XPeng Stock Falls on Missed Q2 Results as Robotics Arm Secures $900M in Funding

XPeng stock falls on Q2 results miss; robotics arm raises $900 mln By Investing.com

Investing.com -- XPeng shares slipped in U.S. premarket trading Monday after the Chinese EV maker reported second-quarter results that missed analyst expectations on both revenue and earnings. Alongside the latest results, the company also disclosed a major new funding round for its robotics business. The company reported a second-quarter loss of RMB1.29 per share, wider than the RMB0.29 loss analysts had expected. Revenue came in at RMB19.74 billion, up 8% year-over-year and 51.5% quarter-over-quarter, but still below the RMB20.57 billion consensus estimate. Shares in the automaker slid 3.5% by 06:49 ET (10:49 GMT). Vehicle sales revenue rose 1.0% year-over-year and 55.0% quarter-over-quarter to RMB17.05 billion. Gross margin improved to 20.7%, from 17.3% a year earlier and 20.6% in the prior quarter, though vehicle margin narrowed to 12.1% from 14.3% a year earlier, unchanged from the first quarter. Total vehicle deliveries were roughly flat year-over-year at 103,295. For the third quarter, XPeng guided to vehicle deliveries of 115,000 to 121,000, implying a year-over-year change of roughly negative 0.87% to positive 4.30%, and total revenue of RMB21.7 billion to RMB23.4 billion, representing year-over-year growth of about 6.47% to 14.81%. Alongside the results, XPeng said its robotics business has raised more than $900 million in a funding round valuing the unit at over $6.3 billion post-money. The round was led by IDG Capital, with participation from Gaorong Ventures and strategic investment from Tencent and Alibaba. XPeng said the raise represents the largest single-round private financing in China's embodied AI industry to date, and added it will retain controlling ownership of the robotics unit, which will remain consolidated into the group's financial statements. Proceeds are earmarked for software and hardware R&D, physical AI model training, data generation, mass production facilities and global commercial expansion.

XPeng Net Loss Widens Amid Physical AI Push -- Update

Chinese electric-vehicle maker XPeng remained in the red despite resilient margins, as heavy investment in new models and AI-related technologies outweighed profits from its main vehicle business and higher-margin services. The Guangzhou-based company said Monday that its second-quarter net loss widened to 1.34 billion yuan, equivalent to $199.4 million, from 477.8 million yuan a year earlier. That missed the 718.6 million yuan loss estimated by analysts in a Visible Alpha poll. Revenue rose 8.0% to 19.74 billion yuan, in line with the company's estimate. XPeng delivered 103,295 vehicles in the second quarter, a 65% jump from the first quarter but little changed from the year-ago period. Its gross margin was 20.7% in the second quarter, up from 17.3% a year earlier and 20.6% in the first quarter. Vehicle margins fell to 12.1% from 14.3% a year ago but was stable from the first three months of the year. The company said the transition to new-generation models led to the year-over-year decline in vehicle margins. For the third quarter, the automaker said it expects deliveries to reach 115,000-121,000 vehicles and revenue to grow to between 21.7 billion yuan and 23.4 billion yuan. The bigger test for XPeng, however, is whether it can sustain margins as it boosts production of the new Mona L03 sport-utility vehicle, expands overseas and continues to spend heavily on artificial intelligence and humanoid robots. The company is betting on its new mass-market L03 to spur volume growth in the second half. The model has generated strong orders since its July launch, but production is still ramping up, potentially limiting deliveries this quarter. Indeed, deliveries rose just 4% to 38,027 units last month, slowing from June's double-digit rebound. Analysts say the L03, which fetches a gross margin above 10%, could replace some sales of the lower-margin M03. That would improve XPeng's product mix even if overall deliveries remain below expectations, they said. Citi analysts are more optimistic about the fourth quarter, as XPeng's profitability stands to gain from a higher mix of exports and better-margin models, including the coming G9L. Exports could account for around 20% of the EV maker's deliveries by then, up from about 10% expected in the third quarter, they said in a recent note. Beyond cars, XPeng has been investing in autonomous driving and humanoid robots as it pushes to become a physical AI company. Although the spending could help capture a longer-term growth opportunity, it has also increased the pressure on a company that hasn't experienced sustained profitability. XPeng said separately Monday that its Dogotix subsidiary entered an agreement to raise more than $900 million, with backing from investors including Tencent and Alibaba. The financing will value the robotics business at more than $6.3 billion after the transaction.