For the first time, DeepSeek has put the performance of Chinese AI models on par with European and American giants, and many foreign institutions have expressed optimism about Chinese assets. In fact, DeepSeek is not the only Chinese technology company that shocked the world, and Unitree Technology Robot, which is also one of the "Hangzhou Six Little Dragons", basically confirmed its leading position after appearing on the Spring Festival Gala.

In November 2024, Unitree open-sourced the operation dataset of the humanoid robot G1, covering five major tasks such as screwing the bottle cap, pouring water, and stacking color blocks, including 640x480 resolution images and seven-dimensional robotic arm status data, which can be quickly deployed through the HuggingFace LeRobot framework; In December 2024, Unitree announced that it will fully open source the robot training code, including reinforcement learning (RL) training framework and Sim-to-Sim (simulation-to-simulation) and Sim-to-Real (simulation-to-reality) migration code, covering the verification of Unitree H1, G1 and other models, so that developers can quickly realize the deployment of algorithms to real machines, and shorten the R&D cycle by 30%; At the end of last year, Unitree released a demonstration video of the B2-W robot dog, which showed its flipping, spinning, handstand and stability on complex terrain in the air, which also caused a global sensation and was retweeted and commented by Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX; At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2025), Unitree showcased the latest Go2 robot dog and G1 humanoid robot, further consolidating its position in the global robotics field.

If the investment direction of Deepseek is worth paying attention to, then the investment and logic of Unitree Technology are also worth studying.

Three macro factors drive the revaluation of Unitree

Unitree Technology has four core advantages in the field of robotics. First of all, in terms of technical barriers, Unitree Technology is the only company in the world that realizes the full-stack self-development of large model + precision actuator. Secondly, compared with its competitors, Unitree has a significant cost advantage, and the mass production cost is 75% lower than that of Boston Dynamics. Unitree's quadruped robot Go1 series starts at 16,000 yuan (about $2,300); Boston Dynamics' first quadruped robot, Spot, sold for $74,500 (more than 500,000 yuan). Third, Unitree's data flywheel can allow 500,000 robots to send back data in real time, and the model iteration speed is the first in the industry. Finally, Unitree Technology has policy advantages, and the company is the only private enterprise selected as China's National Robot Innovation Center.

In addition to Unitree's own monopoly advantage, which has made its valuation rise, the policy has also helped the company drive value revaluation. First of all, the increase from the policy side. China's "14th Five-Year Plan" robot industry plan will be implemented, and the financial subsidy + tax reduction and exemption will exceed 50 billion yuan in 2025, focusing on supporting the integration and innovation of "large model + robot". At this level, Unitree has established a cooperative relationship with DeepSeek, which aims to integrate DeepSeek's powerful AI technology into Unitree's robot products to promote the development of intelligent robots. Secondly, the explosion from the demand side. In the industrial field, the labor cost of the manufacturing industry increased by 12% year-on-year, forcing the transformation of factory automation. In this context, the sales volume of industrial robots in China will be 450,000 units in 2024, an increase of 58% year-on-year. According to the forecast of the China Business Industry Research Institute, the market size of China's service robots will reach 73.8 billion yuan in 2024 and 85 billion yuan in 2025. Finally, it stems from the restructuring of the global supply chain. The Ministry of Science and Technology has included humanoid robots in the "strategic technology list", and the localization rate is required to be ≥70% (2027 target). Unitree Technology's self-research rate of core components exceeds 90% (motors, reducers, motor drives, encoders, sensors, main control systems and even batteries, etc.) to avoid the risk of European and American technology blockade.

The value of enterprises in the industrial chain has been revalued

As a leading enterprise in the field of quadruped robots in the world, Unitree Technology will not only affect the company itself, but also have a significant impact on the component suppliers in the supply chain.

In the A-share market, the enterprises officially announced to cooperate with Unitree Technology mainly include the following categories: direct suppliers, technical partners and indirect shareholders. Among the direct suppliers, Changsheng Bearing (300718. SZ) as a supplier of self-lubricating bearings of Unitree Technology, its products are mainly used for robot joint parts. Since the confirmation of the cooperation in July 2024, the share price of Changsheng Bearing has risen sharply, nearly doubling after the Spring Festival, and the market value has nearly doubled from last year's low. Zhongda De (002896. SZ), Shengtong Co., Ltd. (002599. SZ) has also officially announced that it has relevant cooperation with Unitree Technology. Zhongda provides Unitree Technology with core components of robot joint movement, such as reducer, etc.; Shengtong Co., Ltd. cooperates with Unitree Technology in the education of quadruped robots, and is the only company in the A-share market that directly cooperates with Unitree Technology in the field of quadruped robots. Both companies have doubled their market capitalization this year.

In terms of technical partners, Lingyunguang (688400. SH) and Unitree Technology jointly developed an embodied intelligent solution, based on its self-developed motion capture system FZMotion, to provide high-precision motion capture technology support for robots. Beiwei Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (002148. SZ) provides 5G connected solutions for Unitree to support the networking application of unmanned equipment such as robot dogs. Although the valuations of these companies have also increased this year, the recognition of funds is slightly less than that of direct suppliers.

Among the indirect shareholders, Kingfa Technology (600143. SH), Shiyida (002137. SZ), Sangfor (300454.SZ) and others indirectly hold shares of Unitree Technology, but these companies hold less than 1%, and the impact is relatively limited.

Unitree Technology leads the robot industry track to achieve value revaluation. In the future, as the company continues to raise the ceiling of the robot industry, the current valuation revaluation is only the beginning. At present, the robot parts companies that have not entered the company's supply chain system can also reap the overall high premium dividend in the context of the rapid development of the industry.

It can be seen from the ratio of each component of the robot to the total cost that the servo system and reducer account for half of the cost, accounting for 35% and 20% respectively, followed by AI computing power modules, force sensors, solid-state batteries, and carbon fiber structural parts with 18%, 10%, 8%, and 7% respectively. For enterprises in China's robot industry chain, the technology premium component company Inovance Technology (300124. SZ) (servo system), Mingzhi Electric (603728. SH) (servo system) and other high-priced quality link enterprises are expected to benefit from the explosion of demand in the robot industry, with strong order visibility and further higher valuation. In addition, the domestic alternative benchmark green harmonic (688017. SH) (harmonic reducer), Zhongfu Shenying (688295. SH) (carbon fiber) is expected to break the overseas monopoly and increase cost controllability for robots. Enterprises with technology reuse lines, such as Tuopu Group (601689. SH) (lightweight) and Cambrian-U (688256.SH) (AI chips) are expected to penetrate across industries and open the second growth curve.

This round of the clarion call for the revaluation of Chinese technology companies has sounded, and the robot industry will be the vanguard.