Unitree, the Chinese humanoid robot maker, raised 6.1 billion yuan ($904 million) in its IPO on Shanghai’s STAR market, reaching a valuation of approximately $9 billion, despite being significantly smaller than Shein. The retail portion of Unitree’s offering was over 8,000 times oversubscribed, as investors bet on robotics over e-commerce. Shein, for its part, is targeting a raise of up to $3 billion and a valuation between $25 billion and $30 billion, sharply lower than the $64 billion it fetched in 2024. Chinese firms accounted for 97% of humanoid robot shipments in the first half of the year, and investor attention is shifting toward AI infrastructure and hardware. The U.S. and Europe have eliminated de minimis duty exemptions, squeezing Shein’s profits, while companies like ChangXin Memory Technologies are raising billions in Chinese markets driven by AI enthusiasm.
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