Unitree revealed a humanoid robot called Superman on Monday, claiming a top speed of 12.66 meters per second. That pace edges past the fastest stride Usain Bolt ever recorded. The reveal lands days before the Unitree IPO starts trading in Shanghai.
Investors had already pushed the share sale to a record subscription level last week.
Unitree IPO Demand Set a STAR Market Record
Unitree priced its shares at 150.8 yuan and raised roughly 6.1 billion yuan, or about $905 million. The sale values the company near $9 billion.
Retail buyers covered their tranche 8,288 times over. Shanghai's STAR Market, the exchange's Nasdaq-style tech board, had never seen demand like the Unitree IPO.
That appetite let Unitree bank far more than planned. The company sought 4.2 billion yuan and walked away with 6.1 billion, a 45% overshoot.
However, the price stretches conventional yardsticks. The deal values Unitree at about 36 times its 2025 sales, against roughly 18 times for Hong Kong-listed rival UBTech. Chinese memory maker CXMT showed how violent these debuts get. Its CXMT chip listing climbed 466% in one session on the same board.
Real revenue does sit behind the story. Sales reached 1.7 billion yuan last year, more than four times the 2024 figure, while net profit hit 591 million yuan. Even so, buyers are paying above 100 times those earnings.
Superman Raises the Stakes Before the Trading Debut
Unitree says Superman clears a 2-meter standing high jump on legs measuring 0.85 meters. Engineers built the machine in a little over three months.
UnitreeRobotics. Source: XUnitree New Robot Preview: “Superman” Breaking the Limits of Humanity🥳
— Unitree (@UnitreeRobotics) August 17, 2026
Standing high jump 2 m, top speed 12.66 m/s (0.85 m leg length)
Surpassing the standing high jump and running speed records of all humans around the world
This new machine has only been in development for a… pic.twitter.com/12i80ITU6p
Bolt peaked at 12.42 meters per second during his 2009 world record run, according to a published kinematic analysis of the race. Unitree's number therefore clears that mark. The company has released no independent verification, however.
Founder Wang Xingxing telegraphed the milestone in March at the Yabuli China Entrepreneurs Forum. He predicted then that humanoid machines would break human sprint limits by mid-year, citing cheaper components and faster algorithms. Five months later, his engineers delivered the claim.
Hardware records still sit some distance from revenue, however. Unitree shipped more than 5,500 humanoid units in 2025 across its G1, H1 and R1 lines. Most went to research labs and entertainment buyers rather than factory floors.
Meanwhile, capital keeps chasing machine labor. Tether led a $1.4 billion round for NEURA Robotics funding in June. NVIDIA struck robotics deals with LG and Doosan the same month, while Elon Musk pours billions into a record-sized chip factory.
Unitree IPO proceeds go toward embodied artificial intelligence, meaning software that controls physical machines, plus new robot bodies and factory capacity. Buyers must now decide whether a sprint record converts into industrial orders.
Read the Original story Unitree’s New Robot Hits 12.66 m/s — Faster Than Usain Bolt Ever Ran by Phil Haunhorst at beincrypto.com