From Decrypt · By Jose Antonio Lanz
In brief
Unitree shares have risen about two-thirds since Oct. 15, closing at 672 yuan on Monday and lifting the Chinese robot maker's market value to 271.8 billion yuan ($40.8 billion).
Founder Wang Xingxing said at an Oct. 22 conference that large models will break through in physical AI within one to three years, and that OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra can already direct robots with zero training.
JPMorgan upgraded Unitree to overweight from underweight on Oct. 26 and raised its price target.
Shares of Chinese robot maker Unitree Robotics have jumped more than 60% since Oct. 15, lifting its market value to 271.8 billion yuan (roughly $40.8 billion). Investors are betting that smarter AI will give its robots the brains they lack.
The wager is that the technology behind chatbots can soon operate machines in the physical world, a field called physical AI. If it can, a robot that tidies a room or folds laundry on command stops being a lab demo, and the companies that build the bodies, motors, and joints profit.
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Unitree founder Wang Xingxing fueled the rally on Oct. 22 at the World Physical AI Conference in Hangzhou, the company's first partner conference in a decade of operation. He said large models, the chatbot-style AI systems trained on vast amounts of data, could break through in physical AI within a few years.
“If everything goes well, it will take one to two years, otherwise it will take two to three years,” Wang said.
Unitree shares hit the 20% daily limit on Friday, the most a stock may rise in one session, and closed at 624 yuan ($93.55). They rose another 7.69% on Monday to 672 yuan ($100.75).
JPMorgan upgraded Unitree to overweight from underweight on Monday, which is analyst shorthand for owning more of a stock than the market does, and raised its price target to 995 yuan ($149.17). The bank had argued the company leaned too heavily on hardware and was weak in software. It changed its view after hearing from Wang and other executives and reviewing the humanoid lineup in Hangzhou.
Unitree went public on Aug. 19 on the Shanghai Stock Exchange's STAR Market, a tech-focused board. Its G1 humanoid costs roughly $16,000, cheaper than rival humanoids. Researchers have flagged security flaws, including audio, video and spatial data streaming to outside servers without users being notified but the premise has proven interesting enough to push its valuation up.
Unitree already sells robots, while Tesla has only just started producing Optimus robots at its Fremont, California, factory and expects outside deliveries around the end of 2027. Figure AI partnered with OpenAI on its humanoids back in 2024, using OpenAI’s models to power its robots.