(Yicai) March 23 -- The Shanghai Stock Exchange has approved the initial public offering of Chinese embodied artificial intelligence giant Unitree Robotics on the Nasdaq-like Star Market.

Unitree plans to issue no less than 40.45million shares to raise about CNY4.2 billion (USD608.3 million), according to the filing prospectus released on March 20. The proceeds will be used to research and develop intelligent robot models and robot hardware, design new intelligent robots, and build a smart manufacturing base.

Founded in 2016, Unitree develops and sells humanoid and quadruped robots, with the former being the company's main revenue driver. In the first three quarters of last year, Unitree reported CNY595 million in revenue from the humanoid robot business, accounting for 52 percent of the total, compared with 1.9 percent in 2023.

The firm's G1 mid-sized humanoid robot is priced from CNY85,000 (USD12,00), while its R1 Air, which hit the market last year, is priced from CNY29,900 (USD4,300), with comparable overseas products costing between USD30,000 and over USD130,000. Unitree sold 5,500 humanoid robots last year, it said in the prospectus, claiming it ranked first globally.

Unitree’s revenue rose 335 percent to CNY1.7 billion (USD246 million), and net profit widened 674 percent to CNY600 million last year from 2024, according to the prospectus. As of Dec. 31, the firm had achieved cumulative sales of CNY282 million, up 93 percent from a year earlier and 23 percent from Sept. 30.

Gross margin of Unitree's core business rose to 60 percent in 2025 from 44 percent in 2022, driven by full-stack in-house development and production. In fact, the company manufactures its own key components, including motors, reducers, encoders, and dexterous hands, with purchased parts accounting for only 14 percent to 18 percent of the total cost.

The cost of per quadruped robot fell to CNY12,100 in the first three quarters last year from CNY22,300 in 2022, while that of humanoid robots dropped to CNY62,200 from CNY73,200 in the same period.

Unitree's founder Wang Xingxing directly and indirectly controls 34.8 percent of the company's shares, with 68.8 percent of the voting rights. Investors include top venture capital firms, such as Sequoia China, Matrix Partners China, and Shenzhen Capital Group, as well as Meituan, Tencent Holdings, Alibaba Group Holding, Ant Group, and China Mobile.

Unitree's post-money valuation was CNY3.8 billion after completing a Series B3 fundraiser in September 2024, while its pre-money valuation reached CNY12 billion (USD1.7 billion) after closing a Series C financing round last June.

"The rapid growth in the company's valuation was driven by the fast rise in attention and recognition of AI and general-purpose robotics, both domestically and globally," Unitree noted. "This rise is reasonable in the context of primary and secondary market valuation trends over the same period."

In the prospectus, Unitree also flagged some risks, including the possibility that international rivals such as Tesla could use economies of scale to drive down costs and intensify price competition, and the chance that the large-scale commercialization of humanoid robots could continue to face challenges from technical reliability, production costs, and market acceptance.

Editor: Futura Costaglione