'Still in Internship' Robots: Unitree's IPO Frenzy, Experts Warn of Long Road to Commercialization

Chinese humanoid robotics leader Unitree has listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market. On its first trading day, the stock surged over 600%, briefly exceeding 1,100 yuan, before settling at 883.87 yuan. Turnover was extremely high, with a daily turnover rate exceeding 85%.

In stark contrast to the capital market frenzy, China's benchmark stock index fell 2% overall, and technology-related stocks were broadly sold off. Unitree's market capitalization reached approximately $50 billion, but this reflects speculative bets on future potential rather than current commercialization, which remains in its infancy.

Unitree has openly acknowledged in its prospectus that large-scale commercial deployment 'still faces uncertainties and risks of falling short of expectations.' At a robotics school in Hangzhou, robots based on Unitree's models told visitors they were 'still in internship.' Zhao Han, a school official, told AFP the institution aims to help companies bridge knowledge gaps by providing customized robot training and certification to advance toward real-world applications.

Industry experts point out that enabling robots to independently respond to unpredictable real-world situations remains a long way off. Zhu Tianle, an engineer at the Hangzhou robotics school, told AFP that training a robot's 'brain' is an extremely difficult task, and enabling robots to understand the world remains a global challenge. Lian Jye Su, an analyst at research firm Omdia, emphasized to AFP that the challenge goes far beyond simply embedding AI into robots—hardware solutions are also highly complex. He warned that if consumers believe that elderly people conversing with AI at home means robots will soon provide care, the reality is actually very far from that future. Su cautioned that high valuations of such companies are based on the premise that robots will eventually become general-purpose devices, and failure to achieve this could deal a massive blow to the industry.

Beijing has strongly advocated for robotics development in its past two five-year plans to address labor shortages caused by a demographic crisis. Morningstar stock analyst Li Kang Yuxiao told AFP that China's manufacturing supply chain is already quite robust, and the next stage is proving robots can perform economically viable tasks. However, beyond hardware challenges, large-scale deployment requires collecting massive amounts of real-world physical data. AFP found staff at a training facility repeatedly performing single actions like folding clothes using game controllers for robots to imitate. Building a usable model typically requires tens of thousands of hours of operational data.

Unlike most peers, Unitree has already achieved profitability, but analysts warn that most of its sales are one-off transactions, with a large portion of products sold to universities and research institutes, and very low actual application rates in commercial scenarios. Yan Kai, partner at Shanghai Ivy Capital, told Reuters that Unitree's pricing is driven by political and economic considerations rather than pure valuation models. William Xin, chairman of Spring Mountain Pujiang Asset Management, analyzed for Reuters that first-mover advantage helps companies secure resources and maintain endurance during the industry's early loss-making phase.

China's strategic moves in this field have triggered U.S. countermeasures. In July, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned the import of future models of foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots on national security grounds. Previously, the U.S. Department of Defense had already placed Unitree on its list of military-affiliated companies. Reuters cited former U.S. defense officials and experts stating that Unitree's early robot dog designs drew from open-source research results funded and published by the U.S. military. Unitree has previously stated its robots are primarily for civilian use.

In response to U.S. restrictions, major Chinese exporters including Unitree did not respond to AFP and Reuters' requests for comment. Counterpoint analyst Ethan Qi told AFP that China's advantage lies in manufacturing scale and cost, while the U.S. is stronger in software and frontier research. Industry players generally downplay the impact of U.S. bans. Rui Ma, founder of a tech information platform, told AFP that companies are currently focused on technological breakthroughs and scaling up, and overseas markets are not their sole focus. Data shows the U.S. market accounts for only a small portion of most Chinese firms' revenue, while the domestic Chinese market occupies over 90% of the global humanoid robotics market. Following Unitree's listing, multiple Chinese firms including Deep Robotics, Leju Robotics, MechaMan, X-Dynamics, and Agibot are accelerating plans to list in mainland China or Hong Kong.