The marquee listing of CXMT Corp. ignited a rush among retail investors as China’s homegrown memory giant opened books for an initial public offering to raise $9.8 billion, the second-largest in the nation’s history.

In an industrial park on the outskirts of Beijing, a humanoid arm picks up a bag of Lay’s potato chips and places it neatly along a row of snacks on a shelf. Nearby, a worker films himself grabbing cushions off a sofa and folding sheets on a bed, recording videos that will be used to develop brains for robots.