Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd. (002371) has seen its profit growth significantly lag behind revenue expansion since 2025, a trend initially attributed to accelerated R&D spending and expensing, but closer inspection reveals a concurrent decline in core equipment gross margins. As new products progress from development through customer validation to volume shipments, the company's current margin pressure is tied to this commercialization phase, leaving the outlook for margin recovery in 2026 and 2027 uncertain.
After years of rapid growth, Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd. posted an unusual set of figures in 2025. According to the company's 2025 annual report, full-year revenue reached 39.116 billion yuan, up approximately 31% year-on-year; R&D investment totaled 7.277 billion yuan, a 34.74% increase; and R&D headcount swelled from 4,583 to 6,511, a jump of over 42%. However, net profit attributable to shareholders fell 1.77% to 5.522 billion yuan. The company's explanation was straightforward: R&D expenses recognized in the current period hit 5.435 billion yuan in 2025, up 46.96% year-on-year, while simultaneous expansion of R&D, market development, and customer service teams, along with higher costs from component iterations during new product validation at client sites, weighed on profitability. Thus, the core question isn't whether Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd. remains committed to R&D, but whether the historical mechanism of R&D investment driving both revenue and profit growth is undergoing a fundamental shift.
R&D spending rises, but past economies of scale begin to fade
From 2022 to 2024, Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd.'s revenue growth generally outpaced R&D investment, meaning R&D spending was not a major drag on top-line growth. 2025 marked the first reversal of this trend. R&D investment grew 34.74%, faster than revenue, and the increase in R&D personnel further outstripped revenue growth. A simple calculation of revenue per R&D employee shows a rise from roughly 5.99 million yuan in 2023 to 6.47 million yuan in 2024, before slipping back to about 6.01 million yuan in 2025. While this metric offers only a rough view of input-output efficiency and cannot alone indicate a decline in R&D productivity, the significant drop in the capitalization ratio of R&D spending in 2025 meant a larger portion of total R&D investment was expensed directly, amplifying the impact on profitability. R&D investment as a percentage of revenue rose only slightly from 17.96% to 18.49% in 2025, but the capitalization ratio fell from 42.25% to 34.50%, explaining why R&D expenses surged nearly 47%. This accounts for part of the profit growth slowdown, yet it fails to explain the decline in core business gross margins.
R&D payoff hinges on new product margins
In 2025, Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd.'s electronic process equipment revenue reached 36.731 billion yuan, up 32.57% year-on-year and representing 93.34% of total revenue. However, the gross margin for this core business fell 2.33 percentage points, from approximately 41.51% in 2024 to 39.18%. This shift is arguably more concerning than the decline in net profit. In prior years, Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd. did not rely solely on sales expansion; the gross margin for electronic process equipment climbed steadily from about 33% in 2021 to 41.51% in 2024, allowing the company to enjoy both revenue scale growth and improved product profitability. 2025 represented the first reversal of this trend. The annual report attributes the margin decline to increased component iteration costs during new product validation at customer sites. Meanwhile, in 2025, the company launched several new products, including ion implantation and electroplating systems, achieved mass production of its 12-inch advanced low-pressure chemical vapor silicon deposition vertical furnace, and cumulative deliveries of PVD and vertical furnaces surpassed 1,000 units, following the etch tool milestone. In other words, the margin decline coincided temporally with new products entering their commercialization phase.
2026 becomes the proving ground
During the first half of 2026, this tension has not only persisted but become clearer. According to Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd.'s 2026 interim report, revenue grew 24.90% year-on-year, while net profit attributable to shareholders increased only 5.05%, and R&D expenses continued to rise 28.87% year-on-year. Gross margin fell from 42.17% to 40.07%. The company again cited component iteration costs from new product validation at customer sites, but this time added another factor: commercial discounts extended to certain high-volume procurement customers. Consequently, the company appears to be bearing two types of costs simultaneously: those from validating and iterating new products, and margin pressure from offering commercial incentives to large customers. Although profitability pressures persisted in the first half of 2026, R&D investment is showing more commercialization results. The company disclosed that market share for its core equipment, including etch, PVD, and vertical furnaces, continued to rise, while new products such as ion implantation, electroplating, and coater/developer systems achieved volume shipments, and bonding equipment reached batch shipment stage at customer sites. This suggests current R&D spending is not confined to the lab, yet its earnings contribution remains unrealized.
Regarding supply chain validation, since Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd. does not disclose specific downstream customers, more telling evidence comes from its upstream suppliers. Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd. is one of the most important customers of Hengyunchang, which disclosed that since partnering with Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd. in 2020, it has continuously developed advanced products for new tool development and validated multiple product introductions. In the first half of 2025, revenue from Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd.-related business reached 22.93 million yuan. Hengyunchang also noted its products typically require customer validation before transitioning to volume procurement, corroborating Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd.'s claims about new products being in customer validation. Therefore, the true test for margin recovery will occur after these new products advance from volume supply into mature sales. At that juncture, the focus should shift from the absolute R&D spending figure to whether equipment gross margins can stabilize or rebound, and whether per-capita output from the expanded R&D team can improve. If validation and iteration costs decline after new product ramp-up and margins recover, then the profit pressure of 2025-2026 may be seen as a one-time cost Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd. paid to broaden its product portfolio. Conversely, if new product revenue grows but R&D headcount, per-capita output, and equipment gross margins trend downward over the long term, the issue evolves from merely 'R&D spending outpacing revenue and profit recognition' to 'declining marginal R&D efficiency.'
Ultimately, for Naura Technology Group Co.,Ltd., the 7.2 billion yuan R&D investment is not the most worrying number. The real question is whether the new equipment developed through this spending can, after completing customer validation and entering scale sales, restore the company's previous state of simultaneous revenue growth, margin improvement, and R&D efficiency gains.
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