Unitree Robotics prices its Shanghai STAR Market IPO at 61 billion yuan; DeepSeek joins as a strategic investor
Unitree Robotics, China's leading humanoid robot maker, priced its initial public offering on Shanghai's STAR Market at 150.80 yuan per share on August 6, 2026, implying a valuation of 61 billion yuan (approximately US$9 billion); DeepSeek, the Chinese AI lab that upended global AI markets in early 2026, took a strategic placement stake; Unitree is seeking to raise 6.1 billion yuan (around US$904 million); subscriptions open August 10
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Summary
Unitree Robotics priced its Shanghai STAR Market initial public offering at 150.80 yuan per share on August 6, 2026, seeking to raise 6.1 billion yuan (around US$904 million) and implying a total valuation of 61 billion yuan (approximately US$9 billion). DeepSeek, the Hangzhou-based AI lab that disrupted global AI markets in early 2026 with its open-weight R1 model, will take a strategic placement stake, a signal that China's most influential AI lab sees humanoid robotics as a natural extension of its software investments. Unitree is notable for being profitable, rare in the embodied AI space, where most startups are burning cash to compete with Boston Dynamics and Figure. Subscriptions open August 10. CNBC placed the IPO in the context of escalating US-China technology tensions, noting that Washington has been tightening Chinese companies' access to US semiconductor supply chains, which makes an onshore capital raise more important to Chinese tech companies.
The split
CNBC framed the IPO through the US-China tech competition lens. Caixin Global emphasised the company's financial health and the sector's race to raise capital before a consolidation wave. Global Times, a Chinese state outlet, covered it as an unambiguous success story for Chinese industrial AI. No Western financial regulator comment was in the feed.
By the numbers
- 150.80 yuan per share IPO price
- 61 billion yuan (approximately US$9 billion) implied valuation
- 6.1 billion yuan (approximately US$904 million) to be raised
- August 10, subscription opening date
- Unitree is listed as profitable, unusual for a humanoid-robotics maker at its scale
Why it matters
Unitree's IPO is the first by a mainland Chinese robotics firm of its scale and gives DeepSeek a hardware investment to pair with its software bets. Chinese embodied AI companies are building supply chains entirely separate from US components: the STAR Market listing extends that separation into capital. The DeepSeek strategic placement fuses China's two highest-profile AI stories, the software disruption and the hardware race, into a single balance sheet.
What to watch
- Whether the August 10 subscription round is oversubscribed and at what premium
- US regulatory scrutiny of DeepSeek's broader investment portfolio
- How Unitree's STAR listing affects the valuations of rival Chinese humanoid startups
- Whether any US-listed Chinese tech investors adjust their portfolios in response