Kingsoft Cloud Q4 2025 Earnings Call - AI computing surge drives record revenue and operating profitability

Operator: Good day, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Kingsoft Cloud’s fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Nicole Shan, IR Director of Kingsoft Cloud. Please go ahead.

Nicole Shan, IR Director, Kingsoft Cloud: Thank you operator. Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Kingsoft Cloud’s fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 earnings release was distributed earlier today and is available on our IR website at ir.ksyun.com, as well as on PR Newswire services. On the call today from Kingsoft Cloud, we have our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Zhou Tao, CFO, Ms. Li Yi, Senior Vice President, Mr. Liu Tao, Senior Vice President, Mr. Tian Kaiyan, Vice President, Ms. Wang Shuang, and Associate Vice President, Mr. Cai Jian. Mr. Zhou will review our business strategies, operations, and other company highlights, followed by Ms. Li, who will discuss the financial performance. They will be available to answer your questions during the Q&A session that follows. There will be consecutive interpretation. Our interpretations are for your convenience and reference purpose only. In case of any discrepancy, management’s statement in the original language will prevail.

Before we begin, I’d like to remind you that this conference call contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based upon management’s current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the company’s control, which may cause the company’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors are included in the company’s filings with the U.S. SEC.

The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. Finally, please note that unless otherwise stated, all financial figures mentioned during this conference call are denominated in RMB. It’s now my pleasure to introduce our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Zhou Tao. Please go ahead.

Zhou Tao, Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: 大家好，欢迎参加金山云2025年第四季度及全年业绩电话会。我是金山云CEO周涛。2025年初以来，全球AI行业迎来了一系列里程碑的事件，从DeepSeek时刻的突现，到多模态大模型你追我赶的极致表现，从具身智能突飞猛进跨入物理世界，到AI Agent的自主理解执行闭环。AI正以不可阻挡之势多点进化，串联起从模型、智算体、智能体、算力到产业落地的脉络，赋能千行百业。云计算作为AI五层蛋糕高度耦合的组成部分，正承接前所未有的庞大智算需求。2025年，金山云继续走高质量可持续发展道路，在AI浪潮中拥抱机遇，在实战中收获成长，取得了财务业绩表现和业务能力沉淀的双丰收，成绩斐然。首先，我们四季度收入达27.6亿元，再创历史新高，同比增长24%。其中公有云同比大幅增长35%，收入达19亿元。智算业务继续发力，驱动强势增长。四季度账单收入达9.3亿元，同比增长95%，占公有云收入比例达49%。其次，生态内外业务增长齐头并进。一方面，生态合作稳固并不断深化。本季度来自小米金山生态的收入达8亿元，同比增长63%，占总收入比例进一步提升至29%。2025年全年，我们与小米和金山关联交易逼近额度内上限，达94%。另一方面，生态外客户同样认可我们的产品服务，其占总收入比例超过70%，覆盖众多高增长行业的领军企业。我们前五大非生态客户的收入同比增长达44%，保持强劲增长势头。最后，盈利水平继续提升。本季度经调整毛利率环比提升至17.1%，经调整经营利润率2.0%，再次实现了经营层面的盈利。公司造血能力同比持续显著提升。

Zhou Tao (English Translation), Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: Hello everyone, and thank you and welcome to Kingsoft Cloud fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025 earnings call. I am Tao Zou, CEO of Kingsoft Cloud. Since the beginning of 2025, the global AI industry has reached a series of milestones, from the democratization sparked by the DeepSeek moment to the active competition among multimodal large models. From the leap of embodied AI into the physical world to agents close to the capability of understanding and execution. AI is evolving with unstoppable momentum, linking across models, agents, computing power to industrial applications, reshaping every sector. As a tightly integrated component of the AI five-layer stack, cloud computing is now meeting an unprecedented surge in demand for intelligent computing. This year, we stayed committed to our high quality and sustainable development strategy. Embracing the opportunities in AI era, strengthening our capability through solid execution.

