An AI large model company that went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in mid-2025, UNISOUND (09678.HK), initially rode the wave of voice AI and large model narratives to a market peak, with its valuation briefly approaching 60 billion Hong Kong dollars. However, within just one year, the company's stock price has experienced a precipitous decline, falling over 80% in 2026, with its latest market value dropping to under 6 billion Hong Kong dollars. The expiry of a lock-up period at the end of June triggered a single-day plunge of over 40%, and a share placement completed just one month prior to the unlock further intensified market concerns over increased share supply. Entering July, the company announced a series of positive developments, including a medical large model, a municipal-level AI platform project, a share buyback, and insider share purchases by its controlling shareholder, while also disclosing a first-half revenue forecast. Despite these multiple catalysts, the stock price has shown a weak rebound, and the restoration of market confidence remains uncertain.
On June 30, 2025, UNISOUND officially listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming a key target in the AI large model sector. The stock price continued to rise after listing, reaching an all-time high of 879 Hong Kong dollars on September 1 of that year, corresponding to a total market value of approximately 62.6 billion Hong Kong dollars. At that time, market optimism was high regarding the commercialization prospects of AI large models. As a leading voice AI company in China, with its general-purpose large model series U2 in deployment, UNISOUND was seen as a rare target with both technological barriers and commercial potential. This period of high valuation was short-lived, as the stock price began a downward correction soon after hitting its peak. Market data shows that the stock was still above 400 Hong Kong dollars at the beginning of 2026, but its decline accelerated from May onwards. Before the lock-up expiry in June, the price had already fallen to around 120 Hong Kong dollars. As of the close on July 31, 2026, the stock price was 75.45 Hong Kong dollars, representing a cumulative year-to-date decline of 81.34% and a total market value of about 5.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, less than one-tenth of its peak. The persistent decline is attributed to dual pressures: a general valuation correction in the AI large model industry and the slower-than-expected pace of the company's fundamental performance. On one hand, risk appetite for Hong Kong-listed tech growth stocks has been declining throughout 2026, compressing valuations for unprofitable AI companies. On the other hand, the progress of large model commercialization has fallen short of market expectations, and the contradiction between high R&D spending and limited revenue growth has eroded investor tolerance for the cash-burning model. Financial data shows that UNISOUND generated 1.211 billion yuan in revenue for the full year of 2025, a 29% year-on-year increase, but still reported a net loss of 327 million yuan, with negative operating cash flow of 213 million yuan, indicating that the company has not yet achieved self-sustaining cash generation.
The expiration of the lock-up period at the end of June 2026 was a key catalyst for the stock price collapse. On June 30, the stock price of UNISOUND plummeted 41.19% in a single day, closing at 71.45 Hong Kong dollars from the previous day's 121.5 Hong Kong dollars. Trading volume surged to 445 million Hong Kong dollars, a recent high. The massive concentrated selling pressure reflected strong market concerns about early investors cashing out after the lock-up expiry. Notably, just about a month before the unlock, the company completed a share placement. In late May, when the stock was trading in the 260-280 Hong Kong dollar range, it rose 9.04% on May 27, with trading volume spiking to 276 million Hong Kong dollars. While the placement was initially interpreted as institutional endorsement, the stock price failed to stabilize and instead became the starting point for an accelerated decline. The close timing of the placement and the lock-up expiry, just one month apart, created a combined effect of increased share supply, exerting dual pressure on an already weak stock price. The stock did not stop falling after the unlock; it continued to decline in early July, hitting a record low of 64.7 Hong Kong dollars on July 14. From around 250 Hong Kong dollars in early June to 64.7 Hong Kong dollars in mid-July, the stock lost nearly 75% of its value in just a month and a half, a speed and magnitude of decline far exceeding market expectations.
