On August 19, XTALPI (02228) released its 2026 interim results announcement. This marks the first half-year report since the company evolved from an "AI pharma services provider" into an "AI4S platform bridging digital R&D and physical experimentation".

The financials show first-half revenue of RMB 394 million, compared to RMB 517 million in the prior corresponding period. The variance is primarily attributed to a substantial one-time pipeline licensing upfront payment of USD 51 million recognized in the prior year's base. Excluding that impact, revenue grew by 73.8% year-on-year. This adjustment reflects a deliberate shift in revenue composition, moving away from one-off pipeline licensing towards a platform-based, recurring revenue model. The 136.4% surge in the AI4S business, encompassing intelligent robotics laboratories and smart services, directly demonstrates the success of this transition. The company is advancing AI from being merely a predictive tool in the digital realm to becoming industrial-grade infrastructure capable of autonomously executing scientific tasks in real-world experiments.

The company reported a net loss of RMB 225 million for the first half, with an adjusted net loss of RMB 106 million. This was largely driven by a 66% increase in R&D expenses, with investments channeled into autonomous laboratories, agentic systems, pipeline development, and multimodal technology platform construction. As of June 30, 2026, the company held a robust cash balance of RMB 8.671 billion, providing strong support for sustained R&D investment and solidifying its leading position in the AI4S sector. This substantial cash reserve, combined with the 66% R&D spend increase, indicates the company has entered a phase of simultaneous acceleration across "platform, pipeline, and infrastructure" – a typical capital deployment rhythm for transitioning from concept validation to scaled industrial implementation.

In the drug discovery segment, XTALPI operates what is considered the industry's most comprehensive multimodal AI drug discovery platform, covering four major modalities: small molecules/molecular glues, antibodies, peptides, and oligonucleotides. The platform accumulates extensive proprietary standardized data, training industry-leading generative and predictive models. This results in pipeline iteration speeds significantly outpacing similar enterprises. This pipeline iteration efficiency is a key competitive advantage, effectively compressing the traditional "trial-and-error driven" approach into an engineered "design-driven" workflow.

The company has disclosed initial key experimental progress across multiple proprietary projects. Notably, the molecular glue pipeline achieved picomolar-level target protein degradation activity within a single quarter, a feat that typically takes 12-18 months for comparable industry projects to move from target validation to obtaining highly active degraders. Oral cyclic peptide and IgA nephropathy oligonucleotide projects have secured high-quality efficacy data within short timelines. Specifically, the IgA nephropathy siRNA project progressed from sequence design to non-human primate in vivo efficacy validation in approximately seven months, compared to the industry standard of 12-24 months. Currently, three self-developed and enabled pipelines are in clinical stages, with over ten in IND-approved or IND-enabling phases. The company anticipates adding more than five new pipelines to clinical stages and achieving approximately 20 pipelines at the PCC (Pre-Clinical Candidate) stage by 2027.

On the commercialization front, the company is advancing dual tracks: asset BD (Business Development) licensing and traditional R&D service offerings. Business development efforts have yielded significant results domestically and internationally, securing a strategic collaboration with a major international pharmaceutical company for AI-driven drug discovery with a potential total value exceeding USD 400 million, heightening expectations for asset value realization. Concurrently, traditional R&D service collaborations are progressing steadily. This creates a synergistic "asset licensing + platform R&D services" model, giving the company a distinct competitive advantage over most industry peers.

XTALPI's robotics laboratory and synthesis business has achieved scaled deployment, positioning it within the industry's top tier. The company has secured deliveries and repeat orders from leading pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly, with services extending from compound management to HTE (High-Throughput Experimentation) platforms. Overseas, the Korean JW project has completed all deliveries and acceptance, while domestically, multiple multi-million RMB benchmark projects have been established. The business scope is also expanding into new materials sectors like perovskite and lithium batteries. The company has built industry-leading, fully AI-driven autonomous experimental synthesis capabilities, contributing to rapid growth in this segment.

Technologically, the SureRoute self-evolving retrosynthesis model has reduced the "chemical hallucination" rate to 4.6%, achieving a 74.3% accuracy for first-choice synthetic route recommendations. Additionally, two proprietary solutions – Agentic Synthesis (intelligent autonomous molecular synthesis) and Agentic HTE (intelligent autonomous high-throughput experimentation) – have been commercialized, enabling fully autonomous operation from AI-driven solution design to robotic experiment execution. On the platform level, over 300 automated workstations are deployed globally, supported by a four-tier industrial-grade technology architecture comprising an agentic hub, scientific AI, physical intelligence, and a high-quality data foundation. This facilitates a closed loop between digital simulation and real robotic experimentation. These workstations cover over 20 R&D scenarios. The platform has accumulated more than 500,000 real experimental records, with approximately 80% being failure negative samples rarely found in public literature. It generates over 50,000 new reaction yield data points and 300,000 process data points monthly, having served over 100 drug and materials projects cumulatively.

In July 2026, the company launched the XtalPi Science intelligent platform and the Genius Agent scientific agent matrix. This initiative opens its internally validated scientific research infrastructure to the global research community, exporting its underlying AI4S technological capabilities. XTALPI's competitive moat lies not in a single model but in the integrated system of data generation, experimental execution, and model iteration. Even if competitors acquire similar models, replicating the real-world experiments and the data flywheel effect remains a formidable challenge.

From an investment perspective, there appears to be a significant expectation gap in the secondary market for XTALPI. Prominent figures like Jeff Dean are increasingly investing in AI autonomous scientific research, validating the sector's long-term growth potential. However, many overseas counterparts are still in the concept validation phase. For instance, Isomorphic Labs, a benchmark in AI drug discovery, is reportedly valued around USD 20 billion, yet its commercialization path remains insufficiently disclosed. Similarly, Lila Science, focusing on AI-driven autonomous laboratories, is valued near USD 8 billion but lacks scaled commercial orders. In contrast, XTALPI simultaneously possesses real operational business scenarios, confirmed revenue streams, and a rapidly iterating pipeline reserve. Compared to primary market benchmarks, market analysts believe XTALPI has achieved scaled commercialization, moving beyond just presenting a scientific narrative. The company is considered to hold a 3-5 year lead over comparable peers, suggesting its current market valuation of over HKD 30 billion may be significantly undervalued.

Looking ahead, the AI for Science industry is evolving from single-point tools towards autonomous scientific discovery. Leveraging its proven, comprehensive business model, XTALPI stands at a critical inflection point poised to capitalize on technological dividends and is at the industry's forefront. The commercialization of XtalPi Science, the progression of pipelines into clinical stages, and the realization of BD partnership milestones are expected to be the core drivers of the company's valuation, underpinning a solid long-term growth narrative.