We have delivered impressive results, achieving strong financial performance while forging lasting business strength. First, we recorded a historical high quarterly revenue, reaching RMB 2.76 billion, representing a year-over-year growth of 24%. Among which revenues from public cloud services increased by 35% to RMB 1.9 billion. Our intelligent computing services keep driving our growth. The gross billing of AI business reached RMB 926 million, representing a 95% year-over-year and contributing 49% of our public cloud services. Second, growth in our ecosystem and external business segment is progressing hand in hand. On one hand, our ecosystem partnerships have remained strong and continue to deepen.

This quarter, Xiaomi and Kingsoft ecosystem revenue reached CNY 804 million, a 63% year-over-year increase, accounting for 29% of total revenue. For the full year 2025, related party transactions with Xiaomi and Kingsoft ecosystem partners reached a 94% of our net annual cap, almost hitting the limit. On the other hand, our external customers, including leading enterprises across a wide range of high growth industries, also showed confidence in our products and services, accounting for around 70% of total revenue. Furthermore, revenue from our top 5 non-ecosystem customers grew by 44% year-over-year, sustaining strong growth momentum. Last but not least, profitability continued to improve this quarter, with adjusted gross margin increasing quarter-over-quarter to 17.1% and adjusted operating margin reaching 2.0%.

We have achieved operating level profitability two quarters in a row, and our self-funding capability has shown sustained and significant year-over-year improvement.

Zhou Tao, Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: 下面我向大家具体介绍2025年第四季度的业务进展。公有云方面，本季度实现收入19亿元，同比增长35%。客户角度，2025年AI能力边界不断拓展，驱动各行各业对AI的全面拥抱，使得我们的客户基础更加多元，不仅包括头部的AI企业和互联网厂商，也广泛服务车企、智驾、机身智能、金融科技等新兴行业的计算需求。不仅牢牢把握小米金山生态内多样化的业务需求，也在生态外开疆拓土，斩获商机。产品服务角度，我们持续突破集群规模上限，交付大规模计算集群服务，助力重点客户的大模型训练与爆发式的推理需求。本季度我们交付的某头部互联网视频客户推理集群已实现覆盖其AI业务超一亿用户。我们新签约头部互联网家的金融客户，为其提供按token用量付费的推理场景服务，以稳定的模型及算力服务得到客户的认可。供应链角度，面对供应链市场的不确定性，我们凭借多年深耕打造的稳健供应链体系，前瞻性地进行布局，动态进行关键的核心部件的备货，为我们的业务增长保驾护航。行业云方面，本季度实现收入8.6亿元，环比大幅增长18%。在人工智能家的政策驱动下，产业智能解决方案成为行业发展的主要驱动。垂直行业对于模型的专业性，在真实业务场景中的实用性，以及数据合规的高要求，也使得云服务在推进产业智能化的进程中更为必要。行业云的AI推动行稳致远，不仅有万亿市场的潜力，同时对于技术推动产业的全面跃进至关重要。今天云作为技术，有技术、有经验，有服务能力的To B领域云服务厂商，定将把握产业机遇。企业服务领域，我们实现了智算业务在高端制造核心场景的关键落地，为行业顶级的龙头企业客户在智能制造、工业视觉、AI研发提供稳定高效的算力服务支撑。数字健康领域，我们正式发布了基于Data Agent架构的医疗智能运营管理AI应用，标志着公司医疗大数据服务完成了从数字化向智能化的范式跨越，构建了可验证、可审计的医疗数据分析新标准，支持用户以自然语言直观洞察疾病诊断相关分组的DRG控制、营收波动等核心指标根因，真正实现了对话及分析。该平台将医院管理从事后统计升级为事前预测与事中干预。在大幅降低数据应用门槛的同时，进一步巩固了公司在医疗AI高价值场景中的技术壁垒与差异化竞争优势。在公共服务领域，本季度我们在政企智算领域与运营商进行合作，结合双方的资源与技术优势，提供长期稳定的高性能算力集群服务，快速切入到上海等核心地区的政企智算市场。我们相信，凭借金山云在垂直行业的专业能力和企业服务的经验沉淀，行业云智算机会同样是巨大的产业机会，与公有云互联网行业协同共进。