In the face of a sustained stock price crash and a sharp contraction in market value, UNISOUND significantly accelerated its information disclosure pace in July. It released a flurry of positive signals across three dimensions—technology products, business orders, and capital operations—in an attempt to stabilize market expectations and boost investor confidence. On the technology and product front, on July 17, the company published two major announcements. First, it officially launched the industry's first specialized large model for the medical, health insurance, and pharmaceutical sectors, named "U2-Med Triple Medical Large Model," which ranked first in both the full-modal large model and intelligent agent categories of the MedBench evaluation, achieving a comprehensive score close to 90 points. Second, it announced it had won AI medical construction projects from several top-tier Class 3A hospitals, including Beijing Youan Hospital, Shandong Provincial Hospital, and Nanjing Tongren Hospital, signaling that the commercialization of its medical large model is entering a phase of scaled replication. On July 28, the company also announced comprehensive upgrades to its voice large models, U2-ASR and U2-TTS, adding 13 new international language recognition capabilities and 8 Southeast Asian language speech synthesis capabilities, now supporting over 100 Chinese dialects and over 15 international languages, achieving top rankings in the ChinaVoices Challenge 2026. On the business order side, on July 31, the company announced it had won the bid for a municipal-level data-space project in Nanning and secured another municipal-level AI public platform project in Xiamen. The combined contract value of these two landmark city-level projects exceeds 20 million yuan, demonstrating the cross-regional replication and validation of its city-level MaaS solutions. In terms of capital operations, on July 23, the company simultaneously announced two stabilization measures: a buyback and insider purchases. It declared a plan to repurchase H-shares worth no more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars within six months, based on a general mandate granted at the annual general meeting, with a maximum of approximately 4.51 million H-shares eligible for buyback. It also disclosed that Dr. Huang Wei, the controlling shareholder, executive director, and CEO, had purchased 56,000 H-shares using his own funds between July 6 and 16, totaling approximately 3.98 million Hong Kong dollars. Executive Director Liu Shengping also purchased 15,140 H-shares during the same period for about 1.13 million Hong Kong dollars. Dr. Huang indicated his intention to continue making purchases in the future. The announcements also emphasized that the controlling shareholder had not sold any shares since the company's listing.
On July 22, UNISOUND released its revenue forecast for the first half of 2026, projecting total revenue for the period to be between 530 million yuan and 580 million yuan, representing a 31% to 43% increase compared to the same period in 2025. By business segment, the agent business, which leverages large model capabilities, is expected to generate revenue of 515 million yuan to 550 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 200% to 220%. The newly expanded large model Token direct calling business is expected to contribute about 30 million yuan in revenue in the first half, with a gross margin of no less than 60%. Within this, Token calling revenue in the second quarter was approximately 25 million yuan, a sequential increase of about 500% from the first quarter. Recurring revenue accounted for over 60% of total revenue, up 40% year-on-year. From a revenue perspective, the company's business growth appears strong, especially the explosive growth in the agent business and the rapid ramp-up of the Token business, which are positive signals for large model commercialization. However, the market noted that this forecast only disclosed revenue figures and did not provide data on profit or loss. This differs from the common practice of many Hong Kong-listed companies, which typically disclose both revenue and profit/loss data when issuing performance forecasts. Considering that UNISOUND reported a net loss of 327 million yuan for the full year of 2025 and institutional forecasts predict a loss of approximately 89 million yuan for 2026, the decision to disclose only revenue without mentioning profitability has, to some extent, triggered cautious expectations regarding the company's earnings. The day after the earnings forecast was released, the stock price fell by 6.45%, reflecting the market's cautious interpretation of this "one-sided" forecast. The sharp valuation correction of UNISOUND epitomizes the common predicament faced by unprofitable AI companies on the Hong Kong stock market. The large model track initially relied on capital investment to drive technological R&D and market expansion, with valuations built on long-term commercialization expectations. However, as the industry enters a phase of validation, investors are increasingly focusing on hard metrics such as revenue quality, the speed of loss reduction, and cash flow improvements. Simple technology releases and order announcements are no longer sufficient to support high valuations. For UNISOUND, the doubled growth in its agent business and the rapid expansion of its Token calling revenue are positive signs. But there is still a long way to go before reaching breakeven, and the market needs to see a clearer path to profitability and more comprehensive financial data before it can re-establish confidence in the company's valuation.
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