Unitree Technology has opened subscription for its STAR Market IPO at 150.80 yuan a share, giving the robotics company a post-issue valuation of about 61 billion yuan and lifting founder Wang Xingxing’s direct and indirect stake value to roughly 20 billion yuan. The listing marks the latest step in a nine-year climb that began when Wang, then an obscure young entrepreneur, showed an early robot dog at a 2017 Wuzhen gathering and struggled for attention and funding. Unitree’s trajectory, from a cash-strapped startup with less than half its money left to one of China’s best-known embodied AI (AI linked to physical robots) companies, reflects a broader handover from the country’s mobile internet era to a new robotics cycle. Wang, born in March 1990 in Yuyao, Zhejiang, described himself as a hard-working but not naturally top-performing student whose weak English shaped key turning points in his education. After studying mechatronics at Zhejiang Sci-Tech University and later being transferred to Shanghai University for graduate studies because he missed Zhejiang University’s English threshold despite passing the overall exam line, he built low-cost robots by hand, including a 14-degree-of-freedom biped humanoid for about 200 yuan and a force-feedback glove system for 300 yuan. During graduate school he developed XDog, a high-dynamic robotic leg and later a quadruped platform, pursuing a direct-drive electric approach with self-designed outer-rotor brushless motors rather than the bulky, noisy and expensive hydraulic route associated at the time with Boston Dynamics. That engineering path became the foundation of Unitree. Wang disclosed the electric-drive solution in 2015, then left an internship at DJI after investor interest intensified around his XDog YouTube video. Unitree’s first outside money came in November 2016, when Yin Fangming invested 2 million yuan for a 15% stake, implying a post-money valuation of 13.33 million yuan. The company’s first commercial quadruped, Laikago, launched in September 2017. Early financing remained fragile: variable capital-backed support arrived after a lead investor fell through, and investors moved quickly because Wang was running out of cash and was close to missing payroll. Deliveries improved the picture. Laikago began shipping in the second half of 2018 and sold several hundred units globally. Public corporate records and investor disclosures outlined successive funding rounds: Variables Capital entered through Jisi Investment in 2018; Tencent co-founder Zeng Liqing’s Decent Capital bought 4% for 4 million yuan in July 2019; Sequoia-related Ningbo Hongshan joined later in 2019 and increased its investment in 2020; Vertex and Chuxin Capital also entered in 2020; Shunwei Capital led the Series A in July 2021 and continued backing the company; and in 2022 Unitree completed its Series B, with public reports showing Matrix Partners China and Dunhong Asset leading, while Hexagon, Shunwei, Rongyi and Shenzhen Capital Group followed. The financing pace accelerated sharply in 2024 and beyond. A January 31 capital increase of about 600.34 million yuan brought in Meituan-affiliated Hanhai Information alongside Jinshi Growth, Source Code Capital, Xinjiang Shenzhen Capital Group and CICC-backed investors. Another capital increase of about 284.71 million yuan on August 31 added the Beijing Robot Industry Development Fund and Zhongguancun Science City, marking the first time state-backed capital became a direct shareholder and reinforcing Unitree’s profile as an embodied AI industrial asset. On June 6 in the following phase, a further roughly 694.50 million yuan funding round added CMCC Innovation, Tencent Technology, ByteDance-affiliated Wuxi Jinqiu, Alibaba-affiliated Hangzhou Haoyue and Shanghai Yunyang, making Tencent a direct shareholder. Brand recognition surged after Unitree’s robots appeared on China Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala. The company said it had maintained close contact with the broadcaster since an earlier 2021 appearance, and preparations for the later show involved months of intensive rehearsals, debugging and choreography. In the 2025 gala program “Yang BOT,” 16 H1 robots in red floral jackets danced yangge with red handkerchiefs, generating 3.2 billion related discussions. Unitree’s prospectus said domestic revenue rose to 56.35% in 2025 partly because the show boosted nationwide visibility. Main business revenue that year was about 1.676 billion yuan, including about 868 million yuan from humanoid robots, while pure humanoid robot shipments exceeded 5,500 units. Wang’s public profile rose with the company. At a February 2025 symposium for private enterprises, he sat in the front row, the only entrepreneur born in the 1990s there and one of six business representatives to speak. In September he was named to Time magazine’s 2025 list of the 100 most influential people in AI globally. Unitree completed IPO tutoring on November 15, setting the stage for listing. On February 16, 2026, the company appeared on the Spring Festival Gala for a third time, with 25 robots performing alongside students from Henan Tagou Martial Arts School. G1 handled most of the difficult group choreography, while the larger H2 appeared as a “sword master.” Robots including the gala model then sold out on JD.com within minutes that night. The IPO process moved quickly. Unitree’s STAR Market application was accepted on March 20, passed review on June 1 after just 73 days, was priced on August 6 at 150.80 yuan, and opened subscription on August 10. DeepSeek appeared on the strategic placement list, receiving about 933,390 shares worth roughly 140.76 million yuan with a 36-month lock-up. The article also notes that on offshore over-the-counter platforms, Unitree’s pre-IPO quote reached 590 yuan a share, implying a market value of about 238.7 billion yuan, and says investors allocated shares in the offering could see gains of as much as 220,000 yuan under that valuation. On that basis, the company’s market value would have risen about 17,900 times in nine years from its roughly 13.33 million yuan valuation at the time of its first angel investment. Set against the famed 2017 Wuzhen “Dongxing dinner,” often seen as a peak moment for China’s platform internet era, Unitree’s ascent is framed as the opening of a new cycle. The article contrasts the roughly 700 billion yuan combined wealth often attributed to the entrepreneurs and related internet companies around that table with Wang’s own post-issue stake, which at a 238.7 billion yuan valuation would be worth about 71.7 billion yuan based on a 30.02% holding. Its conclusion is that the same Wuzhen moment that captured the old internet order at its height also contained the early, largely unnoticed beginnings of the embodied AI era.