00:00These humanoids can fight and dance, and now investors can buy a piece of the company that
00:06sells them. Unitree Robotics has just become China's first publicly traded humanoid robot
00:12maker after raising $904 million in its IPO. Investors were clamoring to get in,
00:20with the retail portion of the IPO more than 5,000 times oversubscribed.
00:25Humanoid robots have become one of Beijing's strategic priorities as China competes in the
00:32global AI race. The frenzy around Unitree's listing signals investors are buying into that vision,
00:39even at this extremely early stage of development. There were only 19,000 units shipped in the first
00:46half of this year. Unitree has emerged as one of the industry's most closely watched companies,
00:52backed by DeepSeq and Tencent. The company's strength is in its precise motion control,
00:59plus another key advantage. Its vertically integrated business model allows it to control
01:05more of its supply chain while keeping costs down. But the hype alone won't guarantee success.
01:11At home, it's facing intensifying competition, as Shanghai-based Agibot took the lead in global
01:18shipments this year. And outside of China, growing trade tensions and the U.S.'s restrictions on
01:24certain tech could also hinder the sector's progress. Then there's the elephant in the room.
01:30Viral showpieces aside, do these humanoids have real-world uses that make them, well, useful?
01:38The tech's commercial viability may still be up in the air, but investors' enthusiasm around
01:44Unitree's public debut suggests confidence that Chinese robotics firms can capture a growing global market.
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