On August 19, the Shanghai Composite Index plunged 2.4% to fall below the 3,900-point mark, with more than 5,000 stocks declining and markets in turmoil. Yet amid the sea of red, Unitree Robotics single-handedly created the most striking wealth effect of the day — surging 460.34% on its debut to close at 845 yuan, generating paper gains of over 340,000 yuan per allotment. In the days leading up to the listing, "How much can you earn from one Unitree Robotics allotment" trended on social media as retail investors rushed to make "cyber wishes."

Unitree Robotics officially launched its STAR Market online and offline subscription on August 10, with an issue price of 150.80 yuan per share, corresponding to a post-listing market value of approximately 61 billion yuan. However, the retail share of allotments is actually quite limited. The real bulk has long been firmly held by institutional investors. Moreover, many institutions did not enter at the IPO subscription stage — they completed their positions in earlier funding rounds, when the company was still burning cash. Among the most notable participants are insurance funds.

In Unitree Robotics' shareholder structure, insurance capital does not appear directly in the top ten shareholder list. But after penetrating the multi-layered equity structure, it becomes clear that more than 30 insurance institutions — including China Pacific Insurance, AIA Life Insurance, China Life Insurance, PICC Property & Casualty, and China Post Life Insurance — have completed deep positioning through private equity fund channels. Three weeks earlier, domestic memory chip leader CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies) also listed on the STAR Market, with insurance funds reaping substantial gains — six insurers including Hexie Health recorded combined paper profits exceeding 110 billion yuan. Now, will the same script repeat with Unitree Robotics?

Over 30 Insurers Secretly Position Through Private Equity Channels

Unlike CXMT, insurance institutions do not appear as "named shareholders" in Unitree Robotics' shareholder list. According to the prospectus disclosure, as of the signing date, Unitree Robotics' shareholders consist of one natural person and 45 institutions, with all insurance capital participating as limited partners (LPs) in private equity funds, completing indirect positioning through multi-layer structures. After penetrating the equity structure, three main fund channels for insurance capital investment in Unitree Robotics can be traced.

The first channel is Jinshi Growth Equity Investment (Hangzhou) Partnership, which holds 4.152% of Unitree Robotics' shares, ranking as the company's seventh-largest shareholder. Its LP lineup includes three insurance institutions: Ruize Zhongren Life Insurance, New China Life Insurance, and Zijin Insurance, with shareholding ratios of 5.45%, 2.55%, and 1% respectively. After penetration, the indirect shareholding ratios are approximately 0.23%, 0.11%, and 0.04% respectively.

The second channel is the China Internet Investment Fund (CIIF), which holds 2.1089% of Unitree Robotics. China Post Life Insurance achieved indirect shareholding by participating in this fund. According to the second-quarter 2026 solvency report, China Post Life Insurance holds a 19.93% stake in the fund. Based on this ratio, its indirect shareholding in Unitree Robotics after penetration is approximately 0.42%.

The third channel is Nanjing Jingwei Chuang No.3 Investment Partnership, which directly holds 1.193% of Unitree Robotics' shares. In its capital structure, Pacific Long-Term Equity Investment Fund contributed 500 million yuan (24.59%), AIA Life Insurance contributed 400 million yuan (19.67%), and MetLife contributed 200 million yuan (9.84%). The combined contribution ratio of the three insurance institutions in this fund exceeds 50%. Based on these ratios, the indirect shareholding ratios of the three insurers in Unitree Robotics after penetration are approximately 0.29%, 0.24%, and 0.12% respectively.

Penetrating further into the lower-level fund structures, the insurance capital lineup expands significantly. More than 20 insurance institutions — including China Life Insurance, PICC Property & Casualty, PICC Life, PICC Health, PICC Capital, Dajia Life, Dongwu Life, Guohua Life, Union Life, and CITIC-Prudential Life — hold indirect stakes through channels such as the National SME Development Fund and the Wuhan Yuanxia Fund (Source Code Capital).

Industry analysts point out that insurers choose indirect investment through private equity fund LP structures rather than direct equity investment, primarily based on considerations of professional capability, risk control, and asset allocation. Humanoid robots represent a typical hard-tech field involving artificial intelligence, robot control, chips, materials, and other directions, with high investment professionalism and uncertainty. Through professional private equity funds, insurers can leverage fund managers' project screening and post-investment management capabilities to improve investment efficiency.

