A $904m robot IPO is outdrawing a $3bn Shein listing, and the multiples explain why

Two Chinese IPOs land in the same week and the smaller one is absorbing the attention. Unitree, the humanoid robotics maker, is raising 6.1 billion yuan ($904 million) on Shanghai's STAR market at a valuation of about $9 billion ^[1], while Shein is expected to begin its Hong Kong offering with shares possibly debuting as soon as Aug. 28, according to Reuters, seeking as much as $3 billion, roughly three times Unitree's target ^[2]. Per Fortune, retail investors are scrambling for Unitree and secondary markets are pricing a large post-debut jump ^[3].

The size gap makes the pricing gap more interesting. Unitree reported 1.7 billion yuan ($252 million) of 2025 revenue, four times its 2024 figure, with almost 45% from overseas, and net income of 600 million yuan ($89 million) ^[4][5]. Shein's prospectus shows $41.2 billion in 2025 revenue, up from $38.8 billion, and about $2 billion of profit ^[6]. That is roughly 160 times Unitree's revenue ^[7] and about 22 times its net income ^[8].

Now the valuations. Unitree's $9 billion is about 36 times revenue and roughly 100 times earnings ^[9][10]. Shein is targeting $25 billion to $30 billion according to reports from the Financial Times and Reuters ^[11], which is under one times revenue and roughly 13 to 15 times profit ^[12][13]. Shein's own target is about 57% below the $64 billion it fetched in 2024 and far below its $100 billion mark in 2022 ^[11][14]. Unitree said last week its retail tranche was more than 8,000 times oversubscribed ^[15].

What allocators are buying in Unitree is a sector, not a demonstrated end market. More than 70% of its humanoid units go to academic and research institutions, with some state-owned enterprises and large manufacturers experimenting ^[16]. The comparison set is unprofitable: Hong Kong-listed UBTech lost $104 million last year, and Boston Dynamics and Figure AI are also loss-making ^[17]. Smart Analytics Global, a California research firm, calculates Chinese firms shipped 97% of humanoid robots in the first half ^[18], and its report says Unitree is no longer the leader, with Shanghai's Agibot ahead and preparing a Hong Kong listing later this year ^[19].

What they are selling in Shein is a policy exposure. The U.S. ended de minimis duty exemptions last year and Europe followed in July ^[20]; Shein's prospectus concedes the EU effect could match or exceed what it saw in the U.S. ^[21]. Europe is now 35.4% of revenue against 24.1% from the U.S. ^[22]. Shein's abandoned New York attempt, which drew U.S. official scrutiny over forced-labour allegations in its supply chain, cost it time ^[23]. Growth of 6.2% at that scale is not a growth story ^[24].

Watch three things: whether Unitree's debut print holds once the retail scramble clears, whether Agibot's Hong Kong listing prices off Unitree's multiple or resets it, and what Shein's first quarter of post-de minimis European numbers does to a valuation already cut by more than half. Also watch the FCC's late-July ban on imported foreign humanoid and quadruped robots, justified on supply-chain and national-security grounds ^[25], which caps the addressable market these multiples assume.