With the intense competition in the humanoid robot market, it's high time Unitree went public.

In August 2016, Wang Xingxing, who had just left DJI, registered and established a company called Unitree Technology in an unassuming office in Hangzhou.

At that time, the most valuable asset in his hands was a prototype of a quadruped robot called XDog, which he designed during his postgraduate studies. This robot innovatively adopted an external rotor brushless motor direct drive solution instead of the traditional hydraulic system. This solution made XDog an outlier among the mainstream robots at that time. However, Wang Xingxing firmly believed that this was the technological path to truly bring robots into the lives of the general public.

The subsequent technological evolution path proved that Wang Xingxing's judgment was correct. The motor drive greatly simplified the mechanical structure, with lower cost, higher reliability, and easier commercialization, laying the foundation for Unitree Technology to compete with similar companies in the future.

Ten years later, this technology company from Hangzhou has now stood at the center of the global high - performance general - purpose robot industry stage.

In the whole year of 2025, Unitree's humanoid robot shipments exceeded 5,500 units, ranking first in the world (data from the prospectus). In the same year, Unitree's Unitree R1 humanoid biped robot was selected into the list of the best inventions of 2025 by Time magazine in the United States.

What is even more remarkable is that overseas revenue has always accounted for half of the company's total revenue. From 2022 to 2024, the proportion of overseas revenue continuously exceeded 55%, making it a Chinese example of "robots going global".

The "Robot Dream" Born from a College Dormitory

The entrepreneurial story of Unitree Technology began with a teenager's persistent pursuit.

Wang Xingxing was born in 1990 into an ordinary family in Ningbo, Zhejiang. He was different from others since childhood. In junior high school, while his classmates were memorizing English words, he was tinkering with a micro - turbojet engine in the laboratory.

Later, he was admitted to Zhejiang Sci - Tech University. In his freshman year, he built a simple biped robot with only 200 yuan by himself, although it fell down after only a few steps. Later, during his postgraduate studies at Shanghai University, he developed a low - cost, high - performance, fully electric - driven quadruped robot called XDog. The direct - drive motor design not only controlled the cost of XDog within 20,000 yuan but also helped it achieve the abilities of running, jumping, and balancing. It was launched one year earlier than similar solutions of foreign robot company Boston Dynamics.

In 2015, when facing the choice between graduation and starting a business, Wang Xingxing voluntarily applied for a deferred graduation to complete the subsequent R & D of XDog. This choice finally paid off handsomely. At the International Intelligent "Star Creator" Competition held in the same year, XDog won the second prize and an 80,000 - yuan bonus.

One year later, although he got a job offer from DJI, the popular XDog videos on the Internet attracted a large number of investors and customers. He resolutely resigned and founded Unitree Technology, entering the robot industry with a 2 - million - yuan angel investment and a prototype of XDog.

Caption: Benben

In the following years, Unitree Technology's products entered a period of rapid iteration. In 2017, the first consumer - grade quadruped robot, Laikago, was launched; in 2021, the quadruped robot "Benben" appeared on the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, completing the world's first group dance performance by quadruped robots; in 2023, the first humanoid robot, H1, was introduced; in 2024, the humanoid robot G1, with a starting price of 99,000 yuan, was officially mass - produced, becoming Unitree Technology's first general - purpose humanoid robot to be launched on the market on a large scale; in 2025, the lightweight humanoid robot R1 and the full - size humanoid robot H2 were successively released.

While developing new products, Unitree Technology also set its sights on the global market.

Since 2018, Unitree Technology has been continuously releasing open - source projects on GitHub, the world's largest code hosting platform. The representative open - source achievements include motion control reinforcement learning training, simulation environment construction, remote operation and real - machine data collection, robot SDK and Python interface, ROS/ROS2 middleware integration, SLAM and multi - modal perception, etc.

This decision seemed quite bold at that time. By making its most core technologies public, wasn't it afraid of being copied by competitors?

However, Wang Xingxing had his own judgment. During the 2025 Snapdragon Summit in China, he publicly responded to the issue of project open - sourcing. "I think at the current time, all companies or scholars in the hardware industry can adopt an open attitude and open - source as much as possible to accelerate the entire industry to the next level. After entering the next stage, the market will be much larger."

Facts have proved that this is a brilliant move. The prospectus clearly states that "as of the end of February 2026, the company has accumulated and released 43 open - source projects, achieving far more open - source projects and attention than the industry average, and forming an active and large developer base."

This first - mover advantage similar to the "technology community model" was later transformed into real business opportunities. Many early customers were attracted to Unitree's technology through GitHub and then developed a purchasing intention. Some of them were university professors who needed a stable - performance quadruped robot as a scientific research platform; some were engineers from AI companies who wanted to verify their algorithm models with Unitree's hardware; and some were robot enthusiasts who were simply attracted by the capabilities of Unitree's products.

Data shows that as early as 2017 - 2018, Unitree began to deliver quadruped robot products to overseas universities and research institutions. The initial orders might only be a few prototypes, and the amount was not large, but the value of these "seed users" far exceeded the orders themselves.

Subsequently, with the enrichment of product types and the iteration of functions, Unitree's robots going global also reached a peak.

According to the "2025 Humanoid Robot Market Research Report" jointly released by CCID Media and China Electronics News, the global humanoid robot shipments in 2025 were about 17,000 units, and Unitree's shipments exceeded 5,500 units, accounting for 32.4% and ranking first. According to the report released by Omdia, the global humanoid robot shipments in 2025 reached 13,000 units, and Unitree Technology ranked second with a market share of 32%.

Although the statistical calibers of different institutions vary slightly, it can be seen that Unitree's market share in humanoid robot shipments is among the top in the world.

