Without the spotlight on Unitree’s impending listing, few would likely notice Beijing Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. (also known as Beite Technology). This is a quintessential Chinese manufacturing company: after over 20 years in auto parts, with clients and products hidden deep in the automotive supply chain, it generates annual revenue of over 2 billion yuan but rarely appears in the sight of ordinary consumers. Unitree’s upcoming IPO, however, has changed that.

In recent days, Beite Technology's stock has surged continuously. Amid the market's compilation of a list of Unitree robot concept stocks, it has been pushed to the forefront. More intriguingly, behind this string of sharp gains, this seemingly unrelated company has quietly placed a massive 1.85 billion yuan bet on robotics. What exactly did it see?

Unitree propels an old company back into the spotlight. On the eve of Unitree's IPO, the humanoid robot sector has heated up again. On August 11, Beite Technology hit the daily limit. In the market's list of Unitree robot concept stocks, Beite Technology was again pushed to the front. But it might be the most peculiar robot concept stock recently. For the past two decades, it has been doing something completely unrelated to robots: manufacturing automotive parts. So why did an auto parts company suddenly become the face of humanoid robot concept stocks? The reason is straightforward. Previously, the robot sector was in its infancy, with complete machine manufacturers as the industry's signature. Everyone only saw complete machine companies like Unitree, AGIBOT, UBTECH, Figure, and Tesla. As humanoid robots have gained popularity, the market has started tracing downstream: who builds the joints for robots? Because what truly determines whether robots can be mass-produced is not just the "brain," but also the body. Beite Technology is exactly such an old manufacturing company rediscovered by the robot wave. Historically, it has long specialized in steering rack teeth, shock absorber piston rods, and chassis parts—things that seem worlds apart from robots. But behind it lies a common capability: metal materials + precision machining + heat treatment + precision control + mass production. With the arrival of robots, Beite Technology suddenly realized that its core expertise accumulated over the past two decades could also find a place in robotic applications.

However, a crucial detail emerges. In 2025, Beite Technology's full-year revenue was 2.3 billion yuan, with a net profit of only 120 million yuan. Yet, it has committed 1.85 billion yuan to bet on planetary roller screws. In 2024, it invested 1.85 billion yuan to build a planetary roller screw R&D and production base in Kunshan, which is slated for completion by the end of 2025, with mass production expected in 2026, at which point it will have an annual capacity of 2.6 million units. Adding its overseas layout in Thailand with 800,000 units, the total capacity will reach 3.4 million units after completion. The problem is that it is currently only developing samples for chain clients like Unitree. It has not been formally designated as a supplier nor formed batch deliveries. Simply put, it hasn't sold a single screw yet. This is almost like betting the entire year's net profit, along with the company's accumulated resources from the past few years, entirely on a new track that currently shows no return. This is a high-stakes gamble.

Sixty-eight-year-old Jin Kun makes another bet. The truly interesting aspect of this 1.85 billion yuan investment is not just the money, but the person who decided to place it—Jin Kun, now 68 years old. If you are 68, already have a listed company, and have proven over the past 20 years that you can hold your own in the automotive supply chain, would you still have the courage to bet on a yet-to-mature industry? Most people's answer would likely be no. But Jin Kun chose to gamble again. This time, he is betting on robots. In his early years, Jin Kun worked in a steel company in Anda, Heilongjiang, rising from procurement department head to factory director, and later into enterprise management. In 2002, at the age of 44, Jin Kun, with 4.5 million yuan, co-founded Shanghai Beite Metal Products Co., Ltd. In its early stages, Beite bet on the automotive industry, manufacturing metal parts like steering rack teeth and shock absorber piston rods. Over the next decade or more, China's automotive industry experienced rapid growth. In 2002, car sales were less than 4 million units, but by 2015, annual sales had exceeded 24 million, with China becoming the world's largest auto market for consecutive years. Beite Technology also expanded during this industrial boom. By the time it listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2014, its revenue had exceeded 630 million yuan. In the sub-sectors of steering rack teeth and shock absorber piston rods, it captured over 30% market share, becoming a core supplier for giants like FAW and Bosch. At that time, Jin Kun held an absolute controlling stake of 52.82% in the company, and during the 2015 bull market, his paper wealth surged with the stock price. If the automotive industry was one of the most important manufacturing growth drivers in China over the past two decades, could the next decade belong to robots? And screws are precisely the kind of component connecting these two industries. In the automotive era, Beite Technology accumulated precision metal parts manufacturing capabilities. In the robot era, it hopes to extend this capability to higher-precision transmission components, cashing in on the new era's robot dividends. This is why Jin Kun dared to invest 1.85 billion yuan to build the planetary roller screw R&D and production base. Meanwhile, the second generation of management has begun to appear at Beite Technology. Jin Kun's son, Jin Xiaotang, entered the company's core management team in the year of its listing, serving as deputy general manager, subsidiary general manager, and currently as director and general manager. The father and son are also the company's actual controllers and persons acting in concert. As of the end of the first quarter this year, Jin Kun held 30.86% of Beite Technology, and Jin Xiaotang held 8.01%, totaling 38.87%. This is an interesting generational shift. The previous generation, Jin Kun, chased the automotive industry. He turned a metal parts company into a listed company as China's auto industry grew from millions to tens of millions of vehicles. The new generation taking over faces the question: can they create another story for Beite Technology by betting on emerging industries like robotics?

The market has already seen a second growth curve, but the financial reports haven't yet. Although the market is already talking about Beite Technology's second growth curve, setting aside the noise, how far has the company actually progressed? An undeniable fact is that Beite Technology has indeed entered the discussion within the robot supply chain and has publicly disclosed advancing product development with clients like Unitree. However, as of now, the robotics business is far from becoming a major source of revenue. In the first quarter of this year, Beite Technology achieved a net profit attributable to the parent company of 27.1781 million yuan. From a revenue structure perspective, the company is still highly dependent on traditional automotive businesses like chassis parts and air conditioning compressors. According to the 2025 annual report, these three businesses account for over 98% of revenue. Meanwhile, in an institutional survey on June 23, the company stated that screw products have not yet had a significant impact on its performance. In other words, Unitree has brought Beite Technology into the spotlight, but robots haven't truly supported it yet. This leads to a somewhat fatal suspense: can the Kunshan base, built with a massive 1.85 billion yuan investment from Jin Kun, actually generate real orders, and when will it? It's important to note that Beite Technology is not the only one betting on the planetary roller screw track. Players like Hengli Hydraulic, Wuzhou Spring (Rights Protection), Best Precision, and Shuanglin Co., Ltd. are all frantically accelerating their investments. Statistics show that the combined screw investment plans of just a few leading companies already exceed 6 billion yuan, and the entire industry's capital investment is visibly accelerating. More importantly, the end market Beite Technology faces is still immature. According to data from third-party market research firm IDC, global humanoid robot shipments in 2025 were about 18,000 units, and this year is defined as the "starting point of scale." Furthermore, from a shipment structure perspective, the application scenarios for humanoid robots in 2025 are mainly concentrated in areas like entertainment performances, education and research, data collection, and guided tours. Large-scale application in industrial settings like manufacturing and warehousing logistics is still in its early stages. This creates a rather surreal mismatch: the factory construction speed and capital investment speed of upstream component companies far outpace the commercialization speed of downstream robot bodies. When factories with capacities for hundreds of thousands of screw units are erected, the downstream robots that can actually absorb this capacity may only number in the tens of thousands. In this intense tug-of-war of "capacity waiting for orders," Beite Technology's 1.85 billion yuan gamble is destined to be a breathtaking leap accompanied by immense uncertainty.