Unitree Robotics opened at 1,100 yuan on the Shanghai stock exchange Wednesday, a 629% jump from its 150.8 yuan offer price. The stock later pared gains to 968.1 yuan, still more than six times the IPO price.
A Debut That Beat the Perp Market
Pre-IPO perpetual futures on Hyperliquid had traded near $100 on Tuesday, implying a valuation of $40.5 billion and a first-day gain of roughly 347%. The actual open delivered 629%, blowing past that prediction. Perp traders had also signaled a sharp rally for CXMT, a Chinese memory-chip maker, before its debut last month.
IPO-linked perps have drawn growing attention this year, especially for highly anticipated listings. Contracts tracking SpaceX saw significant trading interest ahead of its June IPO. Most equity-linked perpetuals give exposure to US companies; CXMT and Unitree mark an expansion to mainland China listings.
The IPO Numbers
Unitree raised about 6.1 billion yuan ($905 million) in its offering, which valued the robot maker at nearly $9 billion. Demand was enormous: the offering was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed among retail investors, with strong interest from institutions as well.
Existing backers include Chinese technology giant Tencent. DeepSeek invested about 140.8 million yuan ($19.6 million) in Unitree.
Superman and the Humanoid Race
On Monday, ahead of the IPO, Unitree unveiled its latest humanoid robot, Superman. The robot can perform a standing jump of more than 2 meters and reach a top running speed of 12.66 meters per second.
The timing aligns with a broader market shift. Morgan Stanley nearly doubled its 2026 forecast for Chinese humanoid shipments to 50,000 units, up from 28,000. The bank expects the market to grow from $2 billion this year to $15 billion by 2030.
Unitree's stock will face its first real test in the coming sessions. Whether it can hold above the offer price — let alone the opening level — remains an open question for the market.
