The competitors of Unitree are all going to go public.

This is a currently hot scene: Recently, Xinghaitu and Zhongqing Robot have successively completed their shareholding system reforms. On the same day, Magic Atom also announced that it is advancing its listing process.

Within one day, three IPOs in the field of embodied intelligence emerged.

Even earlier, Unitree Technology had completed its listing counseling, and star enterprises such as Leju Intelligence and DeepRobotics have all launched sprints towards IPOs. After the hot financing stage in the primary market, going public has become a key chip for everyone to seize the opportunity. As far as the eye can see, everyone is starting to seize the opportunity to go public.

On the other hand, the Spring Festival Gala stage half a month later will become a “super roadshow stage” for companies like Unitree. In 2026, the excitement has just begun.

2026, Embodied Intelligence Companies Queue up for IPOs

This is a visible IPO competition.

Let's first look at Xinghaitu, a Tsinghua - affiliated humanoid robot company. Three of its four co - founders are from Tsinghua University. Among them, CEO Gao Jiyang graduated from the Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University; Zhao Xing and Xu Huazhe are assistant professors and doctoral supervisors at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences of Tsinghua University.

Focusing on full - sized dual - arm humanoid robots, Xinghaitu was established in September 2023. Based on its self - developed vector control chassis X1 and ultra - light mechanical arm product A1 with quasi - direct drive motors, it has built the R1 series of full - sized wheeled - legged dual - arm humanoid robots. At the beginning of January, Xinghaitu also released a new generation of VLA model, GO Plus.

Now, Xinghaitu has completed its industrial and commercial changes. The full name of the company has been changed to “Xinghaitu (Beijing) Artificial Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd.”, and the enterprise type has been changed from a “limited liability company” to a “joint - stock limited company (foreign - invested, unlisted)”. The shareholding system reform is usually regarded by the outside world as a signal of an IPO.

Coincidentally, Zhongqing Robot also completed its shareholding system reform later. This is an embodied intelligence company from Shenzhen. Its founder, Zhao Tongyang, has been deeply involved in the robot field for many years and once led the XPeng Robot team. In October 2023, Zhao Tongyang decided to start a business, and the company is located in the Shenzhen Bay Innovation and Technology Center.

Different from Xinghaitu, Zhongqing Robot focuses on bipedal robots. At the beginning of the year, Zhongqing Robot completed the world's first front somersault of a humanoid robot, breaking the stereotype of robots as “stiff”. Previously, the video of its “T800 robot kicking over the founder” went viral on the Internet, making Zhongqing Robot well - known.

In contrast, Magic Atom, which also spread the news of an IPO, is much lower - key. The official website shows that Magic Atom was established in January 2024 and is from Wuxi. Its founder, Wu Changzheng, is the former head of Xiaomi Robotics. On January 23, China Media Group and Magic Atom jointly announced that the latter has become the strategic partner for intelligent robots of the “2026 Spring Festival Gala”. Its robots will appear on the Spring Festival Gala stage. Soon, Gu Shitao, the co - founder of Magic Atom, also clearly stated externally that the company's listing process is accelerating.

However, the most - watched IPO candidate is still Unitree. As a phenomenon - level company in 2025, its helmsman, Wang Xingxing, is well - known. Currently, Unitree is leading this wave of listing tides and is the enterprise with the fastest listing progress among its peers. In July last year, Unitree launched its counseling filing, and four months later, it completed the IPO listing counseling and plans to apply for an IPO in the domestic market.

More and more people are coming. In October last year, Leju Intelligence, the parent company of Leju Robot, completed the counseling filing registration with the Shenzhen Securities Regulatory Bureau and plans to issue stocks for the first time and go public. Subsequently, DeepRobotics, which is also one of the “Six Little Dragons in Hangzhou” along with Unitree, launched its listing counseling. In addition, companies such as Zhipu and Galaxy Universal have completed their shareholding system reforms. Although the latter denied the rumors of “going public in Hong Kong” and “submitting the form in January”, its frequent actions and financing progress still reveal a strong signal of going public.

As far as the eye can see, it seems that the wave of embodied intelligence company listings is coming.

Investors Are Waiting to Cash Out

Looking back on the past year, the financing scene in the field of embodied intelligence is still vivid in our minds.

Unitree's Series C financing in June last year was exposed. It was jointly led by funds under China Mobile, Tencent Investment, Jinqiu Fund, Alibaba, Ant Group, and Geely Capital, and most of the old shareholders such as Shenzhen Capital Group actively participated in the follow - on investment. This was a financing delivery that started at the end of 2024, and the pre - investment valuation had exceeded 10 billion yuan.

With the start of the listing process, Unitree's financing story in the primary market has come to an end.

Soon, Galaxy Universal refreshed the record. At the end of last year, Galaxy Universal announced the completion of a new round of financing of over $300 million, led by China Mobile Chain - Leader Fund, with heavyweight investment platforms and industrial giants such as CICC Capital, Chinese Academy of Sciences Fund, Suzhou Venture Capital Group, CCTV Media Convergence Fund, and Tianqi Group jointly injecting capital. It also received additional investment from international investment institutions in Singapore and the Middle East and old shareholders.

