Humanoid robot IPO race heats up — will Yushu (宇树科技) be left behind?

IPO sprint as robots get competitive

It has been reported that Moon's Dark Side (月之暗面) is evaluating a Hong Kong initial public offering to capture the current investor frenzy around artificial intelligence. The discussions are said to be at an early stage and an IPO timetable has not been set. Why the rush? Because humanoid robotics and multimodal AI firms in China are moving fast — and public market windows open and close quickly.

Peers, valuations and the Hong Kong appeal

Domestic leaders named alongside Moon's Dark Side include DeepSeek, Yushu Technology (宇树科技) and others. Reportedly, recent Hong Kong listings such as Zhipu (智谱) and MiniMax have seen valuations jump to roughly $40 billion each after their January listings, underscoring strong local demand for AI plays. For many Chinese AI and robotics companies, Hong Kong has become the preferred listing venue as geopolitical tensions and U.S. regulatory scrutiny make U.S. public markets less certain.

Financing, product and backers

Moon's Dark Side reportedly completed more than $700 million in financing earlier this year and is said to be discussing a fresh private round of up to $1 billion that could value the firm at about $18 billion. The company, founded by former Tsinghua professor Yang Zhilin (杨植麟), counts Alibaba (阿里巴巴), Tencent (腾讯) and Five Source Capital (五源资本) among its investors. It has also released a Kimi model upgrade (K2.5) that can handle text, image and video in a single prompt and is applied in its Kimi Claw AI agent product. Moon's Dark Side and Goldman Sachs reportedly declined to comment, and CICC did not respond to requests.

Timing is the strategic variable

For rivals such as Yushu (宇树科技), the lesson is clear: timing matters as much as technology. If the sector’s public-market window narrows, late movers risk weaker pricing and lost momentum. Will companies race to list before expectations reset — or double down on private fundraising? With capital appetites still high but geopolitical headwinds persistent, that decision could determine which names lead China’s next-generation robotics boom.