Meituan released its first-quarter results on the evening of June 1st, and as anticipated, the company reported a loss.
The financial report shows first-quarter revenue of 91.04 billion yuan and a net loss of 4.97 billion yuan. The losses are still attributed to its food delivery and instant commerce businesses, driven by subsidy wars with competitors like Alibaba and JD.com.
Looking back at the entire 2025 fiscal year, Meituan swung directly from profit to a loss, recording a full-year net loss of 23.4 billion yuan. Its core local commerce segment alone contributed a loss of 6.9 billion yuan. Although the loss narrowed significantly in Q1 2026, the company has not yet returned to profitability.
While the battle in instant retail continues, another section of Meituan's earnings report has drawn significant external attention: its investment portfolio.
The report reveals holdings including a 12.73% stake in Li Auto, 3.86% in KNOWLEDGE ATLAS, and 7.61% in Unitree Robotics.
Meituan's CFO, Chen Shaohui, stated that the company's investments in AI generated a profit of 7.6 billion yuan in a single quarter.
Simply put, this windfall is largely thanks to KNOWLEDGE ATLAS. Since its IPO in January this year, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS's stock price has soared from an issue price of HK$116.2 to a recent closing price of HK$1,462. In less than half a year, the share price has multiplied by over 11.5 times, pushing its market capitalization past HK$650 billion.
It's fair to say KNOWLEDGE ATLAS has been the standout star in the Hong Kong stock market this year. This was especially true after the Hong Kong Exchange announced its inclusion in the Hang Seng Tech Index, prompting many retail investors to cheer that the index was finally saved.
Meituan was an early investor in KNOWLEDGE ATLAS. The financial report indicates Meituan holds a 3.86% stake. Based on the latest share price, this stake is worth approximately HK$25.16 billion, representing a staggering increase of over HK$23 billion from its value at the IPO.
On the very day Meituan released its quarterly report, KNOWLEDGE ATLAS announced plans for a secondary listing on Shanghai's STAR Market. Simultaneously, Unitree Robotics received formal approval for its listing, also set for the STAR Market.
This implies that the value of Meituan's shareholdings is poised for another significant surge.
Meituan was also an early backer of Unitree Robotics, becoming the largest external shareholder after the founder, holding a 7.61% stake.
Wang Xing's investment in Unitree dates back to 2024, before the company's appearance on the Spring Festival Gala and before the embodied AI trend took off. Even with prior investments from notable firms like Sequoia and Shunwei Capital, it didn't create major waves until 2024. Between February and September of that year, Meituan participated in Unitree's B++ and B+++ funding rounds through three entities: Hanhai Information Technology, Galaxy Z Holding Limited, and Chengdu Longzhu Equity Investment Fund. In under ten months, Meituan became Unitree's top external shareholder, with a total investment cost of only around 400 million yuan.
Based on the IPO fundraising ratio, Unitree Robotics' valuation at listing is estimated to be at least 42 billion yuan. Meituan's stake would be worth approximately 3.196 billion yuan, translating to a paper gain of nearly 2.8 billion yuan.
In reality, Meituan's investments in hard tech in recent years extend beyond this. Since announcing its 'Retail + Technology' strategy in 2021, the company has increased investments in robotics and semiconductors. Following the explosion of large language models in 2023, it further ramped up investments in the AI sector.
In the field of embodied intelligence, Meituan has invested in over 16 companies in recent years, with 10 now valued at over $1 billion. Its portfolio spans food delivery robots, commercial cleaning robots, robotic arms, and embodied AI robots, covering a wide range of applications.
Regarding large AI models, besides KNOWLEDGE ATLAS, Meituan has also invested in Moonshot AI, MiniMax, and DeepLang. In the semiconductor space, its investments include Moore Threads, MetaX, and Unisoc. Its investment strategy not only covers the entire industry chain but also includes leading companies.
Examining the financial reports of major tech platforms reveals a common theme of strengthening the AI narrative, and Meituan is no exception.
In its 2025 annual report, Meituan mentioned AI 75 times, a nearly tenfold increase from the mere 7 mentions in its 2024 report. The report even explicitly stated a commitment to "fully embrace AI."
In 2025 alone, Meituan's R&D expenditure reached 26 billion yuan, a 23% year-on-year increase, with a significant focus on AI.
In the first-quarter report, Meituan CEO Wang Xing stated the company would vigorously advance its AI layout in 2026, continuously increase AI investment, and iteratively improve its AI Agent and large model capabilities.
However, public sentiment towards this heavy AI spending is not entirely positive, with many expressing skepticism and raising questions.
Similar doubts are also faced by Alibaba and JD.com: Are tech giants' massive bets on AI creating real value for industries, or are they merely capitalizing on a trendy narrative? Could AI become the next "algorithm," ultimately passing costs onto consumers?
While AI demands heavy investment, the immediate retail battlefield is about to heat up again with the approaching World Cup and the summer consumption peak.
Reflecting on last year's food delivery wars, while it's hard to declare a clear winner among the three major platforms, the shift from a near-monopoly to a three-way battle has undoubtedly impacted Meituan the most.
Reports suggest that insiders at Meituan have revealed that in recent years, many of the company's divisions were complacent with past successes, overly confident in their established methods. Considerable talent and energy were spent on internal reporting and justification processes, which dulled their sensitivity to external market shifts, leading to delayed reactions in critical competitive arenas.
Meanwhile, Alibaba has been gaining momentum, with some within the company reportedly stating that "Meituan is not an unbeatable opponent after all."
Alibaba has recently made personnel adjustments, with the CEO of Freshippo now reporting to Jiang Fan, who oversees the commerce segment. This is seen as a signal that Freshippo may be integrated into the core e-commerce business group, potentially indicating a more consolidated and focused effort by Alibaba to capture market share in instant retail.
For Meituan, which has just managed to reduce its losses, the challenge is twofold: it must ramp up AI R&D spending while simultaneously facing a new round of intense competition in instant retail. This dual pressure presents a significant hurdle to the company's goal of returning to profitability.
For Meituan at this juncture, before its AI and tech investments can feed back into and strengthen its core business to "use technology to help everyone live better," the primary challenge is figuring out how to defend its market share in an increasingly fierce instant retail market.
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