The Rundown - Unitree Surges 460% In Wild IPO Debut, Anthropic Looks to One-Up SpaceX

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Market update for August 21, 2026. Check out the Public app for incredible investing tools and to support the show (LINK)Follow us on Instagram (@TheRundownDaily) for bonus content and instant reactions.In today’s episode, Zaid covers:Why Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s bond buyback plan failed to calm investors and what rising yields say about America’s growing debt problem.China’s Unitree Robotics IPO, where the humanoid robot maker surged 460% on its first day of trading and why investors are betting robots could become the next major AI platform.Anthropic’s potential mega IPO timelineRoss Stores’ strong earnings and why bargain hunting is helping discount retailers winThe Atlanta Falcons’ $10.6 billion valuation and how sports teams have become some of the hottest investment assets in the world.

Public.com presents the rundown. Your daily market update in 10 minutes. My name is Zadadmani, and today is Friday, August 21st. In today's episode, we'll explain why the Treasury Department's attempt to calm the bond markets didn't work. We'll also tell you about a Chinese robotics company's massive IPO and then an update on Anthropics IPO timeline. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out the latest move by private.

equity to get into sports. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Stocks had a rough day yesterday as treasury yields surged again. The S&P 500 fell 0.9% and the NASDAQ dropped by 1%. As we've been talking about all week, treasury yields have been surging. The 30-year U.S. Treasury yield hit 5.3% earlier in the week, its highest level since 2007. And that caught the attention of Treasury Secretary Scott Besson, and he tried to step in to do something about it.

We talked about this on yesterday's show. The Treasury announced that they were stepping into the bond market and buying back some of the older, longer-term debt to improve liquidity and take some pressure off those long-term interest rates. If you want to learn more about that, go check out yesterday's episode. And we're going to be doing a deep dive about it, too. So definitely keep an eye on your podcast feed for that. Now, initially, this moved by Scott Besson, working. Yields did fall after the announcement, the 30-year yield dropped. to under 5.2%. But that didn't last long. Yield started climbing again yesterday and they're currently

hovering near 5.25%. So this move by Scott Besson didn't ultimately work. I think what's going on is that bond market investors are looking at the combination of this huge government deficit, also inflation risk and the uncertainty around Fed policy, not to mention the Iran war. So you put all that together and investors are demanding higher yields to own long-term government debt. And that has a ripple effect across the entire economy because higher yields impact borrowing costs and mortgage rates and corporate borrowing and stock valuations. Now the one big winner from this chaos is gold. Gold is on track for its third straight winning week, trading around $4,600 an ounce. But yeah, this bond market drama is not going away. You know, we don't usually cover the bond market this

much on the show, but for one, it's August right now, so not a ton of action happening in the stock market. And two, this is a really interesting development on what's going on. Now next week should have a bit more action, the Fed has their meeting in Jackson Hole, so we'll see what Fed chair Kevin Warsh has to say about all this bond market chaos. Plus, Nvidia is reporting earnings on Wednesday, so that should be good. We'll continue to stay on top of everything happening. So definitely get subscribed to the podcast if you haven't already and tune in every day to stay in the loop. Let's run through some headlines. Starting with Chinese robots. A Chinese robot company that makes humanoid robots just had one of the wildest IPO debuts. Shares of Unitary Robotics

surged 460% on their first day of trading in Shanghai. The company raised about $905 million as part of the IPO. And after this first day rally, the company is now valued at around $51 billion. I mean, the demand for this IPO was so crazy that retail investors placed over $1.2 trillion worth of orders. And the reason there's so much frenzy around this is that robotics is a sexy industry that investors want exposure to. And Unitri is the leading company in this space. They're the ones behind the viral robots that you've probably seen online, the ones that are doing backflips and dancing and relay racing.

So you can see why investors want a piece of that. And by the way, Unitri is actually shipping products. They pulled in roughly $235 million in revenue last year after selling over 5,500 humanoid robots and over 33,000 four-legged robot dogs. Now, I'm not really sure what people are using these robots for right now, but Unitary is selling them. I mean, this could be a massive industry. Morgan Stanley estimates that China's humanoid robot market could grow from about $2 billion today to $15 billion by 2030. And the broader robot industry could become a multi-trillion dollar market over the next few decades.

Personally, though, I'm not that bullish on humanoid robots. I mean, I'm bullish on robotics, but just not the humanoid kind. I think specialized robots makes more sense, you know, for doing factory work or construction or something. I just don't see a reason for the robot to be human form, you know? In fact, the day after the IPO, Unitri's own founder got on stage at a robot conference in Beijing and said that humanoid robots still aren't as efficient as humans just yet. But look, to be fair, tech advances really fast, and with the advancements that we're seeing in the AI right now, maybe humanoid robots will surpass humans in the near future.

