The share price of Unitree Robotics experienced a volatile session on Tuesday, raising fresh questions about the sustainability of sky-high valuations in the humanoid robot sector. These companies, despite reporting strong sales growth, are still wrestling with significant profitability challenges.

On September 2nd, Unitree's stock opened lower and extended its decline during morning trading, falling more than 4% at one point. It dropped below the 550 yuan per share mark for the first time, closing the morning session at 550.37 yuan. This represents a dramatic fall from its opening-day high of 1,100 yuan per share just eleven trading days earlier. The stock has now halved in value, erasing over 200 billion yuan in market capitalization. This sharp correction signals a fundamental reassessment by investors of the valuation logic underpinning the entire humanoid robotics industry.

Sales Breakthrough, But Share Prices Lack Support

A wave of first-half earnings reports from robotics companies has been released recently, providing a mixed picture of strong operational growth versus weak capital market performance. Both Unitree Robotics and UBTech Robotics, as humanoid robot manufacturers, have crossed the 1 billion yuan revenue threshold. Meanwhile, several industrial robot companies have reported significant expansion in their embodied AI business segments.

The most direct takeaway from the financial disclosures of Unitree and UBTech is that humanoid robot shipments have surged. According to its listing announcement, Unitree generated revenue of 1.152 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 48.54%. The company attributes this growth to the gradual enrichment of downstream application scenarios and sustained market demand, which has kept humanoid robot product revenue growing relatively quickly. Their sales data shows that by May, cumulative production of a single bipedal model had reached approximately 11,000 units. By July, cumulative production of multiple bipedal models had reached 18,000 units.

UBTech's 2026 interim report reveals total revenue of 1.27 billion yuan, up 104.2% year-on-year. Notably, revenue from its full-size embodied AI humanoid robots reached 590 million yuan, a staggering 1445.0% increase. The company sold 921 units of these robots, a 1946.7% surge. Overall, total humanoid robot sales reached 16,123 units, up 268.3% year-on-year.

Industrial robot companies are also experiencing growth in their embodied AI businesses. For instance, Dobot Robotics reported revenue of approximately 316 million yuan for the first half of the year, up 106.6%, with its embodied AI business revenue surpassing 45 million yuan, a more than twenty-fold increase. Luoshi Robotics, which focuses on industrial robots, flexible collaborative robots, and embodied AI robots, saw first-half revenue reach 415 million yuan, a 135.8% increase. Robot sales jumped from over 4,000 units to more than 13,000 units year-on-year. Its embodied AI business achieved rapid growth, generating 139 million yuan in revenue, which accounts for 34% of its total revenue.

Despite these impressive operational results, the earnings reports have yet to provide a meaningful boost to share prices. Data from Flush iFind shows that over the past six months, several companies in this sector, including UBTech and Dobot, have seen varying degrees of stock price pullback. Shen Meng, executive director of Chanson Capital, noted that investors in the robotics sector are largely trading on concepts. Valuation support is significantly driven by policy-induced optimism, and robots have yet to deliver dramatic improvements in productivity efficiency. Consequently, performance changes have a limited impact on secondary market valuations. According to a report from Counterpoint Research, while the combined share of entertainment, commercial performance, education, and data collection in global humanoid robot shipments declined in the first half of the year, it still remains above 60%. The share from smart manufacturing and warehousing and logistics has increased, reaching 13% and 5%, respectively.

Profitability Remains Elusive, With Heavy Investment in the "Brain"

While revenues are expanding, profitability remains a major hurdle for most of these companies. In the first half of the year, UBTech, Dobot, and Luoshi Robotics reported net losses of 339 million yuan, 108 million yuan, and 79 million yuan, respectively. UBTech and Luoshi did manage to narrow their losses. Unitree stands out as one of the few profitable robotics companies. It recorded a net profit attributable to shareholders of 274 million yuan for the period, although its non-GAAP net profit fell 19.34% year-on-year to 244 million yuan.

A closer look at Unitree's profitability reveals a key structural advantage. Compared to UBTech and others, Unitree operates a lean organization. It employed 516 people at the end of 2025, and with annual revenue of 1.699 billion yuan last year, it achieved per-capital revenue of 3.2932 million yuan. This streamlined operational model has provided a buffer for profitability, even as R&D investment and labor costs climb across the industry.

R&D expenditures have increased across the board. Unitree stated that its R&D expenses saw a significant year-on-year increase in the first half of 2026, driven by continued investment in robot body and structure R&D, embodied AI large models, motion control algorithms, and new product development. Its R&D team expanded, leading to an additional 82.0374 million yuan in R&D costs. UBTech's R&D investment reached 303 million yuan, a 38.9% increase, primarily due to intensified development of its full-size humanoid robots. Dobot also increased its R&D spending by 148.4% to 102 million yuan, citing increased investment in R&D talent and materials to accelerate development of key technologies and embodied AI robots.

According to financial reports, much of this R&D is focused on embodied large models. Currently, the lack of a more sophisticated robot "brain" remains a primary constraint on large-scale deployment. Betting heavily on the "brain" has become a consensus strategy among industry leaders. In its IPO fundraising, Unitree allocated over 2 billion yuan for its intelligent robot model research project. Similarly, UBTech is prioritizing the commercialization of its embodied AI humanoid robot technology and AI capabilities, projecting its full-year 2026 R&D investment to reach 700 million yuan.