China robotics firms line up IPOs to pitch next phase of AI

BEIJING – China is pitching itself as the global fulcrum for the next phase of artificial intelligence, and a legion of robotics companies is lining up for initial public offerings (IPOs) to test investor appetite.

Unitree Robotics, one of the most recognisable names in the industry after its robots practising martial arts made headlines, received approval on June 1 for a listing in Shanghai. Its IPO will serve as an early test for what could be a broader wave of offerings.

Hong Kong alone has at least 46 robotics-related companies in the pipeline – more than 10 per cent of applicants – according to a report. Companies that have filed IPO applications include Leju Robotics and Deep Robotics. 

“Chinese humanoids are one step closer to IPOs, igniting market interest in humanoids in the second half of 2026,” Sheng Zhong, head of China industrials research at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a note.

“Funds from most of the Chinese humanoids’ IPOs will go towards R&D, especially robot models.” 

The deep pipeline of robotics IPOs mirrors the fast rise of China’s AI ecosystem, where an array of listings whipped up an investor frenzy in the past six months. It also aligns with Beijing’s push to shift high-tech industries from innovation to large-scale deployment.

China is rushing to set the pace of funding, industrialisation and ultimately leadership in what Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang calls “physical AI”. 

“This is the decade of the robot – and it belongs to China,” Barclays analysts, including Zornitsa Todorova, wrote in a note in May. “This leadership reflects a decade-long, state-guided push.”

The firm said China’s robotics roll-out is already unmatched, accounting for 50 per cent of global industrial robots and 85 per cent of humanoids in 2025. Backed by coordinated industrial policy and tight supply-chain control, humanoids could reach about 3.8 per cent of the nation’s labour capacity by 2035, it estimates. 

Some investors remain more cautious, though, when looking at the companies’ fundamentals. Many robotics firms are expected to burn cash for years, and concerns are mounting that valuations could run ahead of earnings.

A gauge of humanoid robot stocks has fallen about 13 per cent in 2026 after registering a 47 per cent gain in 2025. The ChinaAMC CSI Robot ETF, a major exchange-traded fund tracking robot-related stocks, has seen net fund outflows for most of 2026. 

Valuations were also elevated, with the sector trading at about 40 times forward earnings, compared with about 14 times for the CSI 300 Index, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

“Investors trading at such elevated valuations are typically not driven by long-term fundamentals, but rather by the pursuit of short-term price gains,” said Shen Meng, a director at Beijing-based investment bank Chanson & Co.

“It indicates that sentiment is driven more by market dynamics than by conviction or long-term vision.”

Still, prospective issuers can look at the performance of China tech IPOs in 2026, with many listings being thousands of times oversubscribed and producing big gains on their debuts.

Two of those companies, AI model developers Knowledge Atlas Technology Joint Stock and MiniMax Group, gained inclusion in the Hang Seng Tech Index in May after massive rallies since their January listings. 

For investors, robotics companies can also offer a way to benefit from the rapid expansion of a cutting-edge industry, said Zhou Nan, founder and investment director of Shenzhen Long Hui Fund Management.

“With continued advances in AI, the robotics sector is poised for substantial long-term growth,” Zhou said.

“Robotics is expected to become a key driver of enterprise value and progressively complement or replace human labour across a wide range of use cases.” BLOOMBERG