Q3 Report Special: Booming Orders But No Profit? The Two Sides of the Robotics Industry Chain
Entering the third quarter of 2026, China's domestic robotics industry is shifting to the critical stage of order delivery and financial verification. After the concentrated disclosure of A-share three quarterly reports, the industrial chain presents clear structural features: Orders in the complete machine segment are picking up, but most enterprises still face the situation of revenue growth without profit growth; core components have become the main force of performance realization, and the revenue and profit of listed companies of reducers, servos, motors and joint modules are rising synchronously; Differentiation has emerged within the complete machine track: a small number of enterprises have achieved profitability, while a large number of entities are still under high pressure from R&D investment and working capital.
From the perspective of the overall industrial environment, the output of domestic industrial robots maintains rapid growth. Combined with special actions at the national level, local industrial support and centralized procurement by central enterprises, it opens up B-end implementation windows for humanoid and special robots. However, the industry is still in the early stage of commercialization. Order signing does not equal revenue recognition, and prototype implementation does not equal large-scale profitability.
01. A-share Sector: Complete Machine Revenue Recovers, Components Take the Lead in Profit Contribution
The disclosure of A-share three quarterly reports is coming to an end, and the contrast between the hot and cold conditions of the complete machine and component sectors is very prominent.
As a representative target of domestic industrial robot complete machine, SIASUN Robot & Automation Co., Ltd. (300024) achieved a single-quarter revenue of 986 million yuan in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 76.6%, with order delivery and revenue recognition recovering significantly; but the single-quarter attributable net profit was -129 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 101.63%. In the first three quarters, the net cash outflow from operating activities was 644 million yuan, the inventory increased by 44.49% compared with the end of last year, and short-term loans and non-current liabilities due within one year rose year-on-year. Behind the substantial revenue growth is the 58.15% year-on-year expansion of R&D expenses in the first three quarters, coupled with the disturbance of losses of associated enterprises and exchange losses. This financial report is highly representative of the industry: Orders are indeed returning, but the commercial model of complete machines has not yet been fully validated, and revenue growth has not been synchronously converted into profits and positive operating cash flow.
Unitree Robotics (688836), which also belongs to the complete machine track, released its three quarterly report, forming a set of control samples. The data shows that Unitree Robotics achieved a revenue of 1.817 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 55.71%; the attributable net profit was 387 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 270.54%. The high profit growth mainly comes from the low base effect formed by share-based payment in the same period of last year. The Q3 single-quarter revenue was 665 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 69.93%; the single-quarter attributable net profit was 113 million yuan, a year-on-year decline of 17.37%. The main inducement for the profit decline is the substantial expansion of R&D investment: the R&D expenses in the first three quarters were 263 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 191.48%, and the funds are mainly invested in embodied large models, computing power clusters and new product iteration. The company previously won the bid for China Mobile's humanoid robot procurement project, and the order has entered the implementation stage, which has accumulated important samples for the expansion of special and commercial scenarios.
The main profit contributors of the industrial chain are concentrated in the core component track. Leadshine Technology (002979) achieved a Q3 revenue of 661 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 61.7%, and the attributable net profit was 106 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 156.1%. Pan-humanoid components such as frameless torque motors and harmonic modules have achieved breakthroughs with leading customers. Inovance Technology (300124) achieved a Q3 revenue of 13.281 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.08%, and the attributable net profit was 1.589 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.55%. The servo system and frameless motor businesses benefit from the dual demands of industrial automation and humanoid robots at the same time.
However, internal differentiation in the sector objectively exists, and not all robot concept companies can share the industrial dividends. Some related targets saw year-on-year declines in revenue or net profit in the third quarter. The performance prosperity is more concentrated in component manufacturers with technical barriers and confirmed orders, as well as a small number of leading complete machine enterprises. Targets that purely rely on concept speculation can hardly realize actual performance.
In addition to the ontology and components, supporting links such as perception and AI test power supplies have also ushered in performance elasticity. The embodied brain domain controller of Horizon Robotics has obtained customer orders; machine vision enterprises such as Orbbec and Optics have continued to promote the mass implementation of 3D perception products; some test power supply manufacturers have also achieved a turnaround from loss to profit in a single quarter.
02. Output Continues to Grow Rapidly, Policy Guidance Shifts from Demonstration to Real Operation
Apart from financial reports, macro industrial data can further confirm the stage the industry is in. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the national output of industrial robots in the first three quarters of 2026 increased by 29.1% year-on-year, and the demand for industrial end automation transformation remains strong. However, the high growth of output does not equal the improvement of profitability of complete machine enterprises. The industrial robot ontology market is fiercely competitive. Under the project-based model, prices and expenses continue to squeeze profit margins, and profits are more transferred to the upstream core component links.
The policy end has shifted from macro industrial planning to promoting the implementation of robots in real scenarios. In February 2026, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Humanoid Robot and Embodied Intelligence Standard System (2026 Edition)", building a top-level standard framework covering the entire industrial chain and the full life cycle. In June, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, launched a special action for real-scene practical training of humanoid robots, making it clear that by the end of 2026, more than 100 high-value scenarios will be refined and the implementation capacity of 10,000 units will be realized, and scenario construction indicators will be set for local governments and central enterprises respectively. The policy anchors on three major fields: industry, service and special purpose, covering multiple scenarios such as manufacturing, logistics, health care, and emergency rescue, carrying out product application verification and normalized deployment, and building an industrial closed-loop mechanism of "real-scene practical training - data precipitation - product iteration - large-scale deployment".
Central enterprise procurement has become an important variable of the industry in this quarter. According to public reports, energy central enterprises such as State Grid have launched large-scale procurement of embodied intelligent equipment, covering categories such as quadruped inspection robot dogs, humanoid live-working robots, and dual-arm inspection robots. The procurement is carried out in three batches: pilot, large-scale and supplementary. Many enterprises including Unitree Robotics, Agibot, and Ubtech have participated in the bidding for related projects. The industry expects that the annual investment related to embodied intelligence in the power industry is expected to be close to 10 billion yuan.
One industry reality needs to be clarified: the orders released by policies and central enterprise procurement will bring phased increments, but order signing and winning the bid do not equal the recognition of revenue in the current period. There is a cycle for project delivery, debugging and acceptance. Some projects belong to pilot demonstrations, and the order scale is not equivalent to large-scale market-oriented replication. At present, the commercialization of humanoid robots and quadruped robots is still in the stage of "demand-driven special scenarios take the lead, and general consumer scenarios are still far away". In general scenarios such as industrial production lines and household consumption, product cost, generalization ability and operation and maintenance cost are still realistic bottlenecks restricting large-scale popularization.
It can be seen that China's domestic robotics industry will still be in a cycle of parallel technology iteration and commercialization polishing. Policies and central enterprise procurement continue to open up scenario entrances, but there are still many practical obstacles for general humanoid robots to achieve large-scale market popularization, and the cost, generalization ability and operation and maintenance system need to be improved. The dividend of domestic substitution of components is expected to be released, while complete machine enterprises need to continuously balance R&D investment, order delivery and cash flow security. The future industry growth will not be a linear explosion. The rhythm of technology implementation and the realization degree of downstream real demand will become the core variables that determine the differentiation of enterprise development. What's your opinion? Feel free to share in the comment section.
(This article is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. The market is risky, so investment needs to be cautious.)
This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Investor Network - Thinking Finance", Author: Jiang Ji, published with authorization from 36Kr.