The Chinese stock market momentum remains strong, offering investors a potential source of diversification when compared to developed market indices. Xiaolin Chen, the Head of International at KraneShares, argues that China already sits at the center of the global robotics industry. The range of opportunities is expanding from industrial automation to humanoid robotics and embodied AI. Factories in the country show absolute dominance, with a record installation of 295,000 industrial robots in 2024, accounting for 54% of the global total.
China held an 80-90% market share of global humanoid robot shipments in 2025, driven by companies like AgiBot, Unitree, and UBTech. By the end of 2025, the nation hosted over 140 manufacturers and more than 330 models. This sector is a government priority; guidelines from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2023 set targets for large-scale production by 2025 and deep integration into the real economy by 2027.
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For Chen, this growth is driven by three interconnected structural forces: an aging and shrinking workforce, the world’s largest manufacturing base of roughly 100 million factory workers, and the convergence of AI with mechanical hardware. Morgan Stanley forecasts that the robotics market in China will grow at an annual rate of 23%, rising from $47 billion in 2024 to $108 billion by 2028, largely due to its lead in humanoid technology. Investors can access this ecosystem through the stock market, with names like Roborock and Ninebot already listed on the Star Market and included in the Star 50 index.
There is growing anticipation for the Unitree IPO. The embodied AI company, the first authorized to list on the A-shares, aims to raise about 4.2 billion Renminbi ($619 million) for an implied valuation near $6.2 billion. The Star Market, designed as a Nasdaq-style venue to retain China’s best hard-tech firms, has introduced unprecedented structural changes for the mainland. It now allows unprofitable companies to list based on alternative criteria. Since its launch, the number of listed companies has grown from 25 to 609, and the market capitalization exceeded 10 trillion Renminbi (around $1.4 trillion) by January 2026.
Strategic Sectors and Market Access
More than 80% of listed companies operate in emerging strategic sectors. The market boasts the highest intensity of active research and development among all A-share segments, with a median R&D spending of roughly 12% of revenue. The Star 50 has become the reference benchmark for advanced technology in China, with over 90% concentrated in computing and healthcare. The dominant themes are semiconductors and the push for chip self-sufficiency. Key players include Cambricon Tech, the AI chip designer; Hygon, a CPU producer; AMEC, a semiconductor equipment leader; and Montage Tech, an interface chip company.
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Surrounding these core technologies are themes related to the “new productive forces”: biopharmaceuticals and medical devices, high-end equipment and industrial automation, robotics, new energy, and new materials. Chen views the Star Market as the platform where unprofitable Chinese unicorns go public. In 2025, the market saw a boom in IPO requests, with 244 accepted, and IPO proceeds increased by 64% year-on-year in the first half of 2026.
While MSCI began including A-shares in 2018 with a 5% weight that rose to 20% in November 2019, the market access remains restricted. A-shares account for nearly 50% of China’s total market capitalization but only about 15.6% of the MSCI China index. Stock Connect access for Star Market shares, introduced in February 2021, is limited to professional institutional investors and a subset of stocks. Consequently, an investor replicating the MSCI Emerging Markets or ACWI index holds practically none of the approximately 600 companies on the Star Market. However, Chen notes this gap represents an opportunity. Because the A-share market is dominated by domestic flows with foreign participation hovering around 3-5%, onshore stocks—especially Star Market issues—tend to react to internal political and economic trends rather than global risk sentiment.
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