Has the financing craze for embodied intelligence cooled down? Back in August, investors were still scrambling to make investments in related tracks, but in October even FAs are saying that the listing plans have been put on hold.
The IPO process for the embodied intelligence track is tightening, financing is cooling down, and valuations are pending verification by performance.
In mid-October, a set of figures began to circulate in the robotics industry circle.
According to data from IT Juzi, as of October 15, 19 financing deals have taken place in the embodied intelligence industry, with a total amount of 49.34 billion yuan. In contrast, from July to September, the number of monthly financing deals all exceeded 70, and August even reached 91 deals with a total amount of 313.23 billion yuan. Only half of October has been counted, and the National Day holiday falls in the middle. The annualized scale converted from the existing data is less than one-third of that in August.
What keeps practitioners up at night more than the figures is another thing. "The news from two FAs both says that the listing process has been suspended, and our founder stayed up all night yesterday," an employee in the embodied intelligence industry revealed to Tencent Tech. Another investor put it more directly: "After Unitree Robotics went public, we haven't submitted any embodied intelligence projects for meeting review."
This cold water didn't start pouring in October. The turning point can almost be pinpointed to early September.
01
Money in August
Is Overheated
The embodied intelligence industry in the first half of this year was a completely different scene. IT Juzi's data shows that the total financing amount of the track reached 935 billion yuan in 322 deals, a year-on-year increase of 137%; the number of unicorns valued at over 10 billion yuan surged from 3 in 2025 to at least 22.
The distribution of capital is extremely unbalanced. According to the statistics of Titanium Media, there were 288 financing deals in the first half of the year, with the disclosed total amount exceeding 460 billion yuan: the top 5 enterprises absorbed about 171 billion yuan, accounting for 37%; the top 20 took about 330 billion yuan, exceeding 70%; the remaining more than 200 companies shared about 124 billion yuan, with an average of only tens of millions of yuan per company. Galaxy General obtained a single financing of 2.5 billion yuan in March, led by the National Major Fund Phase III, with its valuation exceeding 20 billion yuan. The revenue of this single company exceeded the sum of more than 200 other companies.
It is worth noting that the total amount counted by the two data institutions for the first half of the year differed by nearly double: the figure under IT Juzi's caliber is 935 billion yuan, and the disclosed amount counted by Titanium Media exceeds 460 billion yuan.
The most typical moment was August 19. Unitree Technology landed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board under the title of "the first humanoid robot stock", with an issuance price of 150.80 yuan, an opening price of 1100 yuan, a sharp surge of 629.44%, and its market value once hit 444.9 billion yuan. Its founder Wang Xingxing was labeled as "the new richest post-90s" overnight, and the maximum floating profit on paper for one lot of new shares was nearly 475,000 yuan.
The valuations at that time were measured by standards from a completely different world. Unitree's issuance P/E ratio reached 219.23 times, while the static P/E ratio of its general equipment manufacturing industry was only 38.56 times, and the comparable company UBTECH on Hong Kong Stock Exchange had a P/E ratio of about 19.37 times; on the first day of listing, its dynamic P/E ratio once exceeded 800 times. The logic of investors was "don't tangle with valuation, take the money as soon as possible". Capital poured in like a tide, and no one expected that this ride would brake halfway.
02
FAs in October
Only Talk About Suspension
The brake was pressed in September.
In early September, The Information cited people familiar with the matter and reported that regulators had suspended the listing of some humanoid robot enterprises through informal "window guidance". One insider said that the IPO of humanoid robots was "effectively frozen"; another said there was no official ban, but only a slowdown for specific industries. Reuters followed up the report and pointed out the regulatory concerns: whether the high valuations and the revenue related to government-supported projects can truly reflect the commercial market demand. The China Securities Regulatory Commission did not respond to requests for comment.
There has been an open quarrel inside the industry about what the core of the regulation targets. From September 9 to 10, Shao Tianlan, the founder of Megvii Robotics who was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange not long ago, continuously posted accusations on WeChat Moments, accusing peers of relying on related party transactions to inflate revenue: selling robots at high prices to data collection centers built by local state-owned assets, then spending money to buy back the data, brushing up turnover through related transactions, and named a company valued at over 20 billion yuan that is sprinting for Hong Kong stock listing. The named company issued a solemn statement denouncing the rumor and reported the case to the police.
The tightened regulation soon fell on specific projects. On September 21, the Shanghai Stock Exchange terminated the Sci-Tech Innovation Board listing review of Huandong Technology. This company, which manufactures high-precision reducers for robot joints, is a subsidiary spun off from Shuanghuan Transmission. It was accepted on November 25, 2024, and originally planned to raise 14.08 billion yuan, but actively withdrew its application after two rounds of inquiries involving a total of 23 issues. Shuanghuan Transmission gave the reason that "the market environment has changed significantly compared with the initial stage of the plan". This is the first terminated robot IPO on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board this year, and the previous one was JAKA Robotics which withdrew its application last December.
The Hong Kong stock market is also tightening access. On July 24, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange extended the confidential submission mechanism to all listing applicants, so that the submission information will no longer be announced in a timely manner, and will only be disclosed after the hearing. By mid-August, there were more than 50 embodied intelligence enterprises that had submitted listing applications but not yet gone public. Zhiyuan Innovation officially announced the launch of its Hong Kong listing plan on July 24, and the industry generally believes that it most likely adopted the confidential submission process; the prospectus of Standard Robotics, which submitted the application earlier, became invalid because its financial statements expired.
