Humanoid Robot Maker Unitree Pops an Outrageous 629% in Trading Debut

Gizmodo is not an international finance blog, so I can’t really tell you how unprecedented this is for the IPO of a Hangzhou, China-based company debuting on Shanghai’s STAR Market, but Unitree’s stock just skyrocketed by 629% on its first day of trading, according to Bloomberg .

It probably doesn’t hurt that, as we noted Monday , the company just unveiled a humanoid robot that’s faster than Usain Bolt, even if it moves like Shaggy trying to outrun a man in a gorilla suit when it does so:

The IPO price was 150.8 yuan, and it spiked to 1,100 yuan during trading.

That’s a big price pop by any standard. I’m familiar with one comparable story: the IPO of the Linux-friendly hardware company VA Linux , which shot up 698% on its first day in 1999. And that was at the height of the dot-com craze. VA Linux has changed names a few times , and is now— speaking of price pops — owned by GameStop . This all might be worth keeping in mind if you’re Unitree, but oh well. Enjoy your big day!