Zhou Tao (English Translation), Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: Now, I would like to walk you through the key business highlights for the fourth quarter of 2025. In terms of public cloud services, revenue reached RMB 1.9 billion this quarter, representing a year-over-year increase of 35%. From customer perspective, in 2025, AI continued pushing its boundaries, driving industries to fully embrace it, diversifying our customer base. Beyond leading AI enterprises and internet giants, we now also serve automotive manufacturing, autonomous driving, embodied AI, and Fintech sectors, et cetera. We’ve solidified our cooperation within the Xiaomi and Kingsoft ecosystem while capturing new external opportunities. From product and services perspective, we keep pushing the limits of cluster scale, supporting large-scale training and explosive inference demand. Notably in this quarter, we delivered a new inference cluster for top video streaming platform, serving over 100 million users.

We also secured a major Fintech customer using our token-based inference service, who speak highly of our stable model and computing power services. On supply chain front, despite market uncertainties, our well-established and resilient supply chain, built through years of experience, allowed us to plan ahead strategically and stock key components dynamically to ensure sustainable business growth. Now in terms of enterprise cloud, revenue reached RMB 859 million this quarter, a significant quarter-over-quarter increase of 18%. Driven by the AI Plus policy, industrial intelligence solutions have become a key growth driver. The demand for specialized vertical models, real-world application, and strict data compliance makes cloud services more essential than ever in advancing industrial intelligence.

The AI business of enterprise cloud is paving the way for steady long-term growth, not only representing a trillion-dollar market opportunity, but also playing a critical role in driving the technological leap across industries. As a B2B cloud service provider with solid technology, expertise, and enterprise service capabilities, we are well-positioned to capture these industrial transformation opportunities. In the area of enterprise services, we achieved key breakthroughs in high-end manufacturing industry. We provided stable and high-performance computing service to the top enterprises to support their process in intelligent manufacturing, industrial vision, and AI R&D. In healthcare space, we launched a Data Agent-based AI application in healthcare intelligent operation process, marking a paradigm shift from digitalization to intelligence. This analysis through natural dialogues platform enables natural language insights into DRG cost control, moving hospital management from retrospective statistics to proactive intervention.

While significantly lowering the barriers to data application, we have further solidified our technical moats and differentiated competitive advantages in high-value medical AI scenarios. In public services area, we partnered with telecom operators to provide sustainable and stable high-performance computing cluster for the public services sector, successfully entering key markets like Shanghai. We believe that by leveraging Kingsoft Cloud’s deep vertical expertise and enterprise service experience, intelligent computing opportunities in the enterprise cloud segment represent a massive industrial frontier, generating synergies with our public cloud businesses. In terms of products and technology, we are building a next-generation computing services system for LLM training, inference, and industrial intelligence, offering full-stack capabilities from computing services to model-as-a-service. Our technology upgrades from basic cloud computing to an AI-first, AI-native cloud architecture, contributing toward digital and intelligent transformation across sectors.

We focus on the technologies catering to model training and inference scenarios, aiming to provide highly stable, highly efficient, and ready-to-use intelligent computing services. This quarter, our StarFlow Platform keeps upgrading with the launch of MCP, aka Model Context Protocol Hub, prompt optimization, and AI search features to help enterprises develop and deploy AI agents through a unified platform, gradually building a new ecosystem centered around agent-based operations. For enterprises with private deployment demands, our Galaxy Stack provides heterogeneous GPU management, RoCE network, and intelligent container scheduling capabilities. We also feature full-stack localization with indigenous adaptations to empower intelligent transformation across verticals. Standing at a new starting point, looking ahead, we’re truly excited by the limitless possibilities that lie before us. We will remain committed to our high-quality and sustainable development strategy.

