Ubtech Robotics officially began worldwide shipments of its U1 consumer companion robot this week, and the early numbers are turning heads. By June 30, the Shenzhen-based company had racked up 13,361 pre-orders, a figure that dwarfs the 1,079 humanoids it sold in all of 2025. The stock responded by climbing more than 7% to €11.72, yet the shares remain roughly 31% below their January high of €17.00. The market is clearly demanding more than a promising backlog.
The U1 lineup targets the premium end of the living room. The entry-level U1 Lite carries a price tag of 119,800 yuan (about $17,650), while the flagship U1 Ultra — available in male and female versions — costs between 880,000 and 990,000 yuan (roughly $146,000). All models feature 88 degrees of freedom and an AI system that claims to read human emotions with over 90% accuracy. The male U1 Ultra stands 183cm tall and weighs 42kg. CEO Zhou Jian has set a delivery target of more than 10,000 units for 2026, with mass production scheduled to begin in mid-September.
But Ubtech is not the only humanoid story in China, and its investors are acutely aware of the competition. On June 1, the Shanghai Stock Exchange approved the STAR Market IPO of Unitree Robotics — the first “embodied AI” company to list on China’s A-share market. Unitree plans to issue at least 40.4 million new shares and raise 4.2 billion yuan. The contrast in financial health is stark. Unitree delivered over 5,500 humanoids in 2025, booked its first profitable year, and posted an adjusted net profit of 600 million yuan. Ubtech, meanwhile, has accumulated losses of more than 5.6 billion yuan between 2020 and 2025, and its net loss in 2025 still came in at 790 million yuan, though that was a 32% improvement year-on-year.
Ubtech is trying to close the gap through vertical integration. In April, it paid roughly 1.67 billion yuan for a 43% stake in precision manufacturer Zhejiang Fenglong Electric, locking up direct production capacity. A more ambitious move came in mid-June, when it formed a joint venture with GPU designer Moore Threads. The new entity, XiXuan Chuangzhi Technology, is capitalized at 100 million yuan and will develop AI chips that run inference directly on the robot, eliminating the need for cloud connectivity. Mass production of those chips is expected in 2028, a timeline that underscores how long the payoff may take.
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On the financial front, there are some green shoots. Ubtech’s revenue jumped 53% in 2025 to 2.0 billion yuan, while its gross margin expanded from 28.7% to 37.7%. Management is guiding for a margin of 40–43% in 2026, alongside the 10,000-unit delivery target. Yet the company still spent 507 million yuan on R&D last year — more than a quarter of total revenue — and its cash burn remains a concern. The annualized 30-day volatility of nearly 74% reflects how speculative the stock is perceived to be.
Investor sentiment, measured by the relative strength index, sits at a neutral 50.2, and the share price of €11.72 is just a whisker below the 50-day moving average of €11.98. The broader sector is drawing capital: more than 20 billion yuan flowed into over 50 financing rounds in Chinese robotics during the first quarter of 2026, a nearly 60% increase year-on-year. That tailwind lifts all boats, but it also brings more rivals.
For Ubtech, the autumn will be decisive. If mass production ramps on schedule and the first deliveries meet the promised timeline, the growth narrative will finally have hard numbers to back it up. Until then, the market is left weighing a surge in pre-orders against a history of losses and a well-capitalized competitor already in the black.
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