Yushu Technology Co.,Ltd. (688836.SH), poised to become the first "humanoid robot stock" on the STAR Market, has announced its listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange for August 19. On August 17, the company also unveiled its latest robot, "Superman," through an official video, with founder Wang Xingxing on-site overseeing the machine's high-jump demonstration. The robot has achieved a standing high jump of 2 meters and a top speed of 12.66 m/s (with 0.85-meter legs), surpassing world records for both standing jumps and sprint speed. Developed from scratch in just over three months, the company notes significant room for improvement in the coming months.
The intense market interest in Yushu Technology has been evident, with the online subscription phase concluding recently. Reports indicate that an informal "gray market" for the stock has emerged, with various intermediaries acquiring new shares at widely varying prices, some offering as high as 520 yuan per share. This premium stands in stark contrast to the offering price of 150.8 yuan per share for 40,446,434 shares, highlighting the market's bullish sentiment and high expectations for the company.
Turning to the insurance sector, the successful IPO of ChangXin Memory Technologies at the end of July had already yielded substantial paper gains. Six insurers, including Hexie Health, Guoshou Investment, PICC Capital, Sunshine Life, China Post Life, and PICC Sci-Tech, saw combined paper profits of 114.4 billion yuan on their investments. Now, 37 insurance institutions have successfully subscribed to Yushu Technology's IPO, with Taikang Asset Management taking the lead, followed by China Life Pension and Ping An Pension in second and third place. The question arises: can this round of insurance capital investment replicate the wealth-creation success seen previously?
Why just 10 ASX 200 shares?
The demand for Yushu Technology's IPO has been nothing short of explosive. The online subscription multiple reached an astonishing 8,288 times, and after the activation of the clawback mechanism, the final online lottery rate was a mere 0.018%, making it significantly harder to secure shares than in the recent ChangXin listing. A company announcement on August 11 revealed the preliminary placement details for offline investors, showing 37 insurance institutions allocated a combined total of approximately 6.83 million shares, valued at nearly 1.03 billion yuan.
After the clawback mechanism was triggered, the offline issuance was set at 22,650,148 shares. Among these, Class A investors—including public funds, social security funds, bank wealth management products, and insurance capital—received an initial allocation of approximately 19,333,800 shares. This means that insurance institutions accounted for roughly 35% of all Class A investor allocations. Specifically, 20 insurance asset management companies and 6 pension insurance companies (including China Life Pension, Ping An Pension, Changjiang Pension, PICC Pension, Taiping Pension, and Xinhua Pension) were the primary allocators. The 20 asset managers received about 3.53 million shares worth 532 million yuan, while the 6 pension companies got around 3.09 million shares valued at 466 million yuan.
A breakdown of the allocation data shows that Taikang Asset Management secured the largest share among insurers, with an initial allocation of 1,820,003 shares worth 274 million yuan. China Life Pension and Ping An Pension followed in second and third place, with allocations of 932,237 shares (141 million yuan) and 843,540 shares (127 million yuan), respectively. The top ten insurance institutions by allocation amount collectively received 914 million yuan worth of shares. Even before the IPO, insurers had already established indirect positions in Yushu Technology as limited partners (LPs) in private equity funds. According to the prospectus, Jingwei No.3 holds a 1.1930% stake in the company, with partners including Taikang Changhang Equity Investment Fund, AIA Life, and MetLife, holding shares of 24.59%, 19.672%, and 9.836%, respectively.
A Decade in the Making
Founded in 2016, Yushu Technology was built on founder Wang Xingxing's vision of "using technology to advance the world." However, the company truly captured public attention during the 2025 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, where its robots performed a lively yangge dance, complete with complex formations, rapid spins, handkerchief tossing, and backflips, showcasing China's advanced robotics capabilities to a national and global audience. Like many hard-tech companies, Yushu Technology began with significant upfront investment. Benefiting from surging demand in the embodied intelligence sector, the company's revenue has skyrocketed from 123 million yuan in 2022 to 1.699 billion yuan in 2025, a nearly 13.8-fold increase in four years. By 2025, humanoid robots had surpassed quadruped robots to become the company's largest business segment, accounting for 51.78% of revenue, up from just 1.88% in 2023.
Despite rising revenues, substantial R&D and sales expenses made profitability elusive. The company recorded losses in 2022 and 2023 but successfully turned profitable in 2024, with net income attributable to shareholders of 95 million yuan, which grew rapidly to 278 million yuan in 2025. Wang Xingxing views the IPO as a significant milestone, stating, "I see listing as akin to a college entrance exam—a stage marker for a company transitioning to more mature management and operations. It's a testament to the past nine-plus years and a commitment to our shareholders." The company's stated objectives for going public include seizing opportunities in the robotics industry, advancing core technology research, optimizing corporate governance, and building momentum for sustainable development.
Insurance Capital and Hard-Tech: A Growing Partnership
Amidst regulatory encouragement for "long-term capital," insurance funds are actively supporting the capital markets. Throughout 2025, regulators have rolled out policies to ease assessment standards for insurers, guiding them to act as "patient capital" for new productive forces. In March, a joint directive encouraged insurers to focus on companies undertaking major national science and technology projects, strengthening investments in emerging industries. In the second quarter, insurers accelerated their market entry. Data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration shows that as of the end of Q2 2026, total insurance fund utilization reached 40.82 trillion yuan, a 3.5% increase from the previous quarter. The book value of equity investments by life insurers stood at 3.86 trillion yuan, with property insurers adding another 241.3 billion yuan, totaling 4.1 trillion yuan. This year, insurers have increased their stock investments by 365.9 billion yuan, with 263.4 billion yuan added in Q2 alone.
Insurance capital has shown a particular affinity for hard-tech stocks, with executives from multiple listed insurers highlighting investments in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, commercial aerospace, and biopharmaceuticals. Beyond Yushu Technology, the shareholder list of chip giant ChangXin Memory Technologies, which listed in July, also features several insurers. Before its IPO, six insurers collectively held 2.384 billion shares of ChangXin. The trend of insurers increasing their hard-tech exposure is driven by two factors: the need to boost asset-side returns in a low-interest-rate environment to mitigate "spread loss" risks, and the natural alignment between the long-term, patient nature of insurance capital and the extended R&D cycles and significant funding needs of hard-tech firms, which often incur initial losses.
However, as insurers deepen their involvement in the hard-tech sector, they must also navigate the inherent high risks of technological innovation. Companies like ChangXin and Yushu Technology represent the few that have succeeded in this competitive arena. Balancing risk and reward remains a key challenge for insurance capital. As Yushu Technology prepares for its public market debut on August 19, all eyes will be on its first-day performance.