Trading on August 24 saw Unitree Technology extend its losing streak, with shares plunging more than 10% intraday. Compared to its closing market capitalization of 341.772 billion yuan on its debut day, the company has now seen nearly 100 billion yuan wiped off its value over three consecutive sessions. The catalyst for this sharp correction may well be the ongoing 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing.

Disappointing Performance on the Track: From Multiple Champion to Reduced Participation

At last year's inaugural event, Unitree's robots claimed multiple championships in track and field events, enjoying a moment in the spotlight. However, according to this year's conference materials, no records of Unitree's team winning awards in several sprint events could be found. Only in the martial arts tai chi final did the Unitree team secure second place with a score of 21.21 points. The gap in on-field performance aligns with the company's "deliberate scaling back" before the competition. On August 22, Unitree's official WeChat account posted a message wishing the games success while admitting that, constrained by time, energy, the number of new robots, and testing progress, it could only reduce its participation in several registered events. The company stated that its past efforts were primarily focused on mass-produced products, adding, "We apologize for not being able to fully prepare for the competition." For a star company that just entered the capital market at an ultra-high valuation, this statement carries a distinct message for investors.

The Valuation Debate: An Issue P/E of 219x, Nearly Six Times the Industry Average

The essence of the violent stock price fluctuations is the market's vast disagreement over Unitree's valuation. The company's issue price-to-earnings ratio stands at a staggering 219.23 times, while the average static P/E for the general equipment manufacturing industry it belongs to is only 38.56 times—making it nearly six times higher than the industry norm. Based on the closing price on its first trading day, the dynamic P/E ratio exceeds 550 times, and at its intraday peak, the corresponding P/E ratio broke through 800 times. In terms of price-to-sales ratio, Unitree sits at approximately 35.89 times, compared to about 18 to 19 times for its Hong Kong-listed counterpart UBTech, nearly double. "The core assumption embedded in the 219x issue P/E is that the company needs to grow at a pace far exceeding the industry average over the next several years to justify its current valuation," noted an analyst. On the day of listing, Nomura issued an initiation report with a "buy" rating on Unitree but set a target price of just 370 yuan, far below the post-listing market price. Nomura projects Unitree's revenue for 2026 to 2028 at 2.687 billion yuan, 5.396 billion yuan, and 13.184 billion yuan respectively, representing year-on-year growth of 58%, 101%, and 144%. Even with such optimistic growth expectations, it would be difficult to support a P/E ratio of over 800 times. However, some argue that applying a purely manufacturing valuation framework to Unitree is not entirely fair. Market participants point out that considering the company's global leading share in quadruped robots and its first-mover advantage in humanoid robot mass production, its valuation includes a technology premium associated with the embodied intelligence sector.

Shifting Macro Environment: The Clearing of Crowded AI Trades

Unitree's valuation pressure is not an isolated event but a microcosm of the repricing of the entire AI industry chain. In the first half of this year, A-shares displayed intense enthusiasm for the AI sector. In May, Zhongji Innolight's stock price broke through the 1,000 yuan mark, and the Shanghai Composite Index once stood above 4,200 points. But the tide turned sharply in July, with GigaDevice retracing approximately 45% from its highs, and the A-share semiconductor index cumulative decline of around 30% from its July peak. In early August, impacted by news that the US planned to restrict exports of data center components to China, Zhongji Innolight fell more than 13% in a single day. Skepticism in the North American market regarding the return on capital expenditures by tech giants like Nvidia and Google is being transmitted along the computing power supply chain into the A-share pricing system. Multiple institutional sources indicated that the essence of this round of adjustment is the unwinding of crowded trades. Although the semiconductor industry's P/E ratio has retreated from its intra-year high of 216 times to around 173 times, it remains more than 50% higher than the 112 times seen a year ago. Against this backdrop, the high pricing of the new 1,000-yuan stock appears particularly conspicuous.

Founder's "Deliberate Cooling"

On August 20, at the World Robot Conference, Unitree founder Wang Xingxing candidly stated that robots entering factories "currently lack sufficient efficiency and generalization capabilities," and that embodied large models are still in the early stages of development globally. This statement has been interpreted by the market as a deliberate effort to cool down the high valuation. From scaling back at the competition to the founder's measured tone, from the 800x P/E ratio to a 100 billion yuan loss in three days, Unitree is undergoing its first valuation calibration since listing. As the narrative heat around embodied intelligence meets the test of industrial reality, the market will ultimately have to answer one question: Should humanoid robots be valued based on manufacturing metrics or tech stock metrics?