Humanoid Robot Maker Unitree Pops an Outrageous 629% in Trading Debut

Gizmodo is not an international finance blog, so I can’t really tell you how unprecedented this is for the IPO of a Hangzhou, China-based company debuting on Shanghai’s STAR Market, but Unitree’s stock just skyrocketed by 629% on its first day of trading, according to Bloomberg.

It probably doesn’t hurt that, as we noted Monday, the company just unveiled a humanoid robot that’s faster than Usain Bolt, even if it moves like Shaggy trying to outrun a man in a gorilla suit:

The IPO price was 150.8 yuan, and it spiked to 1,100 yuan during trading.

That’s a big price pop by any standard. I’m familiar with one comparable story: the IPO of the Linux-friendly hardware company VA Linux, which shot up 698% on its first day in 1999. And that was at the height of the dot-com craze. VA Linux has changed names a few times, and is now—speaking of price pops—owned by GameStop. This all might be worth keeping in mind if you’re Unitree, but oh well. Enjoy your big day!

Unitree’s "Superman" humanoid robot was recorded running at a top speed of 12.66 meters per second.

This was the first reported failure of the Long March 7A since its botched debut in 2020.

“The arc of human civilization has bent towards putting more power in people’s hands to live and shape the world in the ways we believe are best.” Meta’s CEO wrote in a new essay, published alongside the release of a new open weight model called Muse Glimmer.

To get a feel for just how different the public moods are towards AI between the U.S. and China, just look at the marketing.