By embracing the immense opportunities presented by the AI era, developing along with the industry, and refining our core technologies, we will continue to capture the market opportunities both within and beyond our ecosystem, optimizing the operations of our assets to enhance profitability and thereby create value for our customers, shareholders, employees, and society. I will now pass the call to our CFO, Ms. Yi Li, to go over our financials for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025. Thank you.

Li Yi, Chief Financial Officer, Kingsoft Cloud: Thank you, Mr. Zhou and Clark, and thank you all for joining the call today. Before we walk through the details of financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2025, I would like to highlight the following aspects. First, our revenue has achieved record high RMB 2,761 million this quarter, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 24%. Within that, revenue from public cloud services was RMB 1,902 million, increased by 35% from RMB 1,410 million in the same quarter last year. Unprecedented explosive demand for AI business drove a 95% year-over-year billing growth, which totaled RMB 926 million. Second, profitability has seen substantial improvement. Driven by shifts in our revenue structure, our adjusted gross margin continued its upward trend, rising to 70% from 60% in the previous quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 28%, up 12 percentage points from 60% in the same quarter last year, though down from 33% last quarter. The year-over-year growth was fueled by a large contribution from AI-related business. Well, depreciation represent the primary cost component. The sequential decrease was mainly due to a non-recurring subsidy received last quarter, which established a high baseline. Notably, we have achieved adjusted operating profits for two consecutive quarters, reaching RMB 55 million this quarter, which was a 2% margin. This result validates our ability to monetize intelligent cloud opportunities and our strategic focus on high-quality enterprise services. Third, our cash and cash equivalent achieved RMB 6,080 million, strengthening our ability to further support the investment into AI business. Now, I will walk you through our financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025.

This quarter, total revenue was CNY 2,761 million. Of these, revenues from public cloud services were CNY 1,902 million, up 35% from CNY 1,410 million in the same quarter last year. Revenues from enterprise cloud services reached CNY 859 million during this seasonally strong quarter, which was characterized by a high volume of project completion. Total cost of revenues was CNY 2,296 million, up 27% year-over-year, which was mainly due to our investment into infrastructure to support intelligent cloud business growth. IDC costs increased by 13% year-over-year from CNY 725 million to CNY 812 million this quarter. The increase was mainly due to the increasing needs of racks, which serves the expanding AI business.

Depreciation and amortization costs increased from RMB 323 million in the same quarter of 2024 to RMB 741 million this quarter. The increase was mainly due to the depreciation of newly acquired and leased servers and network equipment, which were mainly allocated to our AI business. Solution development and service costs increased by 50% year-over-year from RMB 557 million in the same quarter of 2024 to RMB 642 million this quarter. The increase was mainly due to the solution personnel expansion. Fulfillment costs and other costs were RMB 40 million and RMB 61 million this quarter. Our adjusted gross margin for the quarter were RMB 471 million, increased to 10% year-over-year, and 20% quarter-over-quarter.

It was mainly due to the expansion of our revenue scale, the enlarged contribution from AI business, and the cost control over IDC racks and servers. Adjusted gross margin increased from 60% last quarter to 70% in this quarter, which was mainly due to the high contribution from enterprise cloud. On the expense side, excluding share-based compensation costs, our total adjusted operating expenses were RMB 459 million, increased by 3% year-over-year and increased 9% quarter-over-quarter. Of which, our adjusted research and development expenses were RMB 181 million, increased by 7% from same quarter last year. Adjusted selling and marketing expenses were RMB 111 million, increased by 3% year-over-year. Adjusted general and administrative expenses were RMB 168 million, decreased 1% year-over-year.

Our adjusted operating profit was RMB 55 million, increased by 124% from adjusted operating profit of RMB 24 million in the same period last year. The improvement was mainly due to the expansion of our revenue scale and gross profit, as well as the expense control. The total expense as a percentage of revenue keeps decreasing. Adjusted operating profit margin increased from 1% in the same period last year to 2% this quarter. Our non-GAAP EBITDA was RMB 785 million, increased by 180% from RMB 360 million in the same quarter last year. Our non-GAAP EBITDA margin achieved 28% compared with 6% in the same quarter last year. It was mainly due to our strong commitment to AI cloud computing development, strategic adjustment of business structure, strict control over costs and expenses.

