Meituan’s early robot bets pay off as Unitree IPO and two unicorn valuations put Wang Xing in the winner’s circle

Meituan emerges as the largest external backer in China’s embodied‑intelligence boom

Meituan (美团) has quietly become the largest external winner in China’s nascent embodied‑intelligence (具身智能) sector, after a string of early bets that are now maturing into paper gains. It has been reported that Unitree (宇树科技)’s IPO application has been accepted — Unitree is the only currently profitable player among the household names in the space — and Meituan’s stake in the company is now worth tens of millions of dollars by some counts. Meituan’s investment arm, Meituan Longzhu (美团龙珠), led or participated in multiple rounds across Unitree, Galaxy General (银河通用) and Xinghaitu (星海图), the latter two reportedly now valued at over RMB 200 billion each (approx. US$28–30 billion).

How early entry turned into a harvest

Reportedly Meituan holds roughly 9.65% of Unitree after two rounds of secondary transfers and follow‑on funding, a position that — on the company’s prospectus figures and market expectations — translates into a sizable unrealised gain versus the price Meituan paid in 2024. Meituan’s pattern was clear: scout the field, back teams early, then double down. It has been reported that Meituan participated in Galaxy General’s angel round and in multiple follow‑ons for Xinghaitu, locking in equity before valuations surged; both companies have since completed corporate restructurings (股改) and pushed toward later‑stage financings.

Talent scouting, US lab proof points, and a wider race for robots

Meituan Longzhu partners reportedly travelled to top U.S. robotics labs — Harvard, MIT, Stanford — and found Unitree hardware being used by researchers, a signal the team took as an investment inflection point. That human‑first scouting ethos, according to Meituan Longzhu partner Wang Xinyu (王新宇), drove selections more than short‑term market hype. The result: Meituan shows up repeatedly across the head‑count of leading startups (it appears in nine placements among eight top teams by one count), and has backed founders drawn heavily from elite Chinese electronics programs such as Tsinghua.

What it means for China’s tech and the geopolitical backdrop

The story is as much about China’s capital markets and industrial strategy as it is about private returns. Early domestic capital is now concentrating ownership in firms that could be strategic for automation, logistics and healthcare; it has been reported that Meituan’s portfolio companies already cooperate with the parent on piloting services. At the same time, this hardware‑centric wave sits inside a fraught global context: chip controls, export rules and U.S.‑China technology competition could shape supply chains and the pace of commercialization. Will Meituan’s windfall translate into a sustained position in robotics ecosystems — and what will that mean for rivals, regulators and global partners? The coming IPOs and financing rounds should make that clearer.