China's Unitree unveils 'Superman' robot as fervour builds ahead of Shanghai debut

The Shanghai debut coincides with the opening of the World Robot Conference in Beijing, adding to investor attention on a company whose humanoid robots have drawn global notice for running, dancing and performing martial arts.

The IPO was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors, a record for Shanghai's tech-focused STAR Market.

In a social-media post last week, Unitree said it had cumulatively produced and delivered about 18,000 bipedal humanoid robots across multiple models as of July.

Unitree said the robot remained a work in progress and could be improved further in coming months.

Founder Wang Xingxing gained national prominence after securing a front-row seat at a summit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping for leading technology entrepreneurs last year.

The startup is also backed by some of China's most influential technology companies including Tencent 0700.HK, Alibaba 9988.HK, and DeepSeek.

Ahead of Unitree's Shanghai listing, derivative trading in offshore markets has pointed to a strong debut.

Its shares may also benefit from a broader recovery in Chinese technology stocks following last month's selloff.

The STAR50 Index .STAR50 has rebounded about 15% from a three-month low hit in early August.

($1 = 6.7382 Chinese yuan renminbi)

China's Unitree 688836.SS unveiled a new high-speed robot it dubbed "Superman" on Monday, days before becoming the first general-purpose robotics company to list on mainland China's stock market.