Unitree Robotics, one of China’s hottest technology startups, is planning an initial public offering that could value the company at up to 50 billion yuan ($7 billion), and help establish itself as a global leader in humanoid robots. 

So-called humanoid robots are artificial intelligence-powered machines designed to resemble humans in appearance and movement, with applications in the industrial and service sectors.

Zhejiang-based Unitree has established itself as a leader in China’s humanoid robot space, and its listing plans could make it one of the first companies specializing in the technology to go public.

The company’s fresh valuation target, first reported by Reuters, citing two people with knowledge of the plans, would mark a sharp jump from its latest fundraising round reported on in June. At the time, the company had attracted major backers such as Geely, Alibaba and Tencent.

Unitree, in a post on its X account on Aug. 27, outlined its plans to IPO, saying that it was actively advancing listing preparations and was expecting to submit the application documents in the fourth quarter of the year.

It remains unclear how much Unitree is seeking to raise in the IPO. The company recently told local Chinese media that it’s been profitable since 2020 and now has revenues exceeding 1 billion Chinese yuan ($140.35 million).

Unitree did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

An offering of this size would be one of the largest Chinese tech listings in recent years. The mainland stock market has been gradually reviving following years of tightened regulatory scrutiny and volatility.

Unitree’s listing plan also comes as Beijing steps up efforts to support its local champions in artificial intelligence-related industries. Its founder, Wang Xingxing, was reportedly among a group of tech leaders who attended a rare meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this year.

In 2023, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued guidelines for humanoid robots, calling for “production at scale” by 2025.

A research note from Morgan Stanley last month said that the Unitree G1 was likely the most used humanoid robot globally, given its low $16,000 starting price point. Tesla’s Optimus Gen2 humanoid robot is expected to cost at least $20,000.

Meanwhile, Unitree recently unveiled a new humanoid, the Unitree R1, with a starting price of $5,900. According to Morgan Stanley, while these cheaper humanoids may not be the most advanced, they will be valuable for Unitree to collect critical data needed to train its next generation of robot models. 

Still, while China may have an early lead in the commercial success of humanoid robots, analysts note that the U.S. has strengths in the broader AI robotics environment. 

The U.S. has strong chipset makers like Nvidia and Intel, hyperscalers such as Google and Meta, and robotics software vendors such as Physical Intelligence and Skild AI, which give it an “equally, if not more robust” overall humanoid robot ecosystem, said Omdia analyst Su. 

For example, Chinese humanoid robot makers – including Unitree Robotics – have become early adopters of Nvidia’s humanoid robot technologies. That includes Nvidia’s recently released Jetson AGX Thor platform, which enables their machines to have real-time, intelligent interactions with people. 

Merrill Lynch analysts estimated in a recent research note that global humanoid robot shipments will reach 18,000 units in 2025 from 2,500 units the year prior. It also estimates a global robot population of 3 billion by 2060. 

Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) aims to increase its European electric car sales 17-fold over the next two years, becoming the latest Chinese player to take on the region’s traditional automakers through aggressive expansion.

The entrance of the Chinese state-owned carmaker will exacerbate competition in the already intense European market that has recently seen interest from players from the world’s second largest economy, from BYD to Xpeng.

GAC’s presence will likely further add pressure on European giants — such as BMW and Mercedes — that have looked to fend off Chinese entrants with their own electric vehicles.

“Europe is one of our five major markets. It is a strategic market. We hope Europe will account for a major portion of our overseas market in the future,” Wei Haigang, president of GAC International, told CNBC in an interview at the IAA Mobility auto show in Munich on Monday.

Wei said GAC hopes to sell around 3,000 cars in Europe this year, before boosting this target to 15,000 in 2026 and at least 50,000 units by 2027.

GAC showed off its Aion V and Aion UT fully electric cars at the IAA show this week. Wei said the company is also looking to launch a plug-in hybrid car in Europe in the future.

The targets are aggressive, but come as Chinese companies continue to make inroads into Europe’s electric vehicle market. The market share of Chinese car brands in the first half of the year in Europe almost doubled from the same period last year, according to Jato Dynamics. While the market share remains small at just over 5%, it has notched rapid growth.

GAC is setting sights on expansion despite the European Union’s tariffs on China-made EVs, with the company saying it is looking at local manufacturing in Europe.

“We are hoping the Chinese government and the European Union can negotiate further to bring the tariffs down,” Wei said. “In the future, we hope to accelerate the manufacturing localization. So that, in the future, we [can] build up manufacturing capability in Europe for Europe, to better serve the European markets.”

Artificial intelligence infrastructure firm Nebius Group soared in U.S. premarket trading on Tuesday, following the company’s announcement of a multi-billion-dollar deal with Microsoft.

Nebius’ stock was up 51% at 10:39 a.m. London time (05:39 a.m. E.T.)

The Amsterdam-based firm announced it had struck a multi-year deal with Microsoft worth $19.4 billion to provide cloud computing power for AI workloads. Nebius, which was spun out from Russian internet giant Yandex in 2023, provides graphics processing units — or GPUs — for training AI models.

The deal will be worth $17.4 billion through 2031 to Nebius, which counts the likes of Nvidia and Accel as investors. Microsoft may also acquire additional computing capacity under the arrangement.

Nebius shares climbed 60% Monday in extended trading and continued to surge Tuesday amid investor excitement over the deal. The news also boosted shares of rival AI infrastructure firm CoreWeave, which was up 6.6% in premarket trading.

The Nebius-Microsoft pact suggests demand for powerful computing equipment needed to train and run advanced AI systems remains strong.

Last month, Nvidia, the biggest player in the AI infrastructure space, reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the three months through June and said it expects sales growth for the current quarter to remain above 50%, amid continued demand for its AI chips.

Nvidia Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said in the company’s earnings call at the time that it expects between $3 trillion and $4 trillion in AI infrastructure spending by the end of the decade.

Markets were rattled last month after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and a number of experts and analysts raised concerns that the AI market may be in a bubble.

Valuations of private AI companies have soared in the last three years. OpenAI is reported to be fetching a $500 billion valuation, while Anthropic last week secured a $13 billion funding round at a $183 billion valuation.