China's Unitree unveils 'Superman' robot as fervour builds ahead of Shanghai debut

Unitree becomes the first general-purpose robotics company to list on mainland China's stock market Reuters August 18, 2026 1 min read A staff member places a Unitree's R1 humanoid robot back in its seat at a Unitree store in Beijing, China, August 1, 2026. — REUTERS SHANGHAI/BEIJING: China's Unitree on Monday unveiled a new high-speed robot it dubbed "Superman", days before becoming the first general-purpose robotics company to list on mainland China's stock market. Unitree, the world's biggest humanoid-robot maker by ​sales, will start trading in Shanghai on Wednesday after raising 6.1 billion ​yuan ($905 million) in an initial public offering last week. The company, based ⁠in the eastern Chinese tech hub of Hangzhou, said it developed the new robot ​in just over three months. It achieved a standing jump of two metres and ​reached a top speed of 12.66 metres per second. The Shanghai debut coincides with the opening of the World Robot Conference in Beijing, adding to investor attention on a company whose humanoid robots ​have drawn global notice for running, dancing and performing martial arts. - Standing high jump: 2 meters - Top speed: 12.66 m/s (0.85 m leg length) These are the performance figures for Chinese manufacturer #Unitree’s new robot, “Superman,” which surpasses both corresponding human world records. The company told the Global Times in a statement that the… pic.twitter.com/NtnH15Z8YH — Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 17, 2026 The IPO was ​more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors, a record for Shanghai's tech-focused STAR Market. In a social-media ‌post last ⁠week, Unitree said it had cumulatively produced and delivered about 18,000 bipedal humanoid robots across multiple models as of July. Derivatives market points to strong debut Unitree said the robot remained a work in progress and could be improved further in the coming months. Founder ​Wang Xingxing gained national ​prominence after securing ⁠a front-row seat at a summit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping for leading technology entrepreneurs last year. The startup is also ​backed by some of China's most influential technology companies, including ​Tencent, Alibaba, ⁠and DeepSeek. Read: China unveils living AI — robots work, drive and interact Ahead of Unitree's Shanghai listing, derivative trading in offshore markets has pointed to a strong debut. Its shares may also benefit from a broader recovery in Chinese technology stocks following ⁠last month's ​selloff. The STAR50 Index has rebounded about 15% from ​a three-month low hit in early August.