuan, although few have matched Unitree’s record of revenue-generation and mass production.

Unitree said last week that it had cumulatively produced about 18,000 bipedal humanoids across multiple models as of July, while its first quarter revenue rose 68.5 per cent year on year to 423 million yuan.
An early Unitree investor, who asked not to be identified, told the South China Morning Post before the IPO that his team had stopped looking at robotics deals because companies had become too expensive and homogenous, while commercial deployment remained far off.
Embodied AI remains a long-term growth story, but some of the recent hype has been driven by investor FOMO and a wave of specialist funds launched after the sector was elevated to a national priority, the person said.
Still, one stock’s performance is not enough to declare an industry-wide bubble, Chen said. “Based on this company alone, I would be reluctant to call the sector a bubble.”
Earlier this month, Citic Securities, the IPO’s lead underwriter, gave Unitree a valuation of 50.6 billion yuan to 55.9 billion yuan six to 12 months after listing, Reuters reported, citing a report sent to bookbuilding investors. Even after the sell-off, Unitree’s market value at Thursday’s midday break was more than four times the top of that range.
Ying Zhang, an economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said the listing had put the commercial potential of China’s robotics boom in the spotlight, but demand remained a key hurdle.
“Widespread adoption is currently hindered by financial constraints, such as high upfront and maintenance costs, and technical limitations, such as short battery life, which make it difficult for manufacturers to justify the investment,” Zhang said in a report based on a recent field research in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.
China’s current push into advanced technology was intended to drive industrial upgrading and reinforce supply-side competitiveness, Zhang added. The next test would be whether sectors like robotics could develop commercially viable uses.
Additional reporting by Xinmei Shen


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Even after the sell-off, Unitree’s market value is more than four times the top of the range indicated by lead underwriter Citic Securities


Even after the sell-off, Unitree’s market value is more than four times the top of the range indicated by lead underwriter Citic Securities.


Unitree’s stock slump since IPO stokes fears of a bubble in Chinese humanoid robotics

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Even after the sell-off, Unitree’s market value is more than four times the top of the range indicated by lead underwriter Citic Securities

Even after the sell-off, Unitree’s market value is more than four times the top of the range indicated by lead underwriter Citic Securities