The Shanghai United Assets Exchange disclosed an equity listing: CNPC Kunlun Capital will transfer 0.6349 per cent of Shandong Future Robot, or 234,372 shares, at a RMB 20 million floor. Kunlun holds 10.386 per cent and is the second-largest shareholder, so the move is small optimisation ahead of a capital increase, not a state exit.
At the floor price the implied valuation is about RMB 3.15 billion. Shandong Future completed its joint-stock reform in January 2026, and other backers include Sinomach, China Mobile and CICC, a sign of how seriously central state capital treats the deep-sea robotics champion.
Shandong Future has spent two decades in deep-sea and underwater equipment and is the first Chinese firm with a fully domestic deep-sea robot chain, breaking a long foreign monopoly. Its team is led by Tao Zewen, a professor-level engineer on the transport salvage committee, and Leng Jianxing, a developer of the Jiaolong crewed submersible, and holds more than 160 core technologies.
Its products span work-class ROVs, seabed cable laying, deep-sea salvage, mining, tunnelling, dredging, hull cleaning and underwater fire robots. In April 2026 it mass-produced the ExplorersVY150, a 3,500-metre ROV, and sea-trialed the VKG1100 trencher, which cut three metres deep in 400 kPa seabed, an Asian record. The firm is profitable: 2025 revenue RMB 149 million and net profit RMB 18.11 million, with first-half 2026 revenue RMB 54.20 million and a 12.60 per cent debt ratio on RMB 1.154 billion in assets.
Orders come from Southern Grid and CNOOC, and overseas work spans Russia, Britain, France, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, with a blower heading to Saudi in July and overseas share reaching 70 per cent at peak in 2025.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original OFweek Robot report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience.
Translated and adapted from OFweek Robot (https://robot.ofweek.com/2026-08/ART-8321204-8120-30697452.html).