This quarter, our capital expenditure, including those financed by third parties and right of use assets of RMB 10 and RMB 20 for finance lease liabilities, were RMB 496 million. For the full year 2025, our total revenue achieved RMB 9,759 million, increased by 23% from RMB 7,785 million in 2024. Among which, revenues from public cloud services were RMB 6,634 million, increased by 33% year-over-year. Revenues from enterprise cloud services were RMB 2,925 million.

Increased by 5% year-over-year. Adjusted gross profit was RMB 1,542 million, increased by 40% from RMB 1,358 million last year. Adjusted gross margin was 60%, decreased from 70% last year, which was mainly due to the high cost for servers and other hardware equipment. Adjusted operating cost was RMB 152 million, narrowed significantly from RMB 431 million. Adjusted operating profit margin was -1.6%, narrowed from -5.5% last year. Adjusted EBITDA profit was RMB 2,336 million, increased by 2,066% from RMB 639 million last year. The adjusted EBITDA margin was 24%, improved by 60% from 8% last year.

Looking ahead, we aim to capitalize on the explosive growth in demand by further investing in infrastructure, enhancing service stability, managing liquidity risk, and improving operating efficiency. We remain focused on AI-driven strategy, providing customers with high value-added cloud services. That’s all for the introduction of our operational and financial results. Thank you all.

Nicole Shan, IR Director, Kingsoft Cloud: Thank you. Operator, this concludes our prepared part, my remarks. We are now happy to take your question. Please ask your question in both Chinese and English if possible. Operator, please go ahead. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, press star one and one again. We’ll now move on to our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Liping Zhao from CICC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Liping Zhao, Analyst, CICC: 邹总、李总晚上好，感谢接受我的提问。那首先也是恭喜公司获得非常好的一个四季度业绩。那我这边有两个问题，首先第一个问题是，关于这个小米的大模型，最近他们也推出了MiMo V2的系列模型，获得了市场好评。那怎么看我们在小米AI战略中的一个角色和定位，然后未来围绕小米家金山系的这个服务会有什么样的一个策略？然后第二个问题是，关于这个行业的一个涨价趋势，其实我们最近看到行业里面有一些其他的这个云服务商，也在有一些提价的动作，那公司是否已经这个调整AI战略服务的价格，或者有没有相关的一个涨价的计划，然后其中这个涨价的话，有多少是这个需求那个来传导的，有多少是上游这个采购成本传导的？好，我自己快速翻译一下。Good evening, Mr. Zhou and Ms. Li. Thanks for taking my questions and congrats for the very good 4Q results. I have two questions here.

First, Xiaomi recently launched the MiMo V2 series models, which have received positive market feedback. How should we view our role and the positioning within Xiaomi’s AI strategy? What strategies will be implemented around Xiaomi and Kingsoft service going forward? Secondly, how does the management view the current pricing uptrend in the cloud service industry? Has the company already adjusted its prices for AI computing services? Or are there any related plans in place? To what extent are those price adjustments driven by demand or driven by the upstream procurement cost pass through? Thank you.

Zhou Tao, Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: 丽萍好，我第一个问题我先回答，然后第二个留给你来讲一讲好吧，这个结合行业涨价的趋势，我们谈谈我们的策略。其实第一个问题呢，我记得是24年的八月份的那次的会吧，因为我们24年8月份这个整个小米金山体系，我们开了一个战略研讨会，我就，我其实那次，那个时候我谈的其实就是说叫做小米金山的AI方阵。对，我也明确表达过金山体系不会自己去做大模型，但是小米一定会做。随着去年，25年吧，这个包括今年，应该说去年年底，MiMo，MiMo的V2版本以及这次的Pro版本陆续发布以及表现吧，这其实是我们24年整个战略的具体落地。对，所以呢，这是丽萍这个问题，我先把这个背景说一下，你谈到未来这个随着V2，这个Pro的发布以及它的性能，这个得到大家认可，就是未来整个在小米金山这个，怎么策略，其实我觉得这个大的战略没有变。对。对于金山云来讲呢，其实我去年，在内部也非常明确地跟大家谈过，我说这个，包括应该说去年也是差不多这个时候吧，三月份我们就谈过，我说训练，由训练时代逐渐向推理