Zhiyuan's listing path has also been rewritten by the new rules. On October 13, it was reported that the company launched a new round of financing of 1 to 1.5 billion yuan, with a valuation of about 50 billion yuan, which is nearly completed. According to the rules of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, after completing new financing before listing, the company needs to wait for 120 full trading days before it can be listed. Zhiyuan's IPO this year is basically impossible to achieve, and the earliest possible listing time will be the end of February 2027.
The primary market has the most honest reaction. After the watershed, the number of investors who want to sell old shares has increased significantly. According to 36Kr's report, old shares with a valuation of 12 billion yuan are being sold in the market, and it is difficult to find investors who will increase capital at a valuation of 22 billion yuan. A company in Shenzhen with a valuation of 4 billion yuan originally planned to raise a new round of financing at a valuation of 8 billion yuan with new shares matching old shares, but the actual valuation was suppressed to about 6 billion yuan. Some investors revealed that "there has not been a single project that passed the review meeting in the institution in the past month".
The secondary market also voted with their feet simultaneously. Unitree's share price continued to fall from its peak market value of 444.9 billion yuan, and fell to 405.10 yuan on October 15, with a market value of 163.849 billion yuan, evaporating more than 280 billion yuan from the high point. Until October 19, it suddenly rose by 16.15% with enlarged trading volume, closing at 495.92 yuan, and its market value returned to 200.6 billion yuan.
This round of rebound did not happen for no reason. On that day, 9 departments including the Ministry of Commerce issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Promotion of Science and Technology to Boost Commerce, which opened a demand-side space for robots from the perspective of promoting consumption and commercial circulation for the first time; coupled with the approval of the first six national standards for humanoid robots the day before, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's confirmation that he will develop humanoid robots, the internal and external market sentiment resonated. But even counting the rebound, Unitree's market value has still evaporated by more than 240 billion yuan from the high point.
03
The Data Cools Down Slower Than Market Sentiment
The current financing data actually cannot reflect the real cooling situation.
An industry insider pointed out the hidden fact: most of the financing news disclosed at present are transactions that were finalized several months ago, "The real changes of the market usually take a period of time to be reflected in the data".
Another set of statistics has already given signals in advance. According to 36Kr's statistics, the disclosed financing amount of the embodied intelligence robot track dropped from 17.8 billion yuan in June to 12 billion yuan in July, a month-on-month decrease of 32.6%. Before the final carnival in August, capital had already begun to withdraw from the track.
The clearing at the entity level is also taking place. In September, the bankruptcy case of Dark Blue Robotics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. came into the public view: The fifth batch of employee creditor's rights disclosure released by the court system shows that more than 100 employees are involved in total, the total employee creditor's rights exceeded 23 million yuan, and its parent company Dark Blue Co., Ltd. was also applied for bankruptcy liquidation. The previously disclosed "25,000 disinfection robot orders from Fortune 500 companies" of this company have long been stuck at the display level and never achieved large-scale actual delivery.
What is more hidden is the outflow of talents. According to 36Kr's sorting, when the financing was the most prosperous in the first half of 2026, a number of core personnel were leaving this track, ranging from founders, chief scientists, to top product managers, CTOs and COOs. The question Shi Xiaoxin, the top product manager of Xpeng Robotics, asked before resigning has been widely quoted: "After we manufacture 10,000 robots, where do we put them?"
The most awkward part is still the valuation. The secondary market prices Unitree at 200.6 billion yuan, and its static P/E ratio is still as high as hundreds of times; in the primary market, Zhiyuan is still raising funds at a valuation of 50 billion yuan, which is equivalent to about 48 times of its revenue of 10.5 billion yuan in 2025. At the same time, data from Counterpoint shows that the shipment volume of Unitree's humanoid robots exceeded 7,000 units in the first half of 2026, accounting for 31% of the market share, and has been surpassed by Zhiyuan, which shipped 9,700 units and accounted for more than 43% of the market share.
The shipment structure also cannot be avoided. Unitree's 2026 interim report shows that scientific research and education accounts for 73.6% of its revenue, commercial consumption accounts for 17.39%, and scenarios such as industrial manufacturing, inspection and logistics add up to only about 9%. IDC's statistics are more straightforward: the global shipment of humanoid robots in 2025 was about 18,000 units, 85% of which flowed to performance, scientific research and exhibition scenarios.
The cooling is real, but it is not that the capital has disappeared, but that the capital has become more selective. The IPO window is narrowing, the anchor of valuation is loosening, and for those companies that have signed high valuations and carry repurchase clauses, once the next round of financing is interrupted, the countdown of their available cash on the account will start.
It does not matter how many days Unitree's rebound can last. What matters is its first financial report on October 29: Morgan Stanley predicts that its revenue in the third quarter will increase by about 85%, and the shipment of humanoid robots will be about 3,700 units, while the revenue growth rate in its interim report has dropped from 332% for the whole year of 2025 to 48.54%, and the non-net profit after deduction decreased by 19.34% year-on-year. This financial report needs to verify not only the growth, but also the quality of growth.
And the 50 billion yuan valuation of Zhiyuan and the 200 billion yuan valuation of Unitree all need to be verified by revenue and delivery.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Caineng Circle", and is published by 36Kr with authorization.