Humanoid Robot IPO Reviews Tighten as Unprofitable Firms Face Profitability Test

Rumors that IPO reviews for humanoid robot companies have been tightened have drawn a fairly consistent response from investment bankers. Several securities investment banking sources told Yicai that the situation is not really a tightening; the IPO quality gate has always been strict. What has changed is that the quality of humanoid robot IPO applicants is now under particularly close scrutiny.

A securities investment banking executive in North China attributed the attention directly to the fact that some applicants have not yet entered a reasonable commercialization cycle. Whether an unprofitable company has credible profit prospects is a key focus at the acceptance stage.

Among the three embodied AI companies currently in the IPO review pipeline, their financial data speak for themselves. Yunshenchu achieved profitability in 2025, with revenue rising from 50.1126 million yuan in 2023 to 337 million yuan in 2025. Its net profit attributable to the parent turned from a loss of 25.8501 million yuan to a gain of 28.684 million yuan.

Still, in its reply to an inquiry letter, the company noted that its gross margin in 2025 was already at a relatively high level, that gross margin declined in the first half of 2026, and that unit prices of major products may trend downward in the future.

Dobot has not yet turned profitable. Its net losses attributable to the parent were 103 million yuan, 95.3646 million yuan, and 83.5362 million yuan in 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively. In its July 15 listing meeting draft, the company expected first-half revenue to grow 94.65% to 114.12% year-on-year, but its net loss attributable to the parent to widen to 90 million to 120 million yuan.

Leju Intelligent's losses have increased year by year. Its net losses attributable to the parent were 41.116 million yuan, 59.2298 million yuan, and 69.7794 million yuan from 2023 to 2025, while revenue grew from 53.9883 million yuan to 258 million yuan.

Unitree Technology's share price curve has become a reference point. It listed on the STAR Market on August 19, becoming the first A-share humanoid robot stock. It opened at 1,100 yuan, with market value exceeding 440 billion yuan, then retreated to close at 845 yuan. The first-day opening price also became its high. The stock kept falling, on September 14 dropping below 500 yuan for the first time and hitting a new low of 465.58 yuan, before closing at 470 yuan—down 57.27% from its high. Its total market value shrank to 190.1 billion yuan.

Bankers see that curve as one factor affecting review expectations. The gap between primary-market pricing and secondary-market performance may make regulators more cautious in assessing the profit prospects of similar companies at the acceptance stage.

Industrial robot companies appear to be in a relatively better position. A Shanghai investment banker said that robot companies focused on industrial applications may fare better in IPO applications because those sub-sectors have stronger commercial logic. A North China securities investment banking executive also said that, compared with humanoid robot companies, equipment robot companies applying for IPOs mostly have products in relatively mature commercial markets.

That distinction points to the core of the review logic: regulators look not at which track a company belongs to, but at whether its revenue is recurring, whether losses are narrowing, and whether its technology represents substantive innovation. Most humanoid robot companies are still in an investment phase, with small revenue scale, customer concentration, and pressure from falling unit prices—all of which directly conflict with the review focus.

A South China investment banker added that the IPO tightening is not entirely aimed at humanoid robot companies; it also involves unprofitable companies as a whole. Regulators make substantive judgments at the acceptance stage about whether such companies have profit prospects, and they press sponsors to fulfill front-end gatekeeping responsibilities. As long as companies remain unlisted, IPO reviews for in-review unprofitable companies are also expected to be strictly controlled. The financing window for the humanoid robot track has not closed, but the scale of the threshold is changing.