Caption: Prospectus

From 2022 to 2024 and from January to September 2025, the proportion of Unitree Technology's overseas sales revenue was 57.21%, 55.63%, 55.70%, and 39.20% respectively. Although the proportion gradually decreased, the absolute value of overseas revenue increased more than six - fold in less than four years.

Dancing Globally in the Spotlight

If the open - source strategy is the "hidden line" for Unitree Technology to go global, then its amazing appearances at various galas (exhibitions) are the "visible line" for its brand to rise.

For domestic consumers, what really made Unitree Technology break through the circle was the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 2025. Sixteen H1 humanoid robots wearing Northeast floral jackets danced the Yangko dance and twirled handkerchiefs in the program "YangBOT", becoming a viral sensation overnight. In 2026, G1 and H2 appeared on the Spring Festival Gala again, challenging difficult dynamic martial arts moves and handling "wielding guns and sticks" with ease.

In December last year, at Wang Leehom's concert in Chengdu, six Unitree humanoid robots wearing silver sequins danced as backup dancers for Wang Leehom. From the video, it can be seen that the robots were highly synchronized with human dancers and collectively completed difficult somersaults at the climax. The next day, Tesla CEO Elon Musk reposted the relevant video on his social platform and commented "Impressive".

In addition to "dancing" in China, Unitree Technology's humanoid robots also participated in the "2023 Super Bowl", known as the "American Spring Festival Gala".

Meanwhile, Unitree was also frequently seen at various technology exhibitions. At IFA 2025 (the Berlin International Consumer Electronics Show in 2025), Unitree's humanoid robots participated in the first - day performance. Only 13 minutes after the opening of this year's CES (the International Consumer Electronics Show in 2026), Unitree Technology's booth was surrounded by audiences. What attracted them was a "robot fighting competition", where two Unitree G1 humanoid robots were punching and kicking each other, becoming the most popular photo - taking spot at the exhibition.

These seemingly showy moves actually test the power performance of joint modules, the real - time response of motion control algorithms, and the impact resistance of the whole - machine structure - each of which is a key indicator for measuring the comprehensive performance of robots. According to the prospectus, the company has successively completed multiple world - first or first - time performances, such as backward somersaults in place, side somersaults in place, continuous fancy table - flipping parkour, catapult somersaults (height greater than 3 meters), and single - leg continuous somersaults.

The influence of this Chinese company has also been increasing with each performance and the secondary spread of relevant videos. In 2025, Unitree Technology won the 2025 Global Award issued by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and was selected into the list of the most admired Chinese companies by Fortune magazine in the same year.

In addition to the above - mentioned gala (exhibition) channels, Unitree Technology's products also have the attribute of social media influencers. Searching for "Unitree robot" on YouTube, you can see a large number of videos uploaded by overseas users. Some people use the Go2 quadruped robot to take their pets for a walk, some use the G1 humanoid robot to demonstrate complex dance moves, and some developers even train new motion models on the Unitree platform and share them open - source. This self - spreading content has transformed overseas users from simple "consumers" into "co - creators".

Caption: Kai Cenat and Unitree robot

For example, in February this year, Kai Cenat, an American influencer with tens of millions of followers, spent $68,000 (about 495,000 yuan) to buy a Unitree Technology G1 Edu humanoid robot and recorded an unboxing video, which attracted tens of thousands of netizens to watch. In the video, Kai Cenat had a conversation with the G1 Edu, and the robot could accurately understand the complex instructions put forward by Cenat and even interacted humorously, making everyone laugh.

After that, Kai Cenat also took the robot out for a "walk". The robot could shake hands with passers - by, sit in a car, and jump on one leg with ease, attracting the attention of passers - by.

It can also be seen from the customer list that overseas users are very enthusiastic about Unitree's robots. In 2024, the top five customers of Unitree Technology contributed about 48.5 million yuan in revenue, accounting for 12.36% of the total revenue. Among them, the top four customers were all from overseas.

Caption: Unitree Technology's Amazon webpage

What really led to a "big order explosion" for Unitree Technology overseas was the fitness pump, which has little to do with robots. In February 2023, Unitree Technology began to sell the "PUMP fitness pump" on the Amazon US site, and it has been a main product on Amazon ever since. It sold hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first month of its launch and was widely praised by overseas consumers around the world. To this day, Unitree's PUMP fitness pump still ranks first in the sports category on the Amazon Japan site.

However, as the popularity of humanoid robot products has increased, the proportion of the fitness pump product has decreased year by year and is now included in the "others" section of the prospectus.

It's Time to Go Public

Actually, before Unitree Technology released its prospectus, 2026 had already been called the "big year for listing" in the field of embodied intelligence by the media.

According to incomplete statistics, since January 2026, more than 20 embodied intelligence companies have clearly announced their listing plans. In addition to Unitree Technology, whose prospectus has been released, the listing guidance filings of Leju Robot and Yun Shenchu have been accepted.

Moreover, Zhibot, Galaxy Universal, Fourier Intelligence, Zhongqing Robot, Xinghaitu, and Songyan Power have completed their shareholding system reforms. Among them, the latest rounds of financing of Galaxy Universal and Xinghaitu are regarded as Pre - IPO rounds by the industry. Gu Shitao, the co - founder of Magic Atom, revealed that "it may be listed on the secondary market as early as 2026."

In the Hong Kong stock market, Estun was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on March 9. Companies such as Stander Robot, Youibot, Luoshi Robot, Seer Intelligence, Atom Robot, Weiyi Intelligence, Jiazhi Technology, Kanopu Robot, and Jiuwu Intelligence have submitted listing applications to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

In addition to listing for fundraising, many companies have also received hundreds of millions of yuan in financing. Since the beginning of this year, companies such as Zibianliang