Unitree's stock has lost half its value since its first day of trading. Here's why that's complicated.

Key points

• Unitree shares closed at 513.93 yuan on Wednesday, down 53% from their first-day high of 1,100 yuan on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
• The company generated 1.70 billion yuan ($252 million) in revenue in 2025, with humanoid robots accounting for roughly 52% of that total.
• Unitree shipped more than 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025, making it one of the few companies in the sector with real, recurring sales.
• By comparison, Oregon-based Agility Robotics recorded just $1.78 million in net sales in 2025 alongside a $138.1 million net loss.
• Chinese regulators have informally raised the bar for humanoid robot companies seeking a stock market listing, according to reporting by The Robot Report.

Unitree Robotics went public on Shanghai's STAR Market, China's exchange for high-growth technology companies, on 19 August 2026. The debut was spectacular. Shares priced at 150.80 yuan, then shot up 460% on day one, briefly touching 1,100 yuan and valuing the company at roughly $66 billion.

Since then, roughly half that first-day peak has evaporated.

As of Wednesday, Unitree shares sat at 513.93 yuan ($72.10), down about 39% from the opening-day close of 845 yuan and 53% below that 1,100-yuan high. The slide has erased around $35 billion in market value from the peak. The company is still worth roughly $30 billion, and shares remain more than three times the original IPO price. But the direction of travel has rattled observers.

So is the business actually struggling?

No. That is what makes Unitree unusual among robotics companies right now.

Unitree is not a pre-revenue startup pitching a vision. In 2025 the company brought in 1.70 billion yuan ($252 million), up from 392.77 million yuan the year before. Humanoid robots, the tall bipedal machines the company sells for as little as $13,500, generated 868 million yuan of that total, just over half of all revenue. The company shipped more than 5,500 humanoids during the year and projected first-half 2026 revenue of between 1.052 billion and 1.128 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36% to 45%.

For context, consider Agility Robotics, based in Oregon, which recently disclosed its finances for the first time as part of a proposed SPAC merger (a SPAC, or special-purpose acquisition company, is a shell firm that takes a private company public without a traditional listing). Agility recorded $1.78 million in net sales in 2025 while posting a $140.2 million net loss. Its Digit robots have logged more than 65,000 operating hours across nine customer sites, which is genuine progress, but the revenue gap with Unitree is enormous.

Why is the stock falling then?

The short answer: the opening-day valuation was extraordinary, and markets are adjusting.

At its 1,100-yuan peak, Unitree traded at more than 250 times its 2025 revenue. Even at Wednesday's price the multiple sits around 125 times revenue and above 350 times adjusted earnings. Those are very high numbers for any company, no matter how fast it is growing.

There are also questions about the quality of the revenue. The Wall Street Journal has reported that less than 10% of Unitree's 2025 sales came from industrial customers, the kind of repeatable, large-scale contracts that investors tend to value most. China has built more than 90 humanoid training centres, many co-funded by local governments, and these centres buy robots to generate training data. Whether that translates into durable commercial demand is an open question.

Chinese regulators appear to share some of that caution. The Information reported that the China Securities Regulatory Commission has informally told investment banks and companies that prospective humanoid listings should show recurring revenue, a path to profitability, or significant technological innovation. Chinese financial regulators have not officially confirmed this guidance.

What does this mean for people watching the humanoid robot market?

Unitree's situation is a useful reality check for anyone following the sector.

The company has real revenue, real products, and real customers. That puts it well ahead of most Western competitors. But a $30 billion valuation on $252 million in annual sales still assumes years of rapid growth and a large industrial market that has not fully materialised yet. Investors are starting to weigh that gap between today's results and tomorrow's promise.

For patients and clinicians wondering when humanoid robots might appear in hospitals or care settings, the honest answer is that even the most advanced commercial deployments today are in warehouses and research labs. The Unitree story tells us the hardware is arriving faster than most expected. Whether the applications follow is the question the market is now asking.

Common questions

Is Unitree the same company that makes the cheap robot dog videos online?

Yes. Unitree makes a range of robots including quadrupeds, the four-legged machines that look like robotic dogs, as well as humanoid robots that walk on two legs. The G1 humanoid starts at $13,500, which is low by industry standards.

Should ordinary investors be worried about humanoid robot stocks in general?

The sector carries high risk. Even Unitree, with hundreds of millions in revenue, trades at multiples that assume enormous future growth. Companies like Agility Robotics are still generating negligible sales. Anyone considering this space should treat it as speculative and check filings directly rather than relying on headline valuations.