(Aug 10): The highly anticipated initial public offering of Yushu Technology Co, known as Unitree Robotics, drew huge demand from retail investors as China’s leading humanoid robot maker opened books in Shanghai.

The retail portion of the IPO was 5,526 times subscribed, with individual investors submitting 9.8 million orders, according to an exchange filing released on Monday.

The Hangzhou-based company sold 40.4 million shares at 150.8 yuan apiece, raising about 6.1 billion yuan (RM3.7 billion) to become mainland China’s first publicly traded humanoid robot maker. The company is expected to debut on Shanghai’s STAR Market this month. The offering gives Unitree a market value of approximately 61 billion yuan.

The high level of interest underscores the investor appetite for physical AI companies, one of Beijing’s strategic priorities. The strong subscription was also likely aided by backing from strategic investors, including AI startup DeepSeek, reinforcing confidence in Unitree and the growing convergence of artificial intelligence and robotics.

About 20% of the shares for sale have been allocated to strategic investors including DeepSeek, a Tencent Holdings Ltd-affiliated investment vehicle, and investment arms of major state-owned enterprises such as China National Petroleum Corp, China Southern Power Grid Co and China Telecom Corp.

DeepSeek received a 2.31% stake allocation with a lockup period of three years. The collaboration allows Unitree to draw on DeepSeek’s AI strength to develop embodied-intelligence models for its humanoid robots, which gained broad public attention after appearing in a Chinese Spring Festival gala.

A successful listing could also build momentum for other Chinese robotics companies pursuing IPOs, including Leju Robotics and Deep Robotics. Another humanoid robot developer, Shanghai AgiBot Innovation Technology, has started the process for a Hong Kong listing, Securities Daily reported in July.

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