Unitree Robotics STAR Market IPO: $9B Valuation, DeepSeek Partnership, and the Risks Ahead

Key structural details:

• Ticker: 688836.SS on Shanghai's STAR Market .
• Shares offered: 40.45 million new shares, representing 10% of the post-IPO enlarged share capital .
• Lead underwriter: CITIC Securities, among others .

The final valuation exceeded earlier expectations. Reuters had previously reported a target valuation of up to 50 billion yuan, and investment banks had estimated an initial valuation range of 40-50 billion yuan .

Revenue and Financials: The Explosive Growth Story

Unitree turned profitable in 2025 amid explosive revenue growth driven by the shift from quadruped robots to humanoid robots .

Revenue grew approximately 335% year-over-year in 2025 . Humanoid robot shipments topped 5,500 units in 2025, ranking first globally by third-party data . Gross margins expanded sharply from about 40% in 2024 to approximately 60% in 2025, with humanoid robots achieving an even higher 62.9% gross margin .

However, the growth trajectory slowed markedly in the first quarter of 2026. Revenue climbed 68.49% year-over-year — a sharp deceleration from the 332.64% surge recorded in the same period of 2025 . Net profit excluding non-recurring items plummeted 52.55%, shrinking to roughly 40 million yuan, as the company increased spending on R&D and manufacturing base construction .

The DeepSeek Strategic Investment and Partnership

In a significant move that underscores the convergence of AI and robotics, AI firm DeepSeek took a $20.8 million stake in Unitree as part of the IPO .

Both companies are headquartered in Hangzhou, and the partnership pairs Unitree's hardware — humanoid and quadruped robots — with DeepSeek's large-language-model AI capabilities . The goal is to embed advanced reasoning, natural language interaction, and contextual awareness into Unitree's robots, creating what analysts describe as China's answer to the global "embodied AI" wave. This is analogous to partnerships between hardware makers and frontier AI labs in the US.

US-China Tech Tension Risks

Unitree's IPO prospectus reveals a meaningful exposure to geopolitical risk:

• US sales accounted for 13.3% of Unitree's revenue in 2025, making the company directly vulnerable to any escalation in export controls, tariffs, or sanctions .
• Unitree has already faced US scrutiny: its H1 quadruped robot was briefly subject to US import restrictions over national security concerns, though those restrictions were later clarified for consumer models .
• The prospectus is expected to cite US-China technology decoupling, potential blacklisting, and supply-chain disruption as material risk factors.
• Broader context: the US has been tightening controls on advanced robotics, AI chips, and related dual-use technologies. Unitree's reliance on US-market revenue, combined with potential dependence on foreign-made sensors and semiconductors, creates meaningful downside risk.

Peer Comparisons

Shein (Fast Fashion E-Commerce)

Shein is a vastly larger private company with estimated revenue exceeding $30 billion and a rumored UK/HK IPO valuation between $50 billion and $90 billion. The two companies operate in completely different sectors — fashion e-commerce versus advanced manufacturing — and face different regulatory frameworks and geographies. Their only commonality is that both are high-profile Chinese companies navigating US-China trade headwinds.

EngineAI (Chinese Humanoid Robot Startup)

EngineAI is a much smaller, pre-IPO humanoid robotics startup based in Shenzhen. It has not yet filed for a STAR Market listing. Unitree dwarfs EngineAI in revenue (1.7 billion yuan versus an estimated sub-100 million yuan), shipments (5,500+ humanoids versus hundreds), and market capitalization. EngineAI is a potential future competitor but is not a financial peer at this stage.

Zhongji Innolight (Optical Transceivers / AI Infrastructure)

Zhongji Innolight, listed on the Shenzhen ChiNext board with a market cap of approximately $10–15 billion, manufactures high-speed optical modules for AI data centers. It is profitable with higher gross margins (~65–70%) but operates in a different segment — AI infrastructure components versus full robotics hardware. Unitree's $9 billion valuation is somewhat comparable to Zhongji's market cap, but Zhongji benefits from being a direct supplier to the AI buildout (particularly the Nvidia ecosystem), while Unitree has higher revenue growth but a less proven end-market.

Summary Table

Key Takeaways for Investors

Unitree's IPO is a landmark event: the first humanoid robot maker to list in China, with a $9 billion valuation, 335% revenue growth, a strategic AI partnership with DeepSeek, and genuine exposure to US-China tech risks through its 13.3% US revenue share. The explosive growth in humanoid robot sales — which went from 1.9% of revenue in 2023 to over 51% in 2025 — demonstrates real product-market fit, but the sharp deceleration in Q1 2026 growth and profitability makes post-IPO execution critical.