在2025年，我觉得今年反正这个open call一出来，我就估计这个已经没人去再去质疑了。所以实际上金山云在去年，我们七月份全会上我们就谈过这个策略，因为我们知道小米的这个模型训练的进度，我们就谈了这叫所谓的1+N，对于金山云，就是我们在未来要基于这个"一"就是指小米的这个模型，那当然这个，其他的，无论是开源的还是战略合作伙伴的，对吧？我们作为一个中立的云厂商，实际上我们的主流平台都接了，能接的各种模型都接了，但是这个1+N是关键，这个"一"指的就是说，无论模型这个未来如何演变，开源、闭源或者一家三家怎么，反正就是我们这个"一"指的就是小米这个模型，这个是我们整个小米金山系的这个阵眼吧。所以未来也是围绕这个。当然内部的这个，小米我们一方面，服务好小米金山内部的这个软件硬件生态，同时对外，也会输出我们这个服务能力，MaaS能力吧。所以简单讲，2024年，我们在我们战略研讨会，两年就对整个未来这几年的AI发展做了战略蓝图的规划，然后随着这个进展，这些逐步逐步在落实，未来依然是，对金山云来讲，就是以1+N为基础，我们在这个，不仅是在训练时代，服务好这些内外客户，未来在推理时代也会基于1+N这个核心框架，去做好这个推理服务。这就是整个第一个问题的这个比较宏观的回答吧。要不先翻译一下第一个，好吧。

Zhou Tao (English Translation), Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: OK, the answer comes from our CEO. A little bit of the background back in 2024. I think that was in August. We had an internal discussion about around the development of AI and models for the whole Xiaomi and Kingsoft ecosystem. The idea was that the whole Xiaomi and Kingsoft ecosystem will form a team or portfolio of solutions where a whole system where Kingsoft will stay discipline and not really developing our own large language models, which is left to for Xiaomi to develop. The MiMo model and its widely recognized performance is actually an implementation and manifestation of our overall AI strategy within the Xiaomi and Kingsoft ecosystem. Secondly, back in 2025. One year later from the internal discussion session, from a KC perspective, we formed a strategy that’s called a 1+N.

The one here actually refers to the Xiaomi MiMo model, which is the key to KC’s inference strategy. In the future, we will continue to adhere to this strategy, which essentially means that within the ecosystem, we will continue to serve the Xiaomi and Kingsoft ecosystem. For external customers, we will also try to monetize our model as a service capabilities thereby not only in the training area that we are able to make a revenue and profits, but also make our contribution in the inference era that is approaching. Thank you.

Zhou Tao, Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: 好，第二个问题我来回答。首先从去年的三季度开始，我们预测到了核心器件的大幅度的涨幅，所以呢，提前做了一些储备，这个呢，给我们今年去对资源涨价也提供了一定的这个基础。所以呢，对于客户的涨价来说，我们实际上是分两个原则来看，一个呢是我们的已有的合同，已有的资源，这部分呢，我们是不会给客户涨价的。同时呢，在我们的能力范围内，如果客户业务的增长，我们也会保持不涨价。但是对于新签的合同，对于新进的客户以及客户的显著的大幅的增量，那我们会跟客户协商新的价格。那么，所以肯定会有价格的显著上涨，而且其实涨幅可能会比较大。另一方面呢，就是从利润率的角度来看呢，一方面我们是由于上游的这个涨价传导过来，我们会把涨价的幅度传导给客户。另一方面呢，因为市场供给的需求变得更加的大，所以呢，我们可能会在传导这个上游价格的基础上，也会再增加额外的价格，以体现我们的利润增长。就这些信息。

