Wang Xingxing and Jun Zhihui are vying for the first place.

The humanoid robot industry is booming, and Unitree Technology and Zhipu Robotics are undoubtedly the two most prominent leading companies at present. Now, both companies have entered the final sprint stage for listing. A battle for the "first humanoid robot stock" has long since begun.

Unitree Technology is leading the way.

On July 18th, the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission showed that Unitree Technology had started the listing guidance process. On September 2nd, Unitree Technology announced that it is expected to submit the listing application documents between October and December 2025.

Just as Unitree Technology is making a final push for its IPO, there are again rumors about Zhipu Robotics' listing. On October 10th, market sources reported that Zhipu Robotics plans to list in Hong Kong next year, with a target valuation of between $5.1 billion and $6.4 billion.

However, Zhipu Robotics quickly denied this rumor, calling it "false information." Shangwei New Materials, a company on the Science and Technology Innovation Board that Zhipu Robotics has a stake in, also issued an announcement stating that Zhipu Innovation has no plan to backdoor list within three years.

Despite both sides repeatedly denying the "backdoor listing" rumors, the market's expectations for their IPOs continue to rise. Since Zhipu Robotics intended to take control of Shangwei New Materials in July, the latter's stock price has soared by over 1100%, rising from 8 yuan per share to a maximum of 132 yuan per share.

In the listing process, Zhipu Robotics took the lead by announcing on July 9th its intention to acquire Shangwei New Materials. Unitree Technology followed closely behind by filing for listing guidance on July 18th. However, in terms of a clear listing timeline, Unitree Technology took the lead by announcing its plan to submit the prospectus in the fourth quarter.

The race to go public is far from over. The battle for the "first stock" is just a bend in this long - distance race.

Behind this competition is also a silent showdown between Wang Xingxing and Zhi Huijun, two post - 90s entrepreneurs, on the humanoid robot stage.

Different from the startup stories in the Internet era, these two founders have rarely appeared together in public reports and have never had any verbal confrontations. However, the distinctively different companies they lead have already started a silent but intense race in terms of product development, financing, and listing schedules.

Now, the competition between the two sides is out in the open.

In June this year, China Mobile (Hangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd. issued a procurement announcement. Package 1 was for full - size humanoid robots, and Package 2 was for small - size humanoid robots. During the candidate selection and publicity stage, Zhipu Robotics won Package 1, worth 78 million yuan. For Package 2, the short - listed candidates were Unitree and Zhipu, and finally Unitree won 100% of the share, worth 46.05 million yuan.

Although the two companies have different strategic routes, they are converging. "AI + robotics" is the industry consensus, and both sides are gradually encroaching on each other's territory.

Zhipu Robotics, which focuses on "hardware - software integration," has released products such as quadruped robots. Unitree Technology, which started with quadruped robots, has recently open - sourced a large - scale model specifically designed for robot learning. Subsequently, Zhipu Robotics also open - sourced its previously released GO - 1 general large - scale model.

As the intersection between the two companies increases, their confrontation will become more direct.

1

In 2025, both Unitree Technology and Zhipu Robotics have entered the final sprint stage before listing.

Zhipu Robotics took the lead.

On July 9th, Shangwei New Materials, a company listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, issued an announcement stating that Zhipu Robotics intends to acquire at least 63.62% and at most 66.99% of its shares. After the transaction is completed, Zhiyuan Hengyue will become the controlling shareholder, and Deng Taihua, the founder of Zhipu, will become the actual controller of Shangwei New Materials.

This move instantly ignited market speculation about its "backdoor listing."

On the one hand, Shangwei New Materials has not yet carried out any business related to the embodied intelligence field, which is significantly different from Zhipu's previous investments in the upstream and downstream of the robot industry chain. On the other hand, at that time, Zhipu's market valuation was 15 billion yuan, while Shangwei New Materials' market value was about 3 billion yuan. A reverse acquisition inevitably led to market speculation.

Although both sides deny the "backdoor listing," Zhipu still left room for future capital operations in the announcement: If, based on the actual situation of the listed company, relevant matters need to be implemented, Zhipu will then urge the listed company to strictly follow the requirements of relevant laws and regulations, fulfill the corresponding legal procedures, and information disclosure obligations.

So far, Zhipu, which has been established for less than three years, has taken the lead on the listing path.

Before this, there were only rumors about Unitree's listing. For example, it changed its enterprise name to "Hangzhou Unitree Technology Co., Ltd." and increased its registered capital.

Just when the market was excited about Zhipu's move and the stock price of Shangwei New Materials soared, on July 18th, the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission showed that Unitree Technology was filing for listing guidance. In September, Unitree Technology further clarified that it is expected to submit the listing application documents to the stock exchange between October and December 2025.

The battle between Zhipu and Unitree to be the "first humanoid robot stock" is becoming increasingly fierce.

In terms of financing, Unitree Technology has gone further. According to Qichacha information, Unitree Technology has completed 13 rounds of financing up to Series C4. Zhipu has completed 12 rounds of financing up to Series B4.

In terms of commercialization, Unitree Technology is also significantly faster. Since this year, Unitree has continuously demonstrated its commercialization capabilities: the shipment volume of Unitree's humanoid robots has ranked first in the world; it has been profitable every year since 2020; and the company's annual revenue has exceeded 1 billion yuan.

However, the outcome of the listing is still unclear.

Jiang Yi, the founding partner of Hengye Capital, said that generally, it takes at least three months from submitting the application to listing. It is basically impossible for Unitree Technology to list this year without any other interference.

