iFlytek Q4 Revenue Surges 36%, 2025 Q1 Sales Jump 28% as R&D Investment Soars

Core Insights - iFlytek reported strong revenue growth for fiscal year 2024 and Q1 2025, driven by demand in its open platform, smart education, and enterprise AI sectors, despite profit margin pressures from rising R&D costs and impairments [2][3]. Financial Performance - Annual revenue increased by 18.8% year-over-year to 23.34 billion yuan, while net profit attributable to shareholders decreased by 14.8% to 560 million yuan, with earnings per share down 14.3% to 0.24 yuan [3]. - Q4 revenue reached 8.49 billion yuan, reflecting a 36.4% year-over-year increase, indicating strong momentum at year-end [3]. - In Q1 2025, revenue was 4.66 billion yuan, a 27.7% increase from the previous year, with net losses narrowing by 35.7% to 193 million yuan [4]. R&D and Investment - The decline in net profit for 2024 was primarily due to a 740 million yuan increase in R&D spending, totaling 4.58 billion yuan, which is nearly 20% of annual revenue [5]. - The company is focusing on AI infrastructure, with its open platform supporting over 8 million developer teams and more than 2.9 million AI applications [6]. Business Segments - Smart education revenue grew nearly 30% to 7.23 billion yuan, while consumer and open platform business revenue increased by 27.6% to 7.89 billion yuan [7]. - The enterprise AI segment more than doubled, contributing to robust gains in automotive, healthcare, and enterprise AI revenues [7]. Strategic Developments - iFlytek successfully spun off its healthcare unit on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with GBC revenue segments growing by 10%, 103%, and 57% respectively in 2024 [8]. - The company upgraded its Spark X1 deep reasoning model, achieving performance parity with leading models and lowering deployment thresholds [9]. Market Position and Future Outlook - Despite challenges, iFlytek has built a self-reliant AI ecosystem and aims to balance domestic and international market strategies [10]. - The company plans to enhance profitability through product strategy, supply chain cost control, and channel expansion, proposing a dividend of 1 yuan per 10 shares [11].