DOBOT Reports "Revenue Growth Amid Widening Losses" in H1 as Collaborative Robot Shipments Surge and Embodied AI Investments Ramp Up

On August 24, DOBOT (02432.HK) announced its interim results for 2026.

In the first half of the year, the company generated revenue of approximately RMB 320 million, a year-on-year increase of about 107%. The gross margin stood at around 47%, approaching 49% after excluding the impact of inventory impairment. Meanwhile, the net loss widened to approximately RMB 110 million, with an adjusted net loss of about RMB 60 million. The simultaneous occurrence of doubled revenue and expanded losses is a notable feature of this semi-annual report.

Compared to the same period last year, DOBOT's revenue in the first half of 2025 was approximately RMB 153 million, with a net loss of about RMB 41 million and an adjusted net loss of roughly RMB 23 million. The gross margin was 47%.

Despite the significant expansion in revenue scale this year, the product gross margin did not decline markedly. The pressure on profits stems more from periodic expenditures. The company's R&D spending in the first half amounted to approximately RMB 100 million, a year-on-year increase of about 148%, nearing the full-year R&D expenditure of approximately RMB 115 million in 2025.

Revenue growth primarily continued to come from the core collaborative robot business. As previously disclosed by DOBOT, revenue in the first quarter was approximately RMB 112 million, a year-on-year increase of about 111%, mainly driven by growth in revenue from collaborative robots and embodied intelligent robots.

In 2025, revenue from six-axis collaborative robots was approximately RMB 300 million, accounting for over 60% of total main business revenue; revenue from the embodied intelligence business was about RMB 20 million, representing approximately 4%. Therefore, the doubling of revenue in the first half was not solely reliant on embodied intelligence; the mature collaborative robot business remains the primary support.

The commercialization of embodied intelligence is also accelerating. By the end of June, DOBOT disclosed that its cumulative related customers reached 231, covering stages such as order signing, sample validation, small-batch delivery, and large-scale deployment. Shipment value for embodied intelligence products exceeded RMB 40 million in the first half, with nearly 100 industrial manufacturing clients.

Increased investment explains the other side of the performance. In the first half of 2025, DOBOT's R&D expenses were approximately RMB 41 million, rising to about RMB 100 million in the same period this year. In its response during the A-share listing review, the company projected that the compound annual growth rate of R&D expenses from 2025 to 2028 would exceed 40%, with a focus in 2026 on increasing R&D investment in humanoid robots, multi-legged robots, and high-performance collaborative robots.

In July, DOBOT also collaborated with Tencent to validate Physical AI solutions on real manufacturing production lines, further attempting to synergize models with industrial scenarios beyond the robot hardware itself.

The overseas market is also a crucial part of DOBOT's expansion. In the first half of 2025, the company's overseas revenue was approximately RMB 80 million, accounting for more than half of the total revenue for the period. The company has also clearly stated that it will continue to increase coverage in key regional markets.

For robotics companies still in the expansion phase, building overseas channels, sales, and technical support systems also incurs corresponding costs. In the first half of 2025, DOBOT's selling and distribution expenses were approximately RMB 82 million, a year-on-year increase of about 32%.

However, the widening loss cannot be entirely attributed to R&D. In its earnings preview released in July, DOBOT explicitly mentioned that increased foreign exchange losses and share-based payments also pushed up periodic expenses and losses; the company simultaneously increased investment in its embodied intelligence R&D system and key regional markets.

Even after excluding the impact of foreign exchange losses and share-based payments, the adjusted net loss remained in the tens of millions, indicating that operational investment pressure persists.

For DOBOT, what warrants closer observation going forward is whether revenue growth can continue to cover the rapidly rising R&D and marketing expenses. The stable gross margin in the first half and the continued surge in collaborative robot shipments indicate that scale expansion has not been accompanied by a significant decline in gross margins; the increase in embodied intelligence customers and shipments provides new signals of commercialization.

However, moving from validation and small-batch delivery to sustained large-scale orders will take time. Whether R&D investment can be further converted into revenue and profit will be a key variable in future performance.