Unitree gearing up for IPO; Shanghai review next week

Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics will face Shanghai's listing committee next week for its planned STAR Market initial public offering, as the company reported surging revenue growth, expanding margins and accelerating overseas deployment of its products.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange said it would meet on Monday to review Unitree's IPO application, formally moving one of China's highest-profile robotics startups closer to a public listing.

Unitree simultaneously disclosed updated 2025 financial data, showing revenue rose to about 1.7 billion yuan ($236 million), as China's humanoid robotics sector draws growing investor attention amid a global race to commercialize embodied artificial intelligence.

The Hangzhou, Zhejiang-province based firm said gross margin from its core business climbed to 60.13 percent in 2025, up nearly 16 percentage points from 44.22 percent in 2023, helped by increasing vertical integration and in-house manufacturing. Unitree said more than 90 percent of its core components are now self-developed and self-produced.

The company sharply increased research spending as competition in humanoid robotics intensifies. Unitree said its 2025 research and development investment more than doubled from a year earlier, rising 107.04 percent.

The filing comes as investors increasingly view humanoid robotics as one of China's next major strategic industries, alongside AI, electric vehicles and semiconductors.

Unitree has rapidly expanded its product lineup in recent months. It debuted earlier this month the world's first mass-produced piloted mech suit, marking the company's boldest step yet — from robot dogs and humanoid robots to science-fiction-style human mobility machines.

The machine, named GD01, starts at 3.9 million yuan. In a video released on Tuesday, Unitree founder and CEO Wang Xingxing was seen personally climbing into the cockpit and driving it across mixed terrain, with the footage presented in real time and without playback acceleration.

Meanwhile, Unitree's overseas push has begun moving beyond demonstrations into real-world industrial testing.

Codeveloped humanoid robots recently entered Tokyo's Haneda Airport for trial operations launched by Japan Airlines, the company said.

The robots are being tested for ground handling operations including baggage loading and unloading, cargo transport and conveyor coordination, with trials scheduled to continue through 2028.

Unitree said its G1 robot's flexibility, load capacity and force control capabilities allow it to adapt efficiently to complex airport environments while helping ease labor shortages and reduce worker burden.

The company described the deployment as the first commercial application of a Chinese humanoid robot inside a major global aviation hub.

Wei Kai, head of the AI research institute at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said: "China's humanoid robots have made significant strides in motor control capabilities, which can be seen in recent events. The evolution of the 'brain' is also very fast. Hierarchical models and end-to-end models have progressed under data-driven paradigms."

Wei said China has established 27 data-collection sites nationwide to support training of embodied AI systems, signaling an effort to industrialize the learning pipeline behind the hardware.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said China had more than 140 humanoid robot manufacturers by 2025, launching over 330 product models. In 2026, more than half of China's provinces and cities have incorporated embodied intelligence and robotics development into their government work reports.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn