DeepSeek buys into Unitree's $9 billion listing — and signs up to build the robots' brain
DeepSeek put 140.8 million yuan ($20.8 million) into robot maker Unitree's Shanghai IPO, taking 933,399 shares — 2.31% of the strategic placement, locked up for three years. Unitree priced the offering at 150.8 yuan a share, valuing the company at roughly 61 billion yuan ($9.04 billion). In a separate filing the two Hangzhou companies said they will jointly develop AI models for humanoid machines.
Why it mattersHumanoid robots have largely solved walking and gripping; what they still lack is a brain that can read an unfamiliar room and turn a spoken instruction into a sequence of physical actions. Tying China's best-known model lab to its best-known robot maker is a direct bet on closing that gap, and the three-year lockup says DeepSeek is not treating this as a trade. It lands days after DeepSeek reopened its own $7 billion funding round at a $70 billion valuation.
▶ Related video: Inside Unitree Robotics: China's hottest humanoid robot company
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