Shares of Chinese humanoid robot maker Yushu Technology soared on its first day of trading in Shanghai, as investors piled into the young local company dedicated to developing cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology.
Yushu Technology's share price rose nearly 500% in early trading on Wednesday, or six times the issue price, giving it a market value of about 360 billion yuan ($53 billion). Earlier this month, Yushu Technology set its initial public offering price at 150.80 yuan (approximately US$22) per share and planned to raise 6.1 billion yuan (approximately US$900 million). At that time, the company was valued at approximately 60.3 billion yuan (approximately US$9 billion). The stock price rose as much as 629% during the session.
"Yushu Technology is a company with solid fundamentals and very outstanding technology, but we saw a lot of speculative optimism on the first trading day," said Su Lianjie, an analyst at technology research firm Omdia in Singapore. "Part of the reason is that retail investors in China are willing to buy at almost any price."
The frenzy over Yushu Technology stock comes less than a month after investors sent shares of Changxin Memory Technology (CXMT), another beneficiary of China's artificial intelligence boom, to highs. Changxin is China's leading memory chip manufacturer. The global race to build more powerful artificial intelligence systems has unleashed huge demand for the chips that are responsible for quickly transferring data back and forth between computer processing engines.
Changxin’s share price soared 470% on its first day of listing and has risen further since then. The company's current market value is approximately US$545 billion, surpassing Tencent to become China's most valuable listed company.
Investors who bought into Yushu Technology on the first day shrugged off the many uncertainties surrounding its prospects. It's unclear when machines that look and act like humans will become a mass market. In factories, for example, most humanoid robots are still being tested in pilot projects and have yet to be deployed on a large scale.
Yushu Technology, headquartered in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, is known for the strength and flexibility its robots display. Videos of its robots performing kung fu routines, climbing walls and doing backflips have attracted millions of views online.
Despite the attention, Yushu Technology's business remains relatively small. Its revenue in 2025 will be about $250 million, although sales have more than quadrupled and it is profitable. It also faces stiff competition from domestic Chinese rivals as well as U.S. humanoid robot start-ups.
Still, many analysts expect humanoid robots to develop into a significant industry. Investment research firm CLSA predicts that the global market will grow from about US$2 billion this year to US$69 billion in 2030.
Governments also increasingly regard humanoid robots as artificial intelligence technologies of strategic importance. Last month, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced plans to ban the import of new foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots, citing national security concerns.
Yushu Technology pointed out this risk in its IPO filing, warning that its new models may be banned from entering the United States. The company still sells mostly in China, but U.S. buyers accounted for 13% of its sales last year.