Zhou Tao (English Translation), Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: The answer comes from our SVP. A little background again. In the Q3 last year, we have anticipated the significant price increase from the supply chain side. Therefore we had dynamically and strategically stocked up some of the key components. We did have GPU. We were actually prepared for this, what’s unfolding today. Now in terms of the price hike that you were asking. We stick to two principles. Number one, if we already for the, for some of the customers and business where we already have contracts in place and where we have the stocking of the underlying resources, we tend to not increase the pricing. However, for some of the new customers, new contracts, especially with significant increase of usage, there is going to be significant price hiking in this kind of scenarios. Now, also in terms of profitability, one thing is that we will actually try to pass through some of the upstream cost increases to our customers. Secondly, we also, depending on the demand right, we also try to increase some of the price to reflect and increase our profit. Thank you.

Nicole Shan, IR Director, Kingsoft Cloud: Operator, next question please.

Operator: Thank you. Please stand by. Our next question comes from the line of Wenting Yu from CLSA. Please go ahead, your line is open.

Wenting Yu, Analyst, CLSA: 周总、李总，大家晚上好，感谢给我这次提问的机会。首先恭喜公司非常强劲的业绩。我这边有两个问题想请教一下。首先第一个是关于近期我们看到行业的头部云厂在业绩会上也去表示，业务会从这个传统的租赁模式更多地去转向这个MaaS模式，那你们今年也会采取类似的战略吗？你们怎么去看待这个变化对行业竞争格局以及远期的利润率的影响呢？这个是第一个问题。好，那第二个问题是关于，也是关于行业这个竞争格局的问题。因为我们看今年这个火山引擎，在整个行业涨价的情况下，还是采取相对一个比较低下的一个策略，那我们是怎么看这个方面对我们的影响？我再问一下这个问题。The first question is that some of our pure cloud service partners have announced they will shift their cloud business more towards an approach from the traditional server rental and also the subscription model. Will KC adopt a similar strategy?

How do you view the impact of this trend on industry competition and long term profit margin? The second question is regarding the impact from the back-end Volcano Engine. It is adopting a relatively low price strategy. How do you view the impact on the industry and also on potentially our business this year? Thank you.

Zhou Tao, Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: 我先回答一下，等一下看刘涛他们补充。其实你讲的第一个，就是，我也关注到了其他的一些厂商，比我们更早发布财报，确实谈了很多租赁向MaaS。但我觉得这个不是一个什么新鲜的提法，这本身就是把模型发展的一个趋势吧。从刚开始训练，对吧，就因为没有，然后随着这几年训练这个模型能力的增强，尤其是这个各种应用的出现，就是它真的在一个具体场景下，大家体会到了它本身带来的实际价值，或者实际的作用吧。所以，当然也随着模型这个训练，它一方面会持续不断地迭代，但基本上达到了一个可用的阶段嘛，它自然就会从训练阶段，再进入到这个应用阶段。所以，这种MaaS服务的这个model能力的这种，也是一个顺势而为的过程。从这点上讲，我们从去年九月份测试吧，十月份正式推出了StarFlow平台，其实也是如此。只是我们接着，因为我们是作为中立云厂商，反正是这个能接的，这个model我们都能接进来。实际上这也是我们史上增速最快的一块业务。所以，我是觉得这个不是某家厂商的特殊形态了，我觉得大家都会往这边走的。包括刚才谈到的那个上一个问题，小米模型，随着它的逐渐成熟，它也要转化成具体的这个不同场景去应用，它也是一种，就像用户对外为它输出的这个模型能力，也是一个这种MaaS服务。所以我简单讲就是说，这本身就是大模型时代发展一个顺势而为的行为。就我们现在一方面，依然为我们的一些训练客户保驾护航，进行这个模型的训练服务，其实某种程度我们也在帮他们做MaaS服务，服务他们的MaaS服务，就是说我们自己也有我们自己的对外输出的MaaS服务。第二个呢，说实话，我觉得这个，实话实说地讲，我倒没太关注火山引擎最近说又要搞低价这个策略。但你既然问到，实际上我认为，这个现在是一个行业需求的爆发期，资源又是一个匮乏期，实际上这个所谓的低价策略我觉得没办法去落实和执行。这个我也不认为会成为一个行业的普遍现象。反正我更关注到的是阿里涨幅，从到30%不等吧。反正其实应该说自从做云以来，我所了解的阿里第一次这个涨价。你想想过去我们一起共同这个作为友商，一起成长了十几年，我是觉得这个，现在需求急剧火山喷发式的需求，加上这个资源本身的紧缺性，所以，我不认为这个会是一个真实落地的一个情况。当然这个刘涛可能更了解细节，可以补充一下。

