Unitree executive warns that humanoid robots are years from ChatGPT-like breakthrough

AgiBot is preparing for a Hong Kong IPO. As China’s fastest-growing humanoid robot company, its stock market debut is backed by three major banks.

The Shanghai-based firm has hired Citic Securities as lead sponsor for the listing, two people close to the matter told SCMP.

China International Capital Corporation and Morgan Stanley are also on board as joint sponsors, one of the sources said.

The basis for AgiBot’s IPO was already set last year when it transitioned from a limited liability company to a joint-stock structure. This is a common move companies make for listing.

Reuters had previously reported that AgiBot was targeting a valuation of between HK$40 billion and HK$50 billion, around US$5.10 billion.

AgiBot joins a growing queue of Chinese firms targeting Hong Kong, including online retailer Shein and optical transceiver maker Zhongji Innolight.

Innolight’s IPO, potentially the city’s biggest in seven years, drew over 30 anchor investors and aims to raise US$8 billion, with trading starting July 30.

The activity comes as Hong Kong’s IPO market is posting its best numbers in five years. In the first half of 2026, new listings raised a combined HK$210 billion, up 92% year on year, and the number of new listings nearly doubled to 87, according to PwC Hong Kong.

AgiBot ships thousands, eyes bigger numbers

AgiBot has focused on expansion within the homeland. By the end of last year, it had spent over 2 billion yuan (US$295 million) to acquire a controlling stake in Shanghai-listed Swancor Advanced Materials.

The company denied that the deal was intended as a back-door listing.
The same year it had shipped 5,168 humanoid robots the same year. According to industry firm Omdia, this was more than its rival Unitree Robotics with 4,200 units. However, Unitree’s own count says it was above 5,500.

In May, the co-president of AgiBot, Jiang Qingsong, said that the company is targeting 40,000 shipments this year.

The rival Unitree is also not standing back as it is heading for a public listing as well. As previously reported by Cryptopolitan, it secured regulatory approval for a Shanghai IPO earlier this month. It plans to raise 4.2 billion yuan, supported by 1.7 billion yuan in revenue and 591 million yuan in adjusted profit last year.

Other firms like Leju Robotics and Deep Robotics have also filed listing applications with exchanges in Shenzhen and Shanghai.

Industry still years away from its big moment

Despite a growing humanoid robots industry and a chain of future public listings, a Unitree executive offered a more cautious view of where the industry stands.

Irving Chen, who leads the company’s Asia-Pacific operations, said at Nikkei’s Global Digital Summit in Tokyo on Wednesday that the robotics sector may be two to five years away from a breakthrough comparable to ChatGPT’s arrival.

Chen said large language models perform well in software but are not yet capable of reliably controlling physical machines that face constantly changing real-world conditions. He noted that 74% of Unitree’s humanoid robot revenue in the first nine months of last year came from research and education, with only 9% from industrial customers.

He expects pilot programs to dominate through next year. “Right now, most robotics projects are in the pilot stage,” he said, adding that commercial deployment should begin around 2030.

Unitree plans to direct 48% of its IPO proceeds to AI research, 26% to new hardware, and 15% to factory development, which would lift capacity to 20,000 units a year from 6,500 last year.

China’s wider role in the sector is already substantial. The country has built more than 400 humanoid robot models, accounting for more than half of the global total, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Chinese quadruped robots hold close to 70% of global sales.

Zhejiang Province has grown into a key center. The province exported over 1 billion yuan in robots in the first half of the year, with intelligent bionic models representing around 60% of China’s total robot exports. Hangzhou alone has more than 700 companies across the robotics supply chain.

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