Unitree Technology shares saw a late-session surge on August 27, closing at 615.03 yuan per share, up nearly 4%. This came after five consecutive days of declines, with the previous session's close dipping below the 600 yuan threshold. Compared to its opening market value of 444.9 billion yuan on the first trading day, the company's valuation has now dropped by roughly 200 billion yuan, approaching a 50% reduction.

Beyond the share price pullback, Unitree Technology's performance at the second World Humanoid Robot Games was less stellar than last year. The team secured two silver medals this year in martial arts tai chi and lightweight freestyle combat, whereas in 2024, they captured four gold medals in track and field events. This has reignited debates over the company's lofty valuation and R&D spending.

Shoucheng Holdings, one of Unitree's investors, weighed in on the matter. "We communicated with Unitree beforehand, and they did not do special optimization for this competition. Startups have limited manpower, and the company has many higher-priority business tasks to push forward," said Kang Yu, general manager of the capital markets department, in a recent interview. She noted that the games assess robots on a limited set of dimensions, with speed being just one of many performance indicators. "It cannot represent a robot's overall comprehensive strength. Some participating robots are still in the prototype stage, while Unitree has already crossed the mass-production threshold. The competition cannot reflect this key metric of mass production capability, which must be verified by customers and the market."

Kang Yu has also been frequently asked about her view on Unitree's valuation. She stated that her company is no longer a pricing party but rather an investing party. "The current market pricing is determined by supply and demand in the secondary market, essentially co-priced by the public and shareholders. Market participants pay for their own cognition, some may gain returns, and others may bear losses."

In Kang Yu's view, the share prices in the first few trading days after Unitree's listing have limited reference value. "The company's profitability and industry attributes are all public information, and market participants can make their own judgments. It is still too early to draw conclusions. Don't obsess over short-term share prices; there are too many disturbing factors in the short-term market. As value investors, we look at corporate value over a 10-year horizon." As board members, she observed that Unitree's core team remains stable and the company is operating healthily overall. "Listing is just a new beginning, and the company has larger strategic plans."

Previously, some interviewed investment institution insiders said that the support for Unitree's high market value came from optimistic sentiment driven by policy. However, the embodied intelligence track currently has bubbles, and a true commercial closed loop has not yet been formed. The market value adjustment of Unitree Technology is also believed by investment professionals to impact valuations in the primary market for embodied intelligence.

Kang Yu analyzed that in the past, robot companies were basically concentrated in the primary market, with pricing power in the hands of primary market investors. As more companies land on the secondary market, secondary market investors begin to participate in pricing, which will in turn affect primary market valuations. It is understood that several embodied intelligence companies invested by Shoucheng Holdings have listing plans.

"This industry requires continuous funding for technology R&D and commercialization. If companies do not have listing and financing channels, management will constantly worry about the arrival of an industry winter. To reserve cash, they might cut R&D investment, which would drag down the company and even the entire industry," Kang Yu said. After listing, companies with refinancing capabilities have the confidence to continuously increase R&D and accelerate their growth into influential industry players.

The reporter noted that amid recent online controversy, Unitree's R&D spending has been compared to that of pig farming company MUYUAN. Unitree Technology's 2025 R&D expenses were 145 million yuan, while MUYUAN's 2025 R&D expenses were 1.648 billion yuan. However, in terms of R&D expense ratio, Unitree's is 8.53%, compared to MUYUAN's 1.14%.

In previous years, Unitree's investment in the embodied 'brain' was limited, with R&D expenses of 49.9518 million yuan in 2023 and 70.017 million yuan in 2024. Early R&D focused on body structure and motion control, namely the body and 'cerebellum'. Since 2024, the company has gradually strengthened R&D investment in embodied large models for robots. Unitree founder Wang Xingxing recently revealed, "Our investment in AI models has always been very large, and it should be the direction with the largest capital and manpower investment in the company at present."