I think they made a movie about that once back in the 80s. Anyways, China is betting aggressively here. They see humanoid robotics as a critical technology in advanced manufacturing. So I think big picture, maybe soon the AI race might be moving from the digital world into the physical world and investors are rushing to get a piece of it. And by the way, this unitary IPO could end up being bullish for Tesla as well, which is also going all in on humanoid robotics. So let me know in the comments on what you guys think about the humanoid robotics thing.

Are you bullish or more on the skeptical side like me? your thoughts on Spotify and YouTube. Sticking with the AI theme here, let's do a quick update on the Anthropic IPO situation. There's a lot of buzz right now that the IPO could be going down pretty soon. I'm talking within the next month or so, and this IPO is expected to be huge.

Bloomberg just reported that Anthropic is looking to match or even beat SpaceX's record IPO haul. SpaceX raised $75 billion when they went public back in June, and Anthropic expects to raise even more. than that. And the reason there seems to be some urgency right now for the IPO is because Anthropic really needs the money to get more computing power. Building advanced AI models and serving them to customers requires massive amounts of chips, electricity, and data centers. Anthropic is already spending a fortune to get access to that infrastructure, and that's why they need more cash,

which is why this IPO could be happening soon. Personally, I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the S-1 and seeing what the P&Ls of an AI lab actually looks like. All the reports indicate that these companies aren't profitable yet, but how bad is the damage? So I can't wait to see the details on that. And what is the market's reaction to that all going to be? So really hoping this IPO happens pretty soon, and of course, we'll break it all down for you guys. By the way, somewhat related, I recorded a conversation with one of the co-founders of Corweave. It was a great conversation I got a better understanding of how Corweave's business works and all the debt that they're taking on. That interview will be posted this weekend, so keep an eye on your podcast feed for that.

Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Shares of raw stores are surging this morning after the off-price retailer posted blowout earnings and raise their full-year profit outlook. The company's second quarter revenues jumped 13% year over year to $6.26 billion. That beat Wall Street estimates, and same store sales were up by 10%. Management said they are pulling in new shoppers across every, income level and existing customers are coming back more often and spending more money. Now, I'm not going to lie, I had a pretty big Ross phase back in the day. I think at one point

half my closet was from Ross. You know, Ross has some pretty good deals, especially on clothes, so they might be benefiting from the squeeze that shoppers are feeling right now from higher gas prices and inflation. You know, when people feel a little bit more pressure on their wallets, stores like Ross become more attractive because shoppers are hunting for value. As a result, shares of Ross are up around 9% this morning in pre-market trading. Now, on the flip side, shares of advanced auto parts are getting absolutely smoked. They dropped 25% yesterday after the auto parts retailer warned that tighter household budgets are resulting in delayed car maintenance.

The company reported weak earnings. Revenues were flat at $2 billion, and same store sales fell by 0.5%. Both metrics missing estimates. You know, coming into the earnings report, the stock was up 40% on the year because investors thought that people would be spending more on car parts to fail. fixed their existing car instead of buying another car. But the way things are looking right now, it seems like people are skipping the brake pads altogether. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. More private equity money continues to enter sports. The private equity firm,

Arctose Partners, just agreed to buy a 10% stake in the Atlanta Falcons at a $10.6 billion valuation, which would make the Falcons one of the most valuable sports franchises ever. And this just shows how crazy sports team valuations are getting, despite the success of the team on the field? I mean, the Falcons haven't been to the playoffs in eight straight seasons, and they've never won a Super Bowl before. But despite that, the team continues to make money. They made around $800 million in revenue last season. And this is why private equity is getting involved. Sports teams are basically a scarce asset. I mean, there are only 32 NFL teams, and at this point, they're so expensive that only a handful of billionaires can buy them, or institutional investors. For some

context, the majority owner of the Falcons is Arthur Blank. He co-founded Home Depot, and he bought the Falcons back in 2002 for $545 million. So in just over 20 years, the value of the team has gone up almost 20x. Now, as a huge sports fan myself, I wonder what's going to happen now that these sports teams are being treated purely as an investment asset. You know, as a fan, ideally, you would want the owner of your favorite team to be a huge sports fan themselves and, you know, invest heavily in the team to win. But if teams are going to be viewed like a private equity investment where the goal is just to maximize returns, that could change the way the teams operate.

It seems like a lot of these teams make money whether the team has success on the field or not. So yeah, the sports business landscape is going through an interesting period right now with valuation surging and sports fans getting squeezed with higher ticket prices and higher streaming costs. I mean, it's just becoming more and more expensive to be a sports fan. If you're a sports fan yourself like me, let me know in the comments on how you feel about all of this.

Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. That's the rundown for this week. Hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. Thank you guys so much for listening, watching, and commenting. Shout out to Mike and V for all the work behind the scenes. And we'll see you guys back here tomorrow.