This means that if Unitree Technology submits the prospectus between October and December as planned, it is expected to list between January and March 2026. Currently, Unitree has not submitted the prospectus.

Jiang Yi also explained that submitting the prospectus only allows the company to enter the "track" of the listing review. There are still multiple rounds of inquiries, reviews, and other procedures in the follow - up. The enterprise may need to supplement a large amount of information, adjust business or financial arrangements according to regulatory requirements, and there is still a long way to go.

It is also possible for Zhipu to grab the title of the "first humanoid robot stock."

Jiang Yi analyzed that Zhipu first took control of Shangwei New Materials. In the future, it can adopt the method of "first taking control, then gradually injecting assets." After the 36 - month window period, it can carry out large - scale asset restructuring to achieve a backdoor listing. Zhipu has certain advantages in capital operations by controlling a listed company and can more quickly realize the premium expected in the secondary market and achieve the expected value in the controlled listed company.

Although the outcome is undetermined, the situation is becoming clearer: Unitree and Zhipu have become the two most likely competitors to go public in the humanoid robot track. Behind this final sprint before listing, the confrontation between the two companies has already begun quietly.

2

In 2022, the humanoid robot industry boomed. In October, Elon Musk's humanoid robot "Optimus" made a wobbly debut. In November, OpenAI released ChatGPT. The technological iteration of AI large - scale models has provided more possibilities for the humanoid robot industry.

Two post - 90s entrepreneurs in different positions almost simultaneously sensed this trend.

Wang Xingxing, who had been exploring the robot field for six years, found that many customers were placing orders even though he hadn't started developing humanoid robots. On the other hand, Zhi Huijun, who was focusing on AI computing at Huawei Ascend, also felt the change in the wind direction and said, "This trend is quite clear."

With the direction clear, the two almost simultaneously entered the humanoid robot arena.

In February 2023, Zhi Huijun, with the halo of Huawei's "Genius Youth," founded Zhipu Robotics. In the same month, Unitree Technology officially launched the project of its humanoid robot. On the R & D starting line, both sides seemed to be at the same starting point, but Wang Xingxing had six more years of robot experience than Zhi Huijun.

Even so, their first confrontation came six months later. The time difference between the release of their first humanoid robots was only three days.

On August 15th, 2023, Wang Xingxing took the lead and released the first general - purpose humanoid robot H1, which is 180 cm tall. It is claimed to be the first full - size general - purpose humanoid robot in China that can run.

Chen Li, the co - founder of Unitree, later admitted that it only took six months from project establishment to product release, and the product "still had some problems to be solved." However, Unitree was the first to show its product and said it would achieve mass production by the end of the year.

Three days later, on August 18th, Zhi Huijun arrived as promised and released Zhipu's first humanoid robot "Yuanzheng A1," which is 175 cm tall, through a half - hour live broadcast. Zhi Huijun did not announce a mass - production plan. In fact, Zhipu did not start mass production until the end of 2024.

The competition started from then on. After the debut, the product iteration of the two companies accelerated, the financing rhythm quickened, and the paths they chose became clearer.

In terms of products and prices, the two sides are vying with each other.

After the release of the first humanoid robot, Unitree released the small - size G1 robot in May 2024, with a starting price as low as 99,000 yuan. A few months later, Zhipu released five robots at once, including the small - size Lingxi X1.

In March 2025, Zhipu released the small - size Lingxi X2 before Unitree, with the starting price of the youth version at 98,000 yuan, slightly lower than Unitree's. Four months later, Unitree released the even smaller - size R1, with the price dropping to 39,900 yuan.

In the price war, Zhi Huijun is destined to be no match for Wang Xingxing. Wang Xingxing developed humanoid robots "following the trend." With six years of experience in quadruped robots, Unitree self - develops components and strictly controls the supply - chain costs.

Wang Xingxing is known as the "price butcher." He doesn't shy away from this label. "I can make the price even lower, but I don't want to," he said in an interview in August 2024. He needs to calculate the costs and "achieve a break - even point."

All of this is hard to go unnoticed by the competitors.

Yao Maoqing, a partner at Zhipu Robotics, believes that "competing on price" doesn't make much sense at this stage. He said that a 99,000 - yuan humanoid robot only has basic movement capabilities. If it can't create value for users and is priced at 99,000 yuan, it will only make the entire industry unhealthy.

The confrontation is not only about product pricing but also about path selection.

Wang Xingxing has a clear positioning for Unitree. He doesn't mind Unitree being defined as a "hardware" company and said that the company's investment in AI is "relatively restrained" because "it is really costly."

Therefore, Wang Xingxing said that he doesn't care that those high - value financings are taken by elite startup companies "from the software and large - scale model field without any real products."

These words are hard not to make people think of Zhipu, which focuses on AI large - scale models and has raised funds rapidly. From August 2024, after the release of its first humanoid robot, to September of the following year, Zhipu completed five rounds of financing, one of which exceeded 600 million yuan.

"For a robot company, if you don't develop large - scale models, it's a robot company without a future." A few months later, Yao Maoqing said bluntly. At this time, Zhipu had just released the general - purpose embodied base model "Zhipu Qiyuan." Yao Maoqing believes that without intelligence, the things a robot can do are very limited, so "we are making a huge investment."

One side is restrained, and the other side is making heavy investments. Their stances are clear.

The difference in routes is also evident in the patent layout. According to Qichacha information, based on the published patent information, 36% of Unitree's patents are for design, while for Zhipu, it is only 8%. The latter