Unitree Robotics raises about $900 million in Shanghai IPO

A company in China called Unitree Robotics makes robots that look and move like people.

Its robots can do kung fu moves, climb walls, and do backflips, and millions of people have watched videos of them.

Now Unitree is trying to raise about $900 million by selling shares of the company on the stock market, in a move called an initial public offering.

Some people in the United States worry that Chinese robots could secretly collect information or make computer systems unsafe, so the government plans to ban them from being sold in the US.

China says these worries are not fair and has announced actions in response.

Many experts think humanoid robots are an exciting next step for artificial intelligence, where machines learn by moving and working in the real world, but nobody is sure if many people will buy them soon.

Unitree showed off its kung fu robots on national television at the Lunar New Year celebration, and its founder, Wang Xingxing, sat across from China's leader, Xi Jinping, at a big technology symposium.

Wang started the company about ten years ago when he was a university student, and today it sells robots for factories, schools, and homes, with prices from under $5,000 to more than $150,000.