Shares of Chinese Humanoid Robot Maker Surge 60%

Shares of Unitree Robotics have surged over 60% since October 15, climbing to 672 yuan (approximately $100.75) in Monday trading. Expectations that artificial intelligence models used in chatbots could control physical robots drove the Chinese robot maker's market capitalization to 271.8 billion yuan (approximately $40.8 billion).

What triggered the rise in the shares?

The stock reached its 20% daily upper price limit (limit-up) to close at 624 yuan in Friday trading, and gained an additional 7.69% on Monday. The rally was supported by remarks made on October 22 by Wang Xingxing, founder of Unitree Robotics, at the World Physical Artificial Intelligence Conference in Hangzhou. Speaking at the company's first joint conference in its 10-year history, Wang stated that large models trained on vast datasets could achieve a breakthrough in physical artificial intelligence within 1 to 2 years, or within 2 to 3 years at the latest.

Why did JPMorgan raise its price target?

Investment bank JPMorgan upgraded its rating on the company on Monday from "underweight" to "overweight," while raising its price target to 995 yuan (approximately $149.17). The bank previously held the view that the company was overly focused on hardware and lagged on the software side. Analysts reversed this assessment after inspecting the humanoid robot models in Hangzhou and meeting with company executives.

The company, which completed its initial public offering (IPO) on August 19 on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's tech-focused STAR Market, sells its G1 model humanoid robot for approximately $16,000. This price undercuts competing humanoid robots. Despite security warnings from researchers that voice, video, and spatial data were being transmitted to external servers without user notification, the company continues active deliveries. Among competitors, Tesla has just begun production of its Optimus robots at its Fremont factory with external deliveries projected for late 2027; Figure AI has been using OpenAI models to power its robots since 2024.

This content is for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.