Liu Tao, Senior Vice President, Kingsoft Cloud: 对，就是这个，好像这个价格，这个我补充两句。

Zhou Tao (English Translation), Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: Right.

Liu Tao, Senior Vice President, Kingsoft Cloud: 就是官方的列表价的调整可能只是一个宣传形式，它可能面向的是C端的这种小型客户，但实际上的成交价，我们观测到的行业里的，不管是哪一家厂商，在最终成交价上肯定都是有收敛的。所以我觉得可能这个降价或者是低价竞争可能更多是一个宣传性质的工作。

Zhou Tao (English Translation), Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: Okay. Regarding your question on the shifting to model as a service strategy. We have noted some of the other peer companies who released their results earlier than us mentioning this. However, my view is that this is not actually some new concept. It is actually one of the inevitable stage of the development of AI as well as large language model. From the training that we do to create them to a certain phase that they become applicable and workable in our day-to-day work and life. In relation to our own inference related work model to service work, we actually launched the StarFlow Platform as we mentioned in the prepared remarks last year.

Because we are a neutral platform, we were able to host essentially all of the open source models, including also the model coming from Xiaomi to provide model as a service business. This is essentially actually the fastest growing business in the history of the company. Actually, we talked about the Xiaomi MiMo model earlier. The way that we’re providing services for Xiaomi MiMo model is also model as a service business. Also, for some of the large language model customers that we used to and we’re still providing training services to them, we also provide model as a service business to them as well to cater to their inference needs.

Now to the second question about the price change for Volcano Engine. I haven’t really, you know, noticed that particular piece of news. However, the general market dynamics today is that on one hand we’re seeing explosive growth on the demand side, and we’re seeing a particularly high price hiking from the supply chain side. I do not personally think that under such circumstances changing price to a lower level would actually be implementable and applicable in the real world. Now what I have focused more is the price hiking information from for example Alibaba Cloud. We have worked with them together.

We have been in the industry together for many years, and this is the first time that we’ve seen them hiking their price. Also an addition from our SVP, Mr. Tao Liu, is that there is a difference between the catalog price and the actual price that the companies that we as cloud players and our customers engage into. The change in catalog price is more of a marketing kind of purpose. It does not necessarily mean the actual price that companies enter into business with. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Timothy Zhao from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Timothy Zhao, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: Uh,

Zhou Tao (English Translation), Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: Thank you, Matthew, for taking my question. My first question is on your financial outlook. Just wondering if you can share some color on how we should think about the revenue EBITDA operating profit growth outlook for this year. Also on the capital expenditure plan, what is your thoughts and concerns of balance sheet and also the prepayment from certain customers? Do you think it’s possible to further raise your CapEx plan given the rising AI demand? Secondly is regarding the third party revenue in the AI outlook. Just wondering if you can share more detailed color on what specific product or what type of customers are driving this third party AI growth.

What is the breakdown and outlook between the mix of AI training versus AI inferences? Thank you.

Li Yi, Chief Financial Officer, Kingsoft Cloud: All right. I will take the CapEx first. For 2026, we expect total CapEx and tangible assets to exceed RMB 10 billion, represent expansion from 