Unitree surges after China IPO and unveils new humanoid robot

Unitree’s stock surged on its Shanghai trading debut after the company raised 6.1 billion yuan in an IPO that was oversubscribed more than 8,000 times, as it unveiled a new humanoid robot dubbed “Superman” at an event in China.

Shares jumped more than 600% at debut, making Unitree the first humanoid robot maker listed in mainland China, according to CNN.

On Monday, the Hangzhou-based company said its “Superman” robot can jump as high as two metres and run at 12.66 metres per second, CNN reported.

Unitree drew global attention with humanoid demos featuring dancing and kung-fu style fighting, and it had emerged from prior national visibility including performances during China’s annual Lunar New Year gala, CNN said.

In an analysis of why humanoids are still early-stage, Wang Xingxing said robots face limits entering human workplaces because they are not yet efficient and require time to learn new skills, according to remarks shared at the World Robot Conference in Beijing by CNBC.

“Robots are not yet as efficient as humans, and take time to learn new skills, creating a bottleneck for the industry,” said Wang Xingxing, founder of Unitree.

Wang’s comments came one day after Unitree’s IPO-day surge and were followed by a reported share decline of 18.7% on Thursday, CNBC reported.

Separately, Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation, said U.S. restrictions on advanced foreign-made robotic devices have limited impact so far because few humanoids are used in the United States, CNBC reported.

“But the impact of that limitation isn't that great right now because there aren't that many humanoids being used in the U.S.,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation.

Burnstein added that the impact in the U.S. could instead be more relevant to autonomous mobile robots used in factories, CNBC said.

CNBC reported that the FCC last month added foreign-made advanced robotic devices, including humanoids, to a list restricting imports to the U.S., while stating the agency did not specify a country and retailers could still import models previously approved by the FCC.

Wan Bin, COO of Keenon, said companies aiming to deploy robots for efficiency are often not focused specifically on humanoids, and that engineering and training become harder as companies pursue near-complete task performance, CNBC reported.

“Completing 50% of a task well is relatively easy, even 80%, he said. But to reach a 99.9% completion rate really tests engineering and training capabilities,” Wan Bin, COO of Keenon.

Keenon, as described by CNBC, pairs its humanoids with simpler delivery robots for hotel laundry services, and said it expects shipments to exceed 150,000 units by the end of next year after having shipped more than 100,000 robots.

CNN reported Unitree’s IPO proceeds would be used for research and development of embodied AI models and robot hardware, along with factory expansion, and noted U.S. restrictions could affect future growth in overseas sales.