A-share robot names extended their rally through the afternoon of 26 October. Unitree Technology, trading as 688836, jumped more than 18 per cent intraday to a high of RMB 737.50 a share and pushed its market value past RMB 290 billion at the peak. It closed at RMB 672, up 7.69 per cent, for a market value of about RMB 270 billion.
In a little over a week, a stock that listed in August travelled from mania to a freezing point and back again.
From RMB 1,100 to RMB 404 and back to RMB 700
Unitree listed on the STAR Market on 19 August at an issue price of RMB 150.80. It opened at RMB 1,100 on the first day, more than six times the issue price, briefly touched a market value of RMB 444.9 billion and closed at RMB 845.
The heat did not hold. Over the following thirty-odd sessions the stock fell to an intraday low of RMB 404.03 on 15 October, a drawdown of more than 63 per cent from the peak, with more than RMB 280 billion of market value erased.
The turn began in the middle of October. From 19 October the sector traded heavier volumes, and on 23 October Unitree recorded its first 20 per cent limit-up since listing to close at RMB 624. Since the 16 October bottom the stock has gained more than 60 per cent in seven sessions.
It was not a solo move. On 26 October Shangwei New Materials also hit a 20 per cent limit, Mould Technology, Fenglong and Fanya Micropermeable all closed at their caps, and the robot index rose as a group. Huafu Securities attributed the run to physical AI names led by Unitree, spreading out into data collection, components and the wider robot sector.
Three catalysts
On the company side, Unitree held the first high-level industry conference in its ten-year history in Hangzhou on 22 October. Founder and chief executive Wang Xingxing spoke under the title Believe, believe in AI as much as possible, and set out the direction: industrialise volume manufacturing, and pursue physical AI models tuned to its own hardware both in house and through partnerships. He said he expects a visible breakthrough for Unitree robots carrying physical AI models in 2027 and 2028.
He also made a call. With GPT-6 out, physical AI has begun to show the signs of being broken open, and embodied intelligence could reach its ChatGPT moment in one to two years at the fast end and two to three at the slow end. The hardest problem right now, he said, is alignment between what a model outputs and what the physical robot does. The conference also launched an annual World Physical AI competition with a prize pool in the tens of millions of renminbi, alongside a partner programme.
On policy, nine ministries including Commerce and Science and Technology issued an opinion on accelerating technology-driven commerce on 19 October, opening demand-side space for robots through consumption and retail distribution for the first time. Ten days earlier, the market regulator published the first six national humanoid robot standards, effective 1 April 2027. Wang Xingxing is one of the drafters of the technical requirements standard.
Abroad, OpenAI’s Sam Altman confirmed on 18 October that the company will develop a humanoid robot, with a demonstration unit expected in 2027, which lands on top of expectations for Tesla’s Optimus ramp.
The leg that came off
Controversy arrived with the rally. At the same 22 October conference in Hangzhou, a Unitree humanoid performing a side flip landed off balance and lost one lower leg.
The robot was the H2-X, launched on 21 October and officially named the H2-X Kung Fu Legend Guardian. It stands 170 centimetres, weighs about 65 kilograms and has 31 degrees of freedom. Promotional footage shows it denting a car door with a kick, lifting a car by hand and completing a flip from a platform around four metres high, pitched at security and emergency response work with up to eight hours of endurance.
Unitree had not issued a public explanation at the time of writing.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original Gasgoo report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience. The full original (in Chinese) is at https://www.gasgoo.com/apps/e060bad9eca91db7f01403fc7120041f/robot/news/70475912-/.