On 8 / 19, coinciding with the Qixi Festival, Unitree Robotics—the first humanoid robot company listed on China's A-share market—debuted on the STAR Market, creating a dramatic tale of extreme highs and lows in capital markets. On its listing day, Unitree opened at 1100 yuan, surging 629.44% from its issue price of 150.8 yuan, with its total market capitalization briefly exceeding 4000 billion yuan during trading.
Online subscription for this new stock reached 8288 times, with a winning rate of only 0.018%, setting a new high in difficulty for STAR Market IPOs. Based on the opening price, investors who secured one lot could see floating gains of up to 47.46 million yuan, while those who won shares reaped substantial profits. In stark contrast, the semiconductor sector fell sharply across the board: GigaDevice, JCET, and RMT fell more than 7%, while Cambricon dropped nearly 6%, highlighting the divergent fortunes of these two major sectors.
Looking back at its journey, Unitree Robotics achieved a nine-year valuation surge of 1,000x, growing from an early valuation in the tens of millions to a market cap of 4000 billion. Its IPO launched a grand capital wealth-creation event, turning founding shareholders, early employees, and investment firms into a wave of billionaires.
Founder Wang Xingxing, born in 90, saw his net worth surge following the IPO. Based on the offering price, his wealth exceeds 200 billion yuan; calculated at the opening price, the market value of his holdings surpassed 100 billion yuan, propelling him to become the new richest person among those born in 90. Ironically, just before the bell-ringing ceremony, Wang repeatedly emphasized a severe talent shortage at public events. This stark contrast between massive paper wealth and acute industry talent demand has created one of the most polarizing realities of the capital market in 2026.
Wealth creation wave amid rapid growth
Unitree's explosive performance is driven by strong capital interest. From 2023 to 2025, the company's revenue surged from 1.6 billion yuan to approximately 17 billion yuan, achieving a three-year compound annual growth rate of 226.8%. In 2025, it recorded a non-GAAP net profit of 5.9 billion yuan, successfully turning losses into profits, while gross margin improved from 44.2% to 60.1%. Unitree shipped over 5500 humanoid robots in 2025, ranking first globally. As of 7 2026, cumulative production of its bionic bipedal humanoid robots reached approximately 1.8 thousand units.
However, rapid growth is beginning to decelerate. In the first quarter of 2026, revenue year-over-year growth slowed to 68.45%, with full-year H1 revenue growth expected to range between 35.6% and 45.4%. Net profit attributable to the parent company is projected at 2.58 billion to 3.06 billion yuan. The capital markets have assigned a premium far exceeding that of traditional manufacturing firms: the IPO price implies a P/E ratio of 219 times, compared to an industry average of just 38 times. The market has not valued the company according to conventional manufacturing standards.
Going public also created widespread wealth for employees. Between 2017 and 2021, Unitree granted stock options to 17 core employees at a subscription cost of just 1 yuan per share. Based on the issuance price, these 14 core employees collectively hold 592.66 million shares with a book value of 8.94 billion yuan. Among them, the 11 employees who exercised their options saw an average paper profit of approximately 7010 million yuan each. Additionally, 171 employees participated in the strategic allocation through two employee asset management plans, which invested a combined total of 2.71 billion yuan. 159 regular employees contributed over one million yuan personally, while founder Wang Xingxing co-invested 1500 yuan, turning the phrase "a workstation births a millionaire" into reality at Unitree.
Holding a paper fortune of billions, yet trapped in a talent shortage.
Despite capital headwinds, Unitree remains anxious. Founder Wang Xingxing has repeatedly signaled critical hiring needs across all roles. Since 2025 month 5, he has consistently stated that every position—from R&D and sales to administrative and procurement—is understaffed. He attributes the intense overtime and employee burnout directly to a severe talent shortage, particularly among top-tier core professionals.
To secure top talent, Unitree is significantly increasing compensation packages. Monthly salaries for specialized senior experts reach 5‑7 ten-thousand yuan; annual salaries for core roles in AI algorithms, visual perception, and reinforcement learning (both experienced hires and campus recruits) can go up to 90 ten-thousand yuan; general technical positions offer a monthly salary of 2‑5 ten-thousand yuan with 13‑14 months' pay per year; core experts are guaranteed an annual salary of over 90 ten-thousand yuan, while compensation for elite talent has no upper limit.
This eagerness to hire stems from the fierce talent war in the humanoid robotics sector.
Competitors in the same field are aggressively hiring with high salaries: After winning the world model competition, Agibot offered a top individual incentive of 50 million CNY, intern rewards up to 20 million CNY, and an extra month's salary as a mid-year special performance bonus for all full-time employees—even former staff were eligible. UBTECH, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, went further by publicly recruiting a Chief Scientist for Embodied AI with total annual compensation starting at 1500 million CNY and reaching up to 1.24 billion CNY, matching top-tier scientists at leading overseas tech firms despite the company still reporting significant losses.
In 2026, the job recruitment index for embodied AI roles surged by 15 times, with an average annual salary reaching 40.6 thousand yuan. The sector has moved beyond the stage of "can we build a robot prototype" and entered the critical phase of scaled deployment.
Behind the surge in orders and expanded production capacity, R&D capabilities in algorithms, large models, and motion control have become the true bottleneck for companies. Wang Xingxing has openly admitted regretting not having positioned AI earlier; Unitree's weakness lies not in hardware manufacturing but in the robot's "brain." Meanwhile, top-tier talent in this field remains scarce across China. For Unitree, a significant portion of the capital raised through this IPO is earmarked to stockpile ammunition for this long-running talent war.
A $100 billion valuation is just the starting point. The race in humanoid robotics ultimately comes down to talent. Capital can rapidly inflate valuations, but building a top-tier workforce has no shortcuts.