Chinese regulators are slowing a rush of humanoid robot IPOs after Unitree Robotics plunged roughly 55% from its peak, as Beijing questions whether soaring valuations match real-world demand.
The scrutiny comes as Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) faces its own Optimus test: turning a headline-grabbing robot into a viable business.
China Puts IPO Rush on Ice
Unitree’s volatile debut has prompted Chinese regulators to slow a wave of humanoid robot IPOs, Reuters reported.
At least half a dozen companies, including Deep Robotics, X Square Robot and AGIBOT, are preparing to list. Regulators are now holding some deals back through informal “window guidance,” with one source describing humanoid IPOs as effectively frozen for now.
Regulators are also questioning how much demand is truly commercial. Local governments can fund 80% to 90% of some robot data centers and joint ventures, helping generate revenue and support IPO valuations.
One person close to investors told Reuters that valuations at some robot companies could fall 60% to 70% if revenue tied to those data-collection centers were removed.
Unitree Became the Warning Sign
Unitree went public in August at a roughly $9 billion valuation. Retail investors ordered more than 8,000 times the shares available, and the stock briefly pushed the company’s value to around $67 billion on its first trading day.
Shares have since fallen roughly 55% from that peak.
Unitree’s underlying business is growing quickly. Revenue more than quadrupled to 1.7 billion yuan, or about $252 million, in 2025, but its IPO still valued the company at roughly 219 times last year’s earnings.
Only about 7,000 humanoid robots were sold worldwide for industrial and professional uses in 2025, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
By comparison, manufacturers installed about 542,000 conventional industrial robots in 2024, nearly 80 times the humanoid tally.
Tesla Faces the Same Test
Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently confirmed on an earnings call that the company will convert space in Fremont for Model S and Model X manufacturing into an Optimus factory.
But Musk has also acknowledged how difficult that transition could be. He called Optimus the “hardest product to scale manufacturing” Tesla has ever attempted and warned that the production ramp will initially be “quite flat and long,” with the company effectively building a new supply chain from scratch.
Prediction-market traders remain skeptical about a near-term consumer launch. Polymarket puts the chance of Tesla making a humanoid robot available for public purchase before Dec. 31 at about 6%.
Factory deployments and enterprise pilots do not count, meaning Tesla could make significant progress on Optimus without the market resolving “Yes.”
Benzinga reported earlier this month that Tesla had reportedly placed its first large-scale component order covering roughly 5,000 Optimus robots as it moves from prototypes toward production.
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