Wang Xing has become the largest external shareholder of Wang Xingxing.
Wang Xing and Wang Xingxing, two of the most renowned entrepreneurs from the mobile internet era and the embodied intelligence era, have names that differ by only one character.
But their bond goes far beyond similar names.
Now, Wang Xingxing's Unitree Robotics is about to launch its IPO. In Unitree's prospectus, we found that Wang Xing's Meituan-affiliated capital has become the largest external shareholder of the former company.
01 First Encounter: The Robot Dog Malfunctions During On-site Demonstration
On August 6, 2026, the IPO offering price of Unitree Robotics on the STAR Market was set at 150.80 yuan per share, corresponding to a total issued market value of approximately 60.993 billion yuan.
The prospectus shows that the Meituan consortium — Hanhai Information Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Galaxy Z Holding Limited, and Chengdu Longzhu Equity Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership) hold a total of 9.6488% of Unitree Robotics' shares before issuance, making it the external institutional shareholder with the highest shareholding ratio.
The Meituan consortium has invested a total of about 420 million yuan. Calculated at the offering price, the corresponding market value is about 5.3 billion yuan, with a floating book profit of about 4.9 billion yuan and a return multiple of about 12.6 times.
The story of this investment can be traced back seven years.
In 2017, introduced by Zhang Peng from GeekPark, 27-year-old Wang Xingxing attended the event with Unitree Robotics, which had been established for just one year, and its prototype robot dog Laikago, trying to demonstrate the product to internet giants including Wang Xing and Lei Jun present at the scene.
However, the robot dog tripped when crossing the threshold, crashed on the spot, and the scene was once awkward.
That demonstration did not bring any investment from any of the giants present.
Seven years later, Unitree landed on the STAR Market with a market value of about 61 billion yuan.
The robot dog that tripped in front of the threshold back then has become the world's humanoid robot enterprise with the largest shipment volume.
Meituan, on the other hand, is the external shareholder that reaps the most from this capital feast.
02 Entry: Accurate Intervention at the Low Valuation Point
Meituan's investment in Unitree was not an impulsive move, but a decisive action after a long period of observation.
Wang Xinyu's "Lab Visits"
At the end of 2023, Wang Xinyu, partner of Meituan Longzhu, went to the United States to attend the NeurIPS academic conference. During the period, he visited robotics laboratories in many universities including Harvard, MIT, Stanford and UC Berkeley.
He made two key discoveries: first, these top laboratories are all equipped with Unitree's robot dogs; second, Unitree's first humanoid robot H1 had just been produced and started pre-sales at that time, and these laboratories were very eager to buy it.
Wang Xinyu later recalled on the LateTalk podcast: "If the world's best PhDs in robotics are all using his products for development and plan to buy his products, this must be an investment inflection point." He immediately thought of the scene where Jensen Huang gave GPUs to laboratories for AI training in the past — if the world's top doctoral students are all using Unitree's robots for cutting-edge research, breakthroughs in AI capabilities are only a matter of time.
It is worth mentioning that the bond between Wang Xinyu and Wang Xingxing is far earlier than this investment.
In July 2016, in the first week when Wang Xinyu officially started his investment career, he met Wang Xingxing, who had just graduated and started his business. At that time, he was still at GGV, and the two talked about motor parameters and robot control, "there was a sparkle in his eyes".
But it was not until 2024, eight years later, that Wang Xinyu actually made the investment. "I didn't understand it back then, there's no need to hide that." He admitted in the interview.
Series B2: Hanhai Information Took Shares for the First Time
In January 2024, Unitree Robotics completed its Series B2 financing.
Hanhai Information, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Meituan, increased its capital and took shares with about 248 million yuan, obtaining about 8.0% of the shares.
According to the prospectus and public reports, Unitree's post-money valuation at that time was about 3.1 billion yuan.
Meituan's strategic investment entered the market earlier than Longzhu.
According to Wang Xinyu's disclosure on the LateTalk podcast, Meituan's strategic investment had decided to invest in Unitree when it was about to develop humanoid robots in 2023 (the prospectus shows that the actual capital increase registration time was January 2024).
As a market-oriented independent investment institution, Longzhu needed to see clearer inflection point signals and did not make a move until 2024.
Series B3: Taking Over the Stake from Lei Jun
From June to August 2024, Unitree Robotics carried out the second equity transfer and capital increase.
