Tianqi Lithium's "loss-to-profit turnaround" as revenue drops by 3 billion but profit increases by 8.3 billion

Revenue is down, but net profit turns from loss to profit? This is the first full fiscal year under the helm of “post-1990s” (锂二代) Jiang Anqi, and it delivers what appears to be a contradictory scorecard.

Tianqi Lithium has recently released its 2025 annual report: operating revenue was 10.35B yuan, down 20.8% year over year, a decrease of 3.0 billion yuan; while net profit attributable to shareholders reached 463 million yuan, “fully recovering from” the massive loss of 7.9 billion yuan in 2024, earning 8.3 billion yuan more than in 2024.

In April 2024, “post-1985” Jiang Anqi took over the scepter from her father, Jiang Weiping, becoming the new chairman of this lithium industry giant. At that time, lithium prices were falling from their peak, the company posted consecutive losses, and everyone was watching this “second-generation lithium heir,” hoping she could steer this giant ship out of the storm.

However, the 2025 financial report reveals a reality: Tianqi Lithium’s core business is still bleeding, cash flow has dropped sharply, and the 463 million yuan of profit relies entirely on its equity-invested company “helping.” Jiang Anqi’s performance report is not as impressive as it looks on the surface.

Tianqi Lithium’s 2025 operating revenue declined, whether broken down by industry segment or by product.

By product, revenue from lithium compounds and derivatives was 5.7B yuan, down 29.45% year over year; revenue from lithium ore was 4.63B yuan, down 7.01% year over year. Volume growth with price decline is the main cause—while lithium compound sales increased 24.35%, the price drop was far greater than the increase in sales volume.

By region, overseas business is not optimistic. In 2025, Tianqi Lithium’s gross margin for overseas business was only 3.21%, down 38.23 percentage points sharply from 2024. This means that after deducting all direct costs, for every 100 yuan of overseas revenue, only 3.21 yuan remains as gross profit. Can these profits cover overseas sales, administrative, finance and other expenses? If not, then Tianqi Lithium’s overseas business in 2025 is “making money at a loss just for the publicity.”

Tianqi Lithium’s revenue-generating ability has weakened, yet the company’s net profit attributable to shareholders jumped from -7.9 billion yuan in 2024 to 463 million yuan in 2025. Where did the money come from? The answer is the equity-invested company SQM (Chile’s chemical and mining company).

In 2025, SQM’s net profit, translated into RMB, was approximately 4.18B yuan, up significantly year over year. Tianqi Lithium holds about 21.90% of SQM’s equity. Under the equity method, it recognized investment income of 665 million yuan. This amount already far exceeds Tianqi Lithium’s full-year net profit.

In other words, Tianqi Lithium was able to show a profit on the books in 2025 not because of an improvement in its core business, but because of the 665 million yuan of investment income contributed by its equity-invested company SQM. Without this outside support, relying only on its main business, the company would still be mired in the loss quagmire.

Even more worth watching is how long SQM’s “good days” can continue. In May 2024, SQM and Chile’s state-owned copper company (Codelco) signed a “partnership agreement.” Starting in 2031, SQM will no longer hold control over Chile’s key lithium business in the Atacama. Tianqi Lithium filed a lawsuit in response, but in January 2026, Chile’s Supreme Court dismissed the appeal at final instance. This means that SQM—the single most important profit stabilizer—faces substantial uncertainty going forward.

When the core business is weak, cash flow tightens. In 2025, Tianqi Lithium’s net cash flow from operating activities was 2.96B yuan, plunging 46.70% year over year. The company’s explanation was that “the cash receipts and gross profit amounts corresponding to operating revenue declined from the prior year.” In other words, the company not only made less money, but also saw the cash it actually collected shrink dramatically. At the same time, the company’s cash and cash equivalents decreased from 5.77B yuan at the beginning of 2025 to 4.38B yuan by year-end—evaporating nearly 1.4 billion yuan within a year.

For investors holding Tianqi Lithium, the most关注 (most watched) is a line in the 2025 annual report: “The company plans not to distribute cash dividends, not to issue bonus shares, and not to increase share capital by converting capital reserve into share capital.”

The company’s stated reason is that, taking into comprehensive account the actual development situation at this stage, the capital needs for project investment, and the long- and medium-term strategic plan. Then where did the money go? The data on construction in progress and capital expenditures in Tianqi Lithium’s financial report provide the answer.

The largest investment is the third lithium chemical-grade lithium spodumene concentrate plant project in Australia, Greenbush. The cumulative investment in this project is already approaching 5.0 billion yuan RMB. Although construction was completed in December 2025 and the first batch of qualified products was produced on January 30, 2026, there remains a long capacity ramp-up process before stable full production is achieved.

The second investment is the 30k-ton lithium hydroxide project in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu. The project’s cumulative investment is about 1.18 billion yuan. It was completed in July 2025, and that same year in October it confirmed that the product parameters met the targets. Likewise, it is currently also in the capacity ramp-up stage and has not yet reached full production.

The third is the domestic resource expansion— the Zongla lithium pegmatite mine in Sichuan. This project is still in the exploration and early-stage construction phase, with cumulative investment currently about 20.71 million yuan.

Combined, these three projects have already received total investment exceeding 6.2 billion yuan.

For Jiang Anqi, who has fully taken over as chair, this is undoubtedly a difficult dilemma: on one side are three major projects already sunk with 6.2 billion yuan—Greenbush’s third plant has just been put into operation, the Zhangjiagang project in Jiangsu is still ramping up, and the Sichuan Zongla mine is still underground—these sunk costs need continued investment to generate future returns; on the other side are lithium prices still hovering at low levels, operating cash flow cut nearly in half, and cash on the books evaporating by 1.4 billion yuan in one year.

If they keep burning cash, cash flow could deteriorate further; if they stop, the massive early investments may not be recoverable. Tianqi Lithium’s challenges ahead are many.