Unitree unveils Superman humanoid before Shanghai listing
Unitree has unveiled a new high speed humanoid robot called Superman, days before the Hangzhou company begins trading on Shanghai’s STAR Market, according to Reuters.
The company said the robot was developed in just over three months. It reported a standing jump of 2 metres and a top speed of 12.66 metres per second, figures that would put the Unitree Superman humanoid at the aggressive end of public bipedal performance claims if independently validated. Unitree also said the platform remains a work in progress and could be improved further in coming months.
Key facts
- Robot: Unitree Superman humanoid
- Reported top speed: 12.66 metres per second
- Reported standing jump: 2 metres
- Development time: Just over three months, according to Unitree
- Listing date: August 19 in Shanghai
- IPO proceeds: 6.1 billion yuan (about $905 million)
A performance reveal tied to a market debut
The timing is hard to separate from Unitree’s listing. Reuters reported that the company will start trading in Shanghai on Wednesday, August 19, after raising 6.1 billion yuan in an initial public offering last week. The IPO was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors, a record for Shanghai’s technology focused STAR Market.
Reuters describes Unitree as the world’s biggest humanoid robot maker by sales and says it will be the first general purpose robotics company to list on mainland China’s stock market. The debut also coincides with the opening of the World Robot Conference in Beijing, giving the company a large domestic stage for both investors and robotics customers.
Scale claims are becoming part of Unitree’s pitch
Unitree said in a social media post last week that it had cumulatively produced and delivered about 18,000 bipedal humanoid robots across multiple models as of July. That figure is one of the more concrete scale claims in a sector where many competitors still emphasize demonstrations, prototypes and pilot programs.
The Superman reveal adds a capability claim, but not a full product picture. Reuters did not report payload, endurance, autonomy level, safety validation, pricing or a delivery schedule for the new humanoid. For operators, those missing details are the difference between an athletic demonstration platform and a machine that can be evaluated for repeatable work.
Unitree founder Wang Xingxing has gained national prominence in China, Reuters reported, and the company is backed by Tencent, Alibaba and DeepSeek. Offshore derivative trading ahead of the listing has pointed to a strong debut, while the STAR50 Index has rebounded about 15% from a three month low hit in early August.
Source: reuters.com
