Unitree shares soar 460% on Shanghai debut, valuing it at $66bn

What happened: Unitree Robotics, maker of backflipping humanoid robots, listed on Shanghai's STAR Market on 19 August 2026. It's the first general-purpose humanoid robot maker to list on mainland China's stock exchange.

The numbers: Shares opened at 1,100 yuan, 629% above the 150.80 yuan IPO price, briefly valuing the company at about 445 billion yuan ($66 billion). They closed up 460% at 845 yuan, for a market value of roughly 342 billion yuan. About 23.2 billion yuan of shares changed hands.

The details: The IPO raised about 6.1 billion yuan by selling 40.45 million shares, 10% of the company, far above its 4.2 billion yuan target. Roughly 9.8 million retail accounts competed for just 9.7 million shares on offer, according to the South China Morning Post.

Who's affected: Founder Wang Xingxing, 36, holds about 121.4 million shares worth roughly 103 billion yuan at the closing price. Meituan's 8.7% stake jumped to nearly 30 billion yuan, about 70 times its original investment. Tencent is also an investor, and DeepSeek put in about 140.8 million yuan.

The context: The debut bucked a falling market. The STAR Composite index dropped 7.2% and the Shanghai Composite fell 2.4% the same day, CNBC reported.

Why it matters: Unitree shipped 5,900 humanoid robots in the first half of 2026, 31% of the global market and second only to Agibot. Chinese firms made over 97% of all global humanoid shipments in that period, underlining China's lead in the sector.

What's next: Caixin described the jump as the biggest first-day gain for any new listing this year, setting a high bar for investor appetite in China's humanoid robotics push.