ST shares fall on profit-taking in the tech sector; anticipation builds for the IPO of Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The wave of optimism in the semiconductor sector sparked by the US firm SanDisk, which forecasts revenue growth of between 15 per cent and 20 per cent in 2028–2030, is not enough to sustain the sector in Europe. Profit-taking therefore prevails on the Old Continent, hitting Stmicroelectronics , which is among the worst performers on the FTSE MIB , and Prysmian , as well as Infineon (-1% in Frankfurt), Be Semiconductor, ASM and ASML (all down 0.3% in Amsterdam).

The sell-off also affected the sector on Asian stock markets, particularly in China and Hong Kong, where another factor came into play: the anticipation surrounding Unitree’s mega-IPO. According to experts, the listing of the humanoid robot manufacturer could act as a positive catalyst, but, at the same time, it could lead to a decline in market liquidity in the run-up to the IPO, as was indeed the case prior to the listing of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Unitree’s listing is expected as early as next week (the date is due to be announced shortly) and the market is anticipating a resounding success: private investment platforms such as EquityZen, UpMarket and Hiive predict that Unitree’s shares will almost triple in value, whilst on the cryptocurrency exchanges Hyperliquid and Gate, derivatives trading points to an increase of almost fourfold.

Interest in Unitree, whose humanoid robots are capable of doing extraordinary things such as running, dancing and performing martial arts, is extremely high, so much so that demand for the retail portion of its IPO was more than 8,000 times the supply, a record for the Shanghai Star Market dedicated to tech start-ups. Furthermore, according to Chinese media, investors who managed to subscribe to the IPO reportedly received offers to sell their shares at 410 yuan, representing a 170 per cent premium on the offer price of 150.8 yuan. Unitree, which competes with Boston Dynamics (owned by the Hyundai Motor Group) and Tesla, is not the first Chinese manufacturer of humanoid robots to be listed on the stock exchange.

UBTech and Dobot have made their market debut in Hong Kong, whilst a number of other companies, including Leju Robotics and Agitbot, are preparing to list. However, Unitree – already profitable, which is unusual for a tech start-up – is the world’s largest manufacturer of humanoid robots in terms of turnover and the first general-purpose robotics company to go public in mainland China. “Unitree represents a fundamental turning point for Chinese robotics”, say the experts at RoboStrategy, emphasising that the company is entering the market “with something that many humanoid robot manufacturers lack: scale, the ability to scale up and profitability”.