Unitree Robotics wants to go public with a $7 billion valuation, which is either genius timing or completely delusional given the shitstorm around Chinese tech companies. The Hangzhou-based robot maker went from a 12 billion yuan valuation in July to targeting 50 billion yuan ($7B) for their IPO, but apparently nobody told them US investors are scared as hell of Chinese tech stocks right now.
This company was founded in 2016 and somehow became the go-to robotics supplier for Chinese universities while everyone was still arguing whether robots would steal jobs. Their founder Wang Xingxing even got to meet Xi Jinping in February - you know, that rare meeting where the Chinese president actually sits down with tech entrepreneurs. Revenue supposedly hit over a billion yuan annually, though who knows if those numbers are real or just optimistic accounting like every other Chinese tech company.
Here's what's actually hilarious: US-China tech tensions aren't cooling down, they're getting worse. Export controls on AI chips are tightening every quarter, with new BIS regulations targeting Chinese tech companies and their subsidiaries. US outbound investment rules took effect in January 2025, further restricting capital flows to Chinese AI firms. Congress keeps introducing bills to block Chinese AI investments, and major AI companies like Anthropic are now blocking Chinese-owned firms from accessing their services. And somehow Unitree thinks they can raise billions from international investors when their robots probably run on NVIDIA chips that could get export-restricted any day now.
I've seen their robots - they actually don't suck. Their humanoid G1 robot ranks among the top 12 humanoids of 2025, and they went viral with those dancing videos last year. Even Boston Dynamics has been testing Unitree robots to evaluate their performance - that's how you know Chinese robotics is getting serious. Unitree's robots are much more affordable than Boston Dynamics' Atlas and Spot, making them accessible to universities and smaller companies. But being good at making robots and being good at navigating geopolitical clusterfucks are totally different skills.
The company now has backing from Alibaba, Tencent, and automaker Geely - basically the Chinese tech establishment. That's great for domestic sales but terrible for international expansion. Having Alibaba as an investor is like wearing a "Made in China" sticker when trying to sell to US defense contractors.
CEO Wang claims their robots are already profitable and they lead in both production and sales volume in China. Cool story, but "profitable" in Chinese accounting could mean anything, and profitability in China doesn't mean shit if you can't expand globally anyway. Plus going public on Shanghai's STAR Market instead of NASDAQ tells you everything about their international prospects - they know they're fucked trying to list in New York. China did ease IPO rules in 2025 to allow listings of unprofitable startups, which ironically makes Unitree's "profitable" claims even more suspicious.
The real question: will anyone outside China invest in a Chinese robotics IPO when TikTok can barely operate without Congressional hearings? Unitree might have solid tech - China's aging population and massive manufacturing base create real demand for their robots. But timing matters. Going public as a Chinese AI company in 2025 is like trying to open a Huawei store in Washington DC - technically possible, but why make your life harder?
If Unitree gets locked out of US and European markets permanently due to geopolitical bullshit, that $7 billion valuation becomes a joke pretty quickly. China's domestic market is huge, but not "$7 billion robotics unicorn dependent on global expansion" huge.