Unitree Robotics Secures Approval for STAR Market IPO
On Monday, Unitree Robotics received formal approval from the Shanghai Stock Exchange for its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the STAR Market.
The company aims to raise an impressive 4.2 billion yuan, approximately $616 million, to bolster its operations.
In a noteworthy development, Nvidia unveiled its decision to integrate Unitree’s hardware as the foundational layer for its inaugural humanoid robot system tailored for researchers.
Nvidia Selects Unitree for Humanoid Robotics Research
Nvidia announced the launch of its Isaac GR00T humanoid robot developer platform, which will now support Unitree’s G1 humanoid robot.
This innovative configuration pairs Unitree’s hardware with Nvidia’s Jetson Thor computing architecture, which operates on Blackwell chips, and incorporates robotic hands from Singapore-based firm Sharpa.
The initiative primarily targets academic institutions and research facilities, including Stanford University, the University of California San Diego, and ETH Zurich, which are already piloting the system.
The design allows researchers to test and implement humanoid robots without the necessity of constructing complete hardware and software frameworks from scratch.
Scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers has emerged regarding Unitree’s alleged connections to the Chinese government, prompting discussions of potential restrictions on its involvement in federally funded research.
Concurrently, Nvidia is collaborating with manufacturers of humanoid robots across the United States, Europe, and South Korea.
Furthermore, Nvidia stated that software updates would be facilitated through its chips to ensure authenticity and protect against malicious intrusions. Security features from its data centers, including secure boot and confidential computing, are set to be applied to humanoid robots.
Unitree’s IPO Allocates $616 Million for Robotics Innovation
Unitree plans to invest the funds garnered from its IPO into advanced robotic model research, new product innovations, and the establishment of a manufacturing facility.
The trajectory of revenue for the Hangzhou-based company is decidedly steep. Operating revenue surged from 159 million yuan (approximately $23.5 million) in 2023 to 393 million yuan (around $58 million) in 2024, and subsequently soared to nearly 1.7 billion yuan (roughly $251 million) in 2025. Remarkably, the company’s net profit experienced a staggering year-over-year increase of 674% in 2025.
The driving force behind this growth has been humanoid robots, which constituted over half of Unitree’s revenue within the first nine months of 2025, reflecting a significant rise from the previous year.
STAR Market Accelerates Strategic Tech Investments
Unitree stands as the second enterprise to submit under a pilot prereview system recently instituted by the China Securities Regulatory Commission in June 2025. This mechanism is intended to expedite IPO applications from high-caliber technology enterprises.
Market analyst Timothy Pope of CGTN informed Bastille Post that Unitree exemplifies a broader regulatory pivot.
Chinese authorities are establishing “curated green channels” aimed at companies within sectors deemed strategically critical, including embodied AI, semiconductors, and aerospace.
The challenges faced by nascent companies in these domains stem from their propensity to reinvest nearly all profits into research and development, complicating their ability to meet profit and revenue prerequisites required for stock market listings, Pope noted.
Other prominent listings are progressing under the same regulatory framework. Changxin Memory Technologies, a leading memory chip developer in China, successfully navigated committee review for a proposed IPO valued at 29.5 billion yuan (approximately $4.4 billion) last week.
Meanwhile, commercial rocket manufacturer LandSpace is pursuing a 7.5 billion yuan (around $1.1 billion) fundraising effort for reusable launch vehicle projects.
The impending IPO and Nvidia partnership position Unitree favorably for its next phase of expansion. Notably, its hardware is already operational in practical applications; Japan Airlines initiated a three-year trial of two Unitree humanoid robots at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in May 2026, employing them for tasks such as baggage handling, container transport, and cabin cleaning. Each unit is priced at approximately $15,400, according to previous estimates.
A pioneer in the commercial utilization of high-performance quadruped robots for industrial applications, Unitree specializes in both humanoid and quadruped robotics, along with robot components and embodied AI models.
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