Secondary Market Additions: 37 Insurance Institutions Receive Allotments Exceeding 1 Billion Yuan

In fact, insurers' positioning in Unitree Robotics extends far beyond pre-IPO indirect shareholding. In the offline allocation stage, insurance capital once again concentrated its additions. According to the preliminary offline allocation results announced by Unitree Robotics on the evening of August 11, after the clawback mechanism was activated, the final offline offering volume was 22,650,148 shares. Based on public data, 37 insurance companies and insurance asset management companies among Class A investors received approximately 6,829,700 shares in total, with an allotment value of nearly 1.03 billion yuan. Insurance institutions' allotted shares account for approximately 35% of all Class A investors.

Among them, the largest allotment went to Taikang Asset, whose 642 investment portfolios received 1.82 million shares worth approximately 274 million yuan — also the largest allotment among all offline subscription investors. China Life Pension, Ping An Pension, and Huatai Asset received approximately 932,200 shares, 843,500 shares, and 810,000 shares respectively.

Notably, among the 2,617 investment portfolios of the 37 insurance companies and insurance asset management companies that received offline allotments, pension companies and insurance asset management companies are the absolute main force. Six pension companies received approximately 3.09 million shares worth about 466 million yuan, accounting for over 45%; 20 insurance asset management companies received approximately 3.53 million shares worth about 532 million yuan. This means insurers' participation in Unitree Robotics has formed a path of "primary market private equity fund investment + IPO offline allocation additions."

An insurance asset management industry insider stated that humanoid robots represent one of the more certain directions in the hard-tech track in recent years. As an industry leader, Unitree naturally became a key target for various institutions. From CXMT to Unitree Robotics, insurance capital's positioning in the hard-tech track is shifting from "sporadic trial" to "systematic deployment." Multiple deep considerations drive this large-scale betting. New quality productive forces represent the core direction of China's economic transition from old to new growth drivers. Key fields such as AI, semiconductors, and humanoid robots are highly aligned with the strategic directions of "cultivating and strengthening emerging industries and future industries" proposed in the national 15th Five-Year Plan. For insurance capital, investing in hard-core technology that determines national competitiveness means positioning for the most certain growth directions over the next decade or two.

After CXMT, Can Insurers Replicate the 100-Billion-Yuan Paper Profit Feat with Unitree Robotics?

The returns from CXMT's listing at the end of July were nothing short of stunning for insurance capital. Public information shows that six insurance entities — Hexie Health, China Life Investment, PICC Capital, Sunshine Life, China Post Life Insurance, and PICC Sci-Tech Innovation — cumulatively subscribed 2.385 billion yuan. On its debut, CXMT surged 465.82%, with total market value exceeding 3.28 trillion yuan, generating combined paper profits of approximately 114.489 billion yuan for the six insurers.

Can Unitree Robotics replicate this performance? Based on currently disclosed public information, insurers participating in Unitree Robotics' investment are generally in a high paper-profit range, though profit levels vary significantly across different positioning paths. In the offline subscription phase, 37 insurance and insurance asset management institutions received total allotments of nearly 1.03 billion yuan. With Unitree Robotics surging 460.34% on its debut, paper profits from the new-share subscription portion alone exceed 4.7 billion yuan — approximately 1.6 times the paper profits corresponding to the average first-day gain of about 280% for new stocks in the first half of the year.

For insurers that positioned early through primary market LP channels, the paper profit potential is even more substantial. Seven insurers including China Post Life Insurance, China Pacific Insurance, and AIA Life Insurance had already held indirect stakes through funds during Unitree Robotics' Series C financing round in 2024, when the company's post-investment valuation was approximately 8 billion yuan. Now that Unitree Robotics has listed on the STAR Market with an issue market value of about 61 billion yuan, even accounting for equity dilution from subsequent financing rounds, the paper profits on these early insurance holdings are generally higher than secondary market investments. Some institutions that entered even earlier have even higher profit multiples.

However, insurers' paper profits are mostly stage-based book gains. Early primary market holdings are subject to longer lock-up periods, and most newly allotted shares are incorporated into insurers' long-term allocation portfolios rather than being fully sold on the first trading day. The actual realized returns cannot yet be accurately calculated.

Comparing CXMT and Unitree Robotics reveals distinct differences in insurers' investment paths. CXMT represents a typical case of direct shareholding by insurance capital — Hexie Health directly held 1.5%, ranking among the top ten shareholders. Unitree Robotics, by contrast, exemplifies indirect investment through private equity funds, with over 30 insurers "lurking" through LP channels. Both paths lead to the same destination: 40 trillion yuan of insurance capital is becoming one of the most important funding sources for China's hard-tech sector. As of the end of the second quarter of 2026, insurance companies' total funds under management had reached 40.82 trillion yuan. The systematic migration from traditional real estate and financial assets toward hard-tech tracks such as AI, semiconductors, and humanoid robots is evolving into an irreversible asset allocation megatrend over the next three to five years.