Unitree opened at 1,100 yuan on its Aug. 19 STAR Market debut, up 629.44% from its 150.8 yuan IPO price, before closing at 845 yuan, a 460% gain that valued the Chinese humanoid and quadruped robot maker at around $50 billion. The company raised about $900 million by selling roughly 10% of its shares, and founder Wang Xingxing, 36, retained about a fifth of the company, lifting his paper wealth to more than $11 billion. The blockbuster debut marked a milestone for China’s robotics sector and is expected to set the tone for a wave of domestic listings as Beijing promotes automation to help address labor shortages tied to demographic pressures. Unitree, backed by Tencent, Alibaba and DeepSeek as well as state-linked capital, is unusual among humanoid robot peers in being profitable, though Reuters said few of its robots are in commercial use and many sales have been to universities and research institutions. The listing comes as Unitree faces rising geopolitical risk. In July, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission banned imports of future foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robot models, including Unitree’s, on national security grounds, cutting off the U.S. market for future products. In June, the Pentagon added Unitree to a list of Chinese military companies, a designation that does not amount to sanctions but limits future U.S. military use of its technology. Unitree has said its robots are for civilian use. Investors and analysts said the listing strengthens Unitree’s first-mover advantage in a capital-intensive industry where many rivals are still loss-making. Other Chinese robotics companies are also preparing IPOs, including Chery Automobile’s robotics division, Deep Robotics, Leju Robotics, Mech-Mind Robotics, X Square Robot and AgiBot.