AgiBot-controlled Swancor loses RMB 255m in Q3 on robot R&D as co-CEO quits and Huawei veterans step in
Swancor Advanced Materials, the STAR Market company AgiBot controls, reported a third-quarter net loss of RMB 255.4 million on Oct 29 as research spending on its consumer embodied-AI robots rose about 24-fold, and the Qiyuan Q1 and T1 robots launched on Sept 20 have not yet booked revenue.
The same night co-CEO and CTO Zhou Bin resigned and the board named three former Huawei executives to run the company. The filings show the profit growth outlets led with belongs to the resin business alone: the group lost RMB 422.0 million in nine months.
Swancor Advanced Materials (688585.SH), the Shanghai resin maker that humanoid developer AgiBot took control of a year ago, reported a net loss attributable to shareholders of RMB 255.4 million for July to September 2026 in its third-quarter report, filed on the evening of Oct 29. A year earlier it earned about RMB 30 million. The cause is the robot business it is building from scratch: research spending reached RMB 204.0 million in the quarter, 50.2% of revenue and up 2,305% on the year.
The same filing batch carried a management reset. Co-CEO and chief technology officer Zhou Bin resigned from the board and all posts on Oct 28 for personal reasons, two years before his term ended. On Oct 29 the board appointed Zhao Gang, a former Huawei regional vice president and Honor international president who later sold cars for Leapmotor, as president and COO, and named Gao Quanzhong, Huawei's former chief 5G solutions expert, and Liu Dongfang, who ran Huawei handset and audio product lines, as co-presidents.
The profit growth was the resin business
Chinese outlets led with a 4.91% rise in profit on Oct 29. That figure is in the report, but it covers the new-materials business only, which earned RMB 63.5 million in nine months on revenue of RMB 1.209 billion. The listed group lost RMB 422.0 million over the same period. By MEKAWIRE's arithmetic (group loss minus resin profit), everything outside resins cost about RMB 485 million in nine months, against RMB 359.6 million of robot R&D alone.
- Q3 revenue
- 406.2
- 665.0
- Q3 R&D
- 204.0
- 127.0
- R&D / revenue
- 50.2%
- 19.1%
- Q3 net profit attributable
- -255.4
- 112.7
- Robot revenue in Q3
- 0
- core business
Sources: Swancor Q3 2026 report (SSE, Oct 29); Unitree Q3 2026 report as covered by MEKAWIRE on Oct 28. Disclosed figures, as of Oct 29, 2026.
Two robots on sale, none yet in the revenue line
The company said its consumer embodied-AI robots, Qiyuan Q1 and Qiyuan T1, went on sale on Sept 20 and start shipping in October, so the quarter contains no robot revenue. The robot team had 295 people at the end of September, 64% of them with master's degrees, and has filed 135 patent applications, 21 of them granted. Selling expenses rose to RMB 109.3 million in nine months from RMB 29.1 million.
The cash came from the former parent. Swancor International Holdings lent the company RMB 450 million at a fixed 1.7% a year, repayable in one sum, to fund robot R&D, supply chain and marketing. Cash rose to RMB 836.7 million from RMB 304.5 million at the end of 2025, while equity fell 30.9% to RMB 930.4 million.
MEKAWIRE analysis
Swancor has become AgiBot's consumer-robot startup inside a listed shell, and the hiring of three Huawei device executives says the next test is selling hardware to households, not research.
The comparison with Unitree, which reported on Oct 28, shows the scale of the bet. Unitree spent RMB 127.0 million on R&D in the third quarter and still earned RMB 112.7 million. Swancor spent RMB 204.0 million with no robot sales at all. The counter-argument is timing: the first deliveries only began in October, and a consumer launch front-loads marketing and tooling.
The risk is the balance sheet. At the third-quarter burn rate the shareholder loan covers roughly two quarters, and equity has already lost almost a third this year. MEKAWIRE covered AgiBot's 63.6% tender for Swancor in October 2025; how much further capital the parent puts in is now the question.
What to watch: the extraordinary shareholder meeting that votes on Zhao Gang's board seat, the first Qiyuan delivery numbers in the fourth quarter, and the 2026 annual report, which will show the first robot revenue.
- RMB 204.0m, 50.2% of revenue, +2,305%
- Q3 report and two board announcements, SSE, Oct 29, 2026
- RMB 450m shareholder loan at 1.7%
- Co-CEO and CTO Zhou Bin resigned Oct 28; Zhao Gang named president and COO
- RMB 359.6m of RMB 384.3m total
- None yet; Qiyuan Q1 and T1 on sale Sept 20, deliveries from October
- RMB 255.4m (Q3 2025: profit)
- RMB 422.0m (resin business profit RMB 63.5m)