IT Home: iFlytek expects narrowed net loss for H1 2026

Chinese technology firm iFlytek (科大讯飞) has issued a profit warning for the first half of 2026 (January-June), estimating its net loss attributable to parent company owners will narrow by 5-25% year-on-year to between 180-228 million yuan. Concurrently, the net loss excluding non-recurring items is projected to widen by 65-85%.

The company attributes the performance outlook to significant strategic investments in fundamental AI research and development. R&D expenditures reportedly exceeded 2.8 billion yuan, an increase of approximately 500 million yuan year-on-year, again surpassing 20% of revenue and supporting the iteration of the company's large language models.

iFlytek continues its strategy of strengthening its consumer (C-side) business, deepening its engagement with enterprise (B-side) clients, and optimizing its government (G-side) sector focus. Despite a 2.13% year-on-year decrease in G-side revenue, the company has proactively reduced low-margin, long-payment-term project-based businesses to optimize its business structure.

The company also reported substantial growth in specific sectors. In education, sales of AI-powered products like "Xinghuo" annotation machines and "Xinghuo" AI blackboards saw significant increases. In the medical field, revenue from the "Xinghuo" medical large language model-based cloud services surpassed 100 million yuan, a 158% year-on-year rise. Furthermore, iFlytek reportedly secured the top position in terms of bid wins for large language model projects in the central government and state-owned enterprise markets.