So far, Galaxy Universal has raised a total of about $800 million, breaking both the single - round financing and cumulative financing records in the domestic field of embodied intelligence. According to people familiar with the matter, Galaxy Universal's latest valuation has reached $3 billion (over 20 billion yuan). Those who missed it may still have a chance to get on board. Previously, Galaxy Universal responded that the shareholding system reform was for the needs of subsequent financing to introduce new primary - market investors.

Xinghaitu has also left a deep impression on the outside world. Speaking of it, the venture capital circle first got familiar with Xinghaitu because of the news of the withdrawal of GSR Ventures. But later, Xinghaitu strongly responded with financing. Since the start of the Series A financing in 2025, it has successively received leading investments from well - known institutions such as Ant Group, Cathay Capital, Capital Today, Meituan Longzhu, and Meituan Strategic Investment. The total financing scale of its Pre - A and Series A rounds is nearly 1.5 billion yuan.

In 2025, Zhongqing Robot also had a dense financing pace. According to official disclosures, Zhongqing Robot completed 5 rounds of financing last year, involving well - known institutions such as Stone Venture, SenseTime Guoxiang Capital, Honghui Fund, Xunshang Venture Capital, Baohe Venture Capital, Xinghang Capital, JD.com, Puquan Capital, Intime Group, Huakong Fund, Guochen Fund under Fortune Capital, and Huangpu River Capital.

In comparison, Magic Atom is still a new friend in the venture capital circle and has only completed two rounds of financing so far, invested by Zhuichuang Venture Capital, Yipu Fund, Hechuang Zhiyuan, Xinlian Capital, Huaying Capital, Xiaochi Capital, Yuanhe Houwang, etc.

A set of data shows that there are currently more than 150 humanoid robot enterprises in China, and the number is still increasing. “(In 2025) Almost every week, there will be new teams coming for exchanges,” as a VC investor said, the field of embodied intelligence in China has set off a financing storm.

This is a unique scene at present. Different from the past when companies had to wait a long time to go public, in the era of technological explosion, with the advantages of Chinese talent and manufacturing, many enterprises can develop rapidly in two or three years. And this may be the fastest time for early - stage investors to see returns.

Competing Heavily for the Spring Festival Gala Is Like a Pre - IPO Roadshow

The Spring Festival Gala is becoming the most intense scene.

Previously, there were rumors that many humanoid robot enterprises were competing and were willing to spend tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan to get a chance to appear on the Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Horse. Competing for the center stage on the Spring Festival Gala unexpectedly became the annual grand show for Chinese robots.

Recalling the 2025 Spring Festival Gala, Unitree's robot performance “YANG BOT” stole the show and achieved a “phenomenal” breakthrough. It's no exaggeration to say that this performance completely detonated the capital market's enthusiasm for the embodied intelligence track. Robots became the top stars overnight.

As shown in a widely - circulated chat screenshot, an early - stage VC rejected Unitree's business plan because it was too early. But after the Spring Festival Gala performance, not only were Unitree's old shares snatched up in the primary market, but it also opened up channels for subsequent product releases and business cooperation. According to Unitree, the actual shipment volume of its humanoid robots exceeded 5,500 units in 2025.

Seeing this scene, everyone hopes to replicate the “Unitree Miracle”. Competing for the Spring Festival Gala opportunity at this time is more like a large - scale pre - IPO roadshow.

Now the answer is starting to emerge. Currently, four humanoid robot enterprises have announced that they will appear on the Spring Festival Gala:

Magic Atom has become the strategic partner for intelligent robots of the 2026 Spring Festival Gala; Galaxy Universal has become the designated embodied large - model robot for the Spring Festival Gala; Unitree is the robot partner for the Spring Festival Gala; and Songyan Power has become the humanoid robot partner for the Spring Festival Gala. Although the specific forms of appearance have not been revealed, the differences in titles may mean different levels of cooperation.

According to the relevant person in charge of Galaxy Universal Robot, this year's Spring Festival Gala will highlight the “capable of working” aspect of robots. The greater significance behind this is that being able to work means opportunities for commercialization. The reality is that humanoid robots are still in the early stage. In the past, humanoid robots frequently appeared at various exhibitions, but there seem to be few actual application scenarios in daily life.

Who can be the first to find replicable and stable commercialization scenarios has become the dividing line in this competition.

So we can see that embodied intelligence companies are competing for the center stage on the Spring Festival Gala on one hand and rushing to go public on the other. If appearing on the Spring Festival Gala is to find more commercialization opportunities, then an IPO is to prepare ammunition for the long - term exploration period in the next few years. After all, at present, the commercialization of embodied intelligence still requires long - term investment.

It can be said that an IPO is a war related to survival.

Recalling the reminder from an investor, “This is very similar to the new - energy intelligent vehicle industry from 2016 to 2020. After the survival of the fittest, only a few good companies finally settled down. The same law will be repeated in the field of embodied intelligence robots.”

We are about to witness who will get on shore first and who will be out first.

This article is from the WeChat official account “Investment World” (ID: pedaily2012), written by Wu Qiong and published by 36Kr with authorization.