In this round, the related party of Shunwei Capital, Astrend IV, transferred part of the registered capital to Galaxy Z and Chengdu Longzhu — the two Meituan-affiliated entities each transferred about 25,700 yuan of registered capital, with a consideration of 5 million US dollars each (equivalent to about 35.5 million yuan at the exchange rate at that time).
At the same time, Hanhai Information added about 22.7759 million yuan, and Galaxy Z and Chengdu Longzhu each increased capital by about 3.0485 million yuan.
This step is crucial:
It expanded the Meituan consortium from a single entity (Hanhai Information) to three concert parties, laying an architectural foundation for obtaining the largest external shareholder status later.
Series C: The Last Additional Investment Before Valuation Surged
In June 2025, the three entities of the Meituan consortium increased their capital again.
Hanhai Information contributed about 57.1593 million yuan, Chengdu Longzhu and Galaxy Z each contributed about 7.6508 million yuan, for a total of about 72.46 million yuan.
According to the disclosure in the prospectus, after this capital increase, Unitree's post-money valuation has reached about 13.365 billion yuan.
In the same month, internet giants such as Tencent, Alibaba and Ant Group entered the market intensively.
But when these giants entered at a high valuation, Meituan had already completed its core layout at a low valuation. According to reports from 36Kr, Meituan's strategic investment became the lead investor in the Series B2 stage, and continued to increase its holdings afterwards, finally establishing its position as the largest external shareholder with a shareholding ratio of 9.6488%.
03 Key Step: The Stake Taken Over from Lei Jun
The partial equity transfer of Shunwei Capital in 2024 is the key node for the Meituan consortium to become Unitree's largest external shareholder.
Shunwei's Early Bet
Shunwei Capital (under Lei Jun) led the investment in Unitree's Series A financing in January 2021, contributing 5.956 million US dollars; in February 2022, it added an investment equivalent to 23.43 million yuan.
At that time, Unitree was still in a "niche" track, Boston Dynamics had changed hands twice, Sony Aibo had long been shut down, and the entire robotics industry was not favored by capital.
Shunwei's entry was a key turning point for Unitree to move from a "niche geek project" to a "mainstream investment target".
Lei Jun later said to Wang Xingxing at the Xiaomi SU7 launch event: "Thank you for giving us an investment opportunity a few years ago."
Details of the Transfer
According to the prospectus, Astrend IV transferred about 25,700 yuan of registered capital to Galaxy Z and Chengdu Longzhu respectively, with a consideration of 5 million US dollars each, totaling about 71 million yuan.
Through this transfer (including the transfer to Shanghai Kechuang), Shunwei Capital recovered a total of about 86 million yuan in cash — which has exceeded its original investment principal of about 62.13 million yuan, while retaining its core position.
Before IPO, Astrend IV held about 4.42% of the shares, corresponding to an issued market value of about 2.429 billion yuan, with a book return of about 40 times.
Lei Jun "gave away" part of the shares, and Meituan "took over" to increase its holdings —
This is not a simple buy-low and sell-high behavior, but more like the relay of industrial capital.
Shunwei, as an early discoverer, completed its phased mission and partially exited, while Meituan, as a strategic synergy party, entered the market with scenario resources, and the risk-return structure of each party matches the positioning of its institution.
04 Three Entities as Concert Parties: The Equity Structure of the Meituan Consortium
The prospectus clearly defines "Meituan" as the collective name of Hanhai Information, Galaxy Z and Chengdu Longzhu, and the three parties have signed a concert party agreement.
Hanhai Information: A wholly-owned subsidiary of Meituan, 100% held through Solid Bit Hong Kong Limited.
It directly holds 7.6114% of the shares of Unitree Robotics and is the third largest shareholder. Hanhai Information is the main body of Meituan's strategic investment, focusing on strategic synergy.
Galaxy Z: An investment entity registered in the BVI, whose sole shareholder is Long-Z Fund I, LP, in which Meituan holds 37.80% of the partnership share; Wang Xing personally indirectly holds 29% of the equity of its general partner. It holds 1.0187% of the shares.
Chengdu Longzhu: Tianjin Sankuai Technology (under Meituan) holds 43.42% of the partnership share; Wang Xing personally indirectly holds 29.90% of the equity of its general partner. It holds 1.0187% of the shares.
The three parties hold a total of 9.6488% of the shares.
It is worth noting that, Wang Xing personally binds personal interests in both Galaxy Z and Chengdu Longzhu through two layers of indirect shareholding.
This architectural design not only ensures the strategic consistency at the Meituan group level, but also strengthens long-term commitment through the binding of Wang Xing's personal interests.
The Meituan consortium has invested a total of about 420 million yuan.
Calculated at the offering price of 150.80 yuan per share, the return multiple is about 12.6 times.
05 Strategic Logic: Meituan Wants More Than Just Financial Returns
If the 12.6 times book return is already eye-catching enough, the deep logic of Meituan's investment in Unitree goes far beyond financial investment.
End-to-door Scenario in the Last Mile of Instant Delivery
Meituan's appeal is the most straightforward — the "last 100 meters" of instant delivery.
Meituan's instant delivery network covering more than 2,800 cities and counties across China links tens of millions of offline cooperative merchants, forming China's largest physical interaction environment. But the biggest pain point of this network is the end-to-door delivery:
Food delivery riders can ride to the downstairs, but actions such as climbing stairs, entering corridors, crossing thresholds, and knocking on doors to deliver still rely on manpower up to now.
Unitree's quadruped robots and humanoid robots just make up for this part.
Quadruped robots are good at navigating complex terrain (climbing stairs, crossing obstacles), while humanoid robots have the potential to perform fine actions such as operating door handles and pressing elevators. According to the prospectus and public reports, the two sides have carried out joint pre-research targeting the end-to-door scenario of instant delivery.
From "Moving Bits" to "Moving Atoms"
Wang Xinyu, partner of Meituan Longzhu, put forward a clear framework when elaborating the investment logic: "From the assistant who moves bits in the digital world, to the assistant who moves atoms in the physical world."
This points to the shift of capital investment direction after Meituan established the "Retail + Technology" strategy in 2020.
After listing in 2018, Meituan's investment focus gradually shifted from large consumption to hard technology. Since 2020, more than half of its investment projects are related to hard technology. When the internet investment boom plummeted in 2022, Meituan increased its investment against the trend.
Closed Loop of Scenario-Data-Model
In October 2025, Meituan held the annual academic conference of the Robotics Research Institute. Wang Xingxing attended as a partner, and made a collective appearance with representatives of Meituan's invested enterprises such as Wang Qian, CEO of Self-Autonomous Robotics, and Xu Huazhe, co-founder of StarNavi.
Mao Yinian, Vice President of Meituan and Chairman of the Robotics Research Institute, systematically expounded Meituan's technological progress in UAVs, unmanned vehicles, anthropomorphic dexterous hands and other directions, and clearly proposed that "2030 will be the era of embodied intelligence".
The deeper synergy logic lies in data.
Wang Xingxing pointed out at the 2026 Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum in March that the biggest bottleneck facing the robotics industry is data scarcity.
He revealed that Unitree plans to deploy thousands or even 10,000 humanoid robots by the end of the year, collecting 10 hours of physical scene data every day, "the problem of humanoid robot data can be completely solved within the next one or two years, or even two or three years".
Meituan just has this scenario.
Millions of riders complete tens of millions of deliveries in the real physical environment every day, generating massive amounts of motion trajectory, environment perception, and human-computer interaction data.
If these data can be used to train the motion control model of robots, a closed loop of "scenario provision - data feedback - model iteration" will be formed.
Mao Yinian, Vice President of Meituan, revealed at the annual meeting of the Robotics Research Institute that as of the end of September 2025, Meituan's UAV delivery commercial orders have exceeded 670,000, exceeding the order volume of Wing Aviation under Google; unmanned vehicle delivery has achieved fully unmanned operation in Shenzhen and exceeded 5 million orders. These infrastructures are all "testing grounds" for future robot implementation.
06 Larger Chessboard: Meituan's Hard Technology Investment Territory
According to data from IT Juzi, Unitree is just one move in Meituan's hard technology investment territory.
Embodied Intelligence: 16 Enterprises, 10 Unicorns
According to statistics, Meituan has participated in the financing of at least 16 start-ups in the embodied intelligence track, 10 of which have a valuation of more than 1 billion US dollars.
In addition to Unitree, Meituan also invested in Galaxy General Intelligence at the angel round (current valuation of about 21 billion yuan), invested in StarNavi at the Series A stage (valuation exceeds 20 billion yuan, share reform completed), and invested in Self-Autonomous Robotics for three consecutive rounds (exclusive investment of hundreds of millions of yuan in Series A, investment of about 1 billion yuan in Series A+, and participated in investment again in February 2026).
Meituan also invested in Stone Aero at the angel round (angel+ round financing exceeds 122 million US dollars), and participated in the Series C+ round of ConnoSense, a medical robot enterprise.