(Yicai) Aug. 7 -- Unitree Robotics has priced its Shanghai initial public offering at CNY150.80 (USD22.35) per share, giving the Chinese humanoid robot developer a valuation of about CNY61 billion (USD9 billion).

Unitree is selling 40.4 million shares, or 10 percent of its equity, for listing on the Star Market, the Shanghai Stock Exchange's science and technology board, the Hangzhou-based company announced late yesterday. Subscriptions for the IPO will open on Aug. 10, with payment due by Aug. 12. The firm has not yet disclosed the date on which the stock will begin trading.

Unitree's full set of financial disclosures will put an end to the market’s practice of valuing robotics businesses based mainly on concepts and narratives, said Tian Lihui, finance professor at Nankai University. It will provide a real valuation anchor for upstream component suppliers based on actual orders and prices, thereby shifting industry chain valuations from speculative narratives to validation based on mass production, Tian pointed out.

The company counts major Chinese technology firms and well-known investment institutions as backers, including Meituan, Alibaba Group Holding, Ant Group, Tencent Holdings, ByteDance, DeepSeek, HongShan and Matrix Partners China, Shenzhen Venture Capital Group, and the investment arms of China National Petroleum, China Southern Power Grid, and China Telecom.

Meituan and its affiliates hold a combined 9.7 percent stake, making them Unitree’s largest external institutional shareholder.

Wang Xingxing, Unitree’s founder, is its largest individual shareholder with 121.4 million shares through direct and indirect holdings. Based on the IPO pricing, his paper wealth could reach around CNY18.3 billion (USD2.5 billion).

From the IPO proceeds, CNY2 billion will be used for a smart robot model research and development project, CNY1.1 billion for robot R&D, CNY445 million (USD61 million) for new‑generation intelligent robot product development, and CNY624 million (USD86 million) for the construction of an smart robot manufacturing base.

The heavy allocation to smart model R&D will will help accelerate embodied intelligence's shift from a paradigm centered on “hardware manufacturing” to one centered on “intelligent capabilities,” driving China’s supply chains toward higher value-added segments, Tian noted.

The more profound significance of Unitree's listing lies in validating the feasibility of the "Chinese style innovation path," Tian said. By achieving a 95 percent localization rate for core components through full-stack in-house development, the company is exploring a robot industrialization path distinct from overseas models, driven by both cost control and practical deployment across real-world scenarios.

Unitree’s IPO marks the successful opening of a capital market route for China's embodied robot manufacturers, according to Tan Gefei, chief consulting expert at Shenzhen Elephant Investment Consulting.

Shipments, cash flow, and mass production capacity will become core metrics for judging the viability of robot hardware companies, Tan said. Firms need to maintain core in‑house R&D while opening up to deep supply chain collaboration and attaching importance to software ecosystem building, Tan pointed out.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev