Manycore Is Just The Beginning

Manycore Tech is the oldest of Hangzhou’s Six Little Dragons and the first to go public.

Manycore was co-founded in 2011 by Victor Huang, who previously worked at Nvidia before returning to China to build a 3D spatial design platform. The company later pivoted into spatial intelligence, developing AI that can understand, generate and reason about 3D physical environments.

Last week, Manycore’s shares closed 144% above their offer price on the first day of trading, raising HK$1.22 billion ($160 million) and valuing the company at $4.5 billion. The company is valued at $8.42 billion as of April 20, 2026.

This successful debut serves as a strong signal of significant investor appetite for companies with credible, AI-driven growth stories. While Manycore may not be a perfect proxy for other companies in the sector due to its unique business model, its performance remains an important indicator for the market.

Could Unitree Be Next?

Unitree may be one of the most important IPO debuts not just for Hangzhou, but for all of China.

Founded in 2016 by Wang Xingxing, Unitree designs, manufactures and sells both quadruped robots and humanoid robots for enterprise and consumer markets. Unitree shipped 5,500 humanoid units in 2025, securing a 32.4% share of the global market. In contrast, Tesla has not yet sold any Optimus humanoid robots.

According to Reuters, the company has filed for a Shanghai IPO and aims to raise RMB 4.2 billion, making it one of China’s largest and most anticipated listings in recent years. The filing matters not only because Unitree is one of China’s best-known startup names, also is emerging as one of the most important companies in the humanoid robotics industry.

Unitree will be the first genuine investment opportunity for public investors to determine if humanoid robotics warrants sustained public capital-markets attention beyond viral videos and gala performances.

Unfortunately, their decision to pursue a listing in Shanghai rather than Hong Kong will result in more limited access for international investors compared to a Hong Kong IPO. Consequently, this move creates a less direct path for global capital to gain exposure to one of China’s most anticipated IPOs.

BrainCo Is Also Coming To Hong Kong

Founded in 2015 by Bicheng Han, BrainCo develops non-invasive brain-computer interface technology that competes with Elon Musk’s Neuralink through a non-surgical approach. Han began building the company while studying at Harvard. BrainCo confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO in January 2025, accordingly to Bloomberg.

The company is also a reminder that Hangzhou’s ecosystem can attract not only local talent, but global founders as well.

What Happened To DeepSeek?

DeepSeek is an outlier in this lineup as there is currently no indication of an upcoming IPO. Founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, the company originated from the compute infrastructure he developed at High-Flyer Quant following his studies at Zhejiang University.

DeepSeek is best known for developing foundational large language models that rival those of OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. The company recently made global headlines and shook Wall Street after releasing its high-performance AI model bombshell with a relatively small $6 million budget.

TheInformation recently reported the company is raising funds at a $10 billion valuation, suggesting it remains focused on private fundraising rather than public listing plans.

How About DEEP Robotics And Game Science?

EEP Robotics was founded in 2017 by Zhu Qiuguo, an associate professor at Zhejiang University, DEEP Robotics builds AI-powered quadruped robots for industrial applications including infrastructure inspection, search and rescue, energy and security. According to the South China Morning Post, the company has entered the early stages of the IPO regulatory process, though no listing date has been set.

Game Science was founded in 2014 by Feng Ji, Yang Qi and five other ex-Tencent employees. Game Science is the video game studio behind Black Myth: Wukong, widely seen as China’s first true AAA blockbuster game. Based on the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, the action RPG shattered records and demonstrated that Chinese studios can compete at the highest level of production alongside industry leaders like Sony, Microsoft, and Capcom.

The commercial performance has been exceptional, with over 20 million copies sold and more than $1 billion in gross revenue generated on Steam alone. This placed Game Science 12th among all Steam publishers globally within just weeks of its launch.

Despite this significant growth and market impact, there are currently no indications of any IPO.

Is Hangzhou The Next Silicon Valley?

The bigger story emerging is that the city is no longer defined solely by its reputation as a beautiful lakeside e-commerce hub built around Alibaba, Ant Finance or Netease. Instead, Hangzhou has evolved into a meaningful deep-tech ecosystem powered by the "Six Little Dragons" and anchored by leading universities such as Zhejiang University.

This evolution is increasingly attracting top talent from across China and around the world, significantly strengthening Hangzhou’s position as one of the world’s most important emerging technology hubs that could rival Silicon Valley.