Unitree Falls 55% From Peak: Humanoid IPOs Now Face the Repeat-Order Question
Unitree Technology listed on the STAR Market on Aug 19 at an issue price of 150.80 yuan, spiked to 1,100 yuan on debut and closed its first day at 845 yuan, with market value briefly near 444.9 billion yuan. By Sept 21 it closed at 494.85 yuan, a market value of about 200.1 billion yuan — roughly a 55% drawdown from the peak. As the stock swung, talk spread that regulators were slowing humanoid robot IPOs.
In early September, foreign media citing people familiar with the matter said the CSRC had raised listing thresholds for humanoid startups via informal communication; Reuters said it could not independently verify this, and no formal freeze document was issued domestically. Cailianshe's Aug 24 check with authoritative sources found exchanges and brokers were focused on uneven filing quality and avoiding a stampede — not a blanket IPO shutdown.
A Sept 21 investment-bank view added that hard-tech robot firms without a standout industry position or a clear commercialization story will face stricter front-end screening. In plain terms: the door is open, but weak filings get sent back.
Unitree's issue P/E was 219x against static P/Es of just over 30x for general equipment — the premium rests entirely on the word "humanoid."
Filings show that in the first three quarters of 2025, science and education made up 73.6% of humanoid revenue, commercial consumption 17.39%, and manufacturing, inspection and logistics 9.01% combined, with genuine industrial scenarios at about 2.64%. In H1 2026 revenue reached 1.152 billion yuan, up 48.54% year on year, while non-GAAP net profit fell 19.34% to 244 million yuan.
The problem is not operations but that day-one pricing folded five to ten years of factory penetration into the stock; any slower-than-hoped deployment data now triggers selling.
Per the Humanoid Robot Scenario Application Alliance, 218 public humanoid and embodied tenders worth 1.723 billion yuan were awarded in H1 2026 — education and research 55.5%, government and state platforms 20.6%, industrial firms 21.1% — and many industrial awards are prototype tests, showrooms and training pilots rather than recurring production-line purchases. IDC is colder still: 2025 real global shipments were dominated by entertainment, education and guidance.
The more launches are held, the more the industry must answer one question: with no engineer and no camera, running a full shift on the factory floor, will the customer buy a second unit?