Analysis
Unitree Robotics set book-building for August 5 and public subscription for August 10 on its Shanghai STAR Market IPO, targeting roughly $618 million at a $6.2 billion valuation. The choice of Shanghai over a US exchange is itself the more consequential story: it means ordinary US investors have no direct path to own shares in one of the world's most advanced humanoid-robotics companies at IPO.
Unitree isn't an isolated case. DeepSeek has also been reported preparing IPO paperwork aimed at a China-based listing rather than a US one, following a similar STAR Market-first logic. As US-China tech tensions keep tightening -- export controls, scrutiny of Chinese AI models, and reciprocal listing restrictions -- China's most valuable AI and robotics companies increasingly default to domestic exchanges rather than treating a US listing as the prestige outcome it once was.
“DeepSeek has also been reported preparing IPO paperwork aimed at a China-based listing rather than a US one, following a similar STAR Market-first logic.”
For US venture funds that built early private exposure to Chinese robotics and AI companies, a China-only listing complicates exit assumptions that used to include eventual US cross-listings or ADRs. It cuts the other way too: investors with access to Chinese exchanges get first crack at some of the most advanced humanoid-robotics technology anywhere, a category where China currently leads on both hardware cost and deployment scale. What to watch: whether Unitree's STAR Market debut prices well, and whether any Chinese AI or robotics company reverses the trend by pursuing a US listing instead.