China Imposes Stringent New Listing Rules for Humanoid Robot Startups

Humanoid robots demonstrated their capabilities at the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo held on September 25, 2026 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

Vcg | Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJING — China’s securities regulator is tightening the requirements for humanoid robot startups seeking public listings, according to three sources familiar with the CSRC’s thinking.

This move signals a cooling in one of the market’s hottest segments, as global investors weigh whether AI stocks are overvalued.

The regulator said that domestic embodied‑AI firms aiming for an IPO must satisfy three specific conditions, the sources added, requesting anonymity given the sensitive nature of the discussions.

They are:

• The “window guidance” stipulates that applicants must demonstrate sustainable revenue and secured commercial orders.
• Losses should be narrowing, with one source noting that a three‑year financial projection is required.
• The firm must own core technology, such as a robotic brain or advanced manipulators.

Even if a startup needed to satisfy only two of the three conditions, as one source noted, it remains uncertain which — if any — of the companies could meet that threshold.

Consequently, expectations have been reduced to a handful — or possibly none — of these startups reaching the public market, the sources said.

At least two dozen embodied‑AI firms focused on humanoid robots have submitted listing applications in Hong Kong alone, according to two of the sources. Hong Kong began allowing confidential tech IPO filings in May 2025.

Neither the Hong Kong Stock Exchange nor the China Securities Regulatory Commission responded immediately to a request for comment. Mainland Chinese firms seeking a Hong Kong listing also require CSRC approval.

Unitree IPO impact

Scrutiny has intensified over China’s rapidly expanding humanoid‑robot startup ecosystem and its soaring valuations, which are backed by a blend of government and private‑sector funding.

Unitree, often regarded as the industry’s poster child, secured a regulatory fast‑track for its Shanghai listing on August 19, coinciding with the opening of the World Robot Conference in Beijing.

However, in a keynote the following day, founder Wang Xingxing warned that commercializing applications beyond dancing robots remains years off, fueling a debate over the practical capabilities of humanoids and whether startups are generating revenue.

China now hosts more than 100 humanoid‑focused firms, all part of the nation’s embodied‑AI initiative. The term has been endorsed in the last two annual government work reports, though officials have cautioned about a potential bubble in the humanoid‑robot sector.

Reflecting the surge of interest, sector investment reached 47.09 billion yuan (approximately $6.95 billion) in the second quarter — more than double the first‑quarter figure and over six times higher than the same period a year earlier, according to data provider Xiniu.

Unitree raised roughly 6.1 billion yuan (about $905 million) in its August 19 IPO, with its Shanghai‑listed shares surging more than 460 % on debut to close at 845 yuan.

By Monday, the share price had fallen to around half its debut level, trading at 459.65 yuan.

Hong Kong‑listed Ubtech has also slipped more than 40 % year‑to‑date. The company, which listed in December 2023, continues to post an operating loss of 279 million yuan for the first half of this year.

This share‑price decline stands in contrast to the flood of capital flowing into humanoid‑robotics firms over the past year. In China, the technology is frequently referred to as “physical AI,” and early‑stage investors view it as a means to capitalize on the growing enthusiasm for artificial‑intelligence models.

However, a Rhodium Group analysis released this month found that Chinese AI firms generate only about 10 % of the revenue produced by Anthropic and OpenAI. The valuation‑to‑revenue ratio for Chinese AI startups such as Moonshot and DeepSeek remains far above that of their U.S. peers, the report noted.

While anticipation builds for upcoming IPOs of major U.S. AI firms, chipmaker AMD announced on Monday that it will acquire World Labs for $8.2 billion in a stock transaction. World Labs, founded by AI pioneer Fei‑Fei Li, is developing AI models for generating virtual 3D environments commonly employed in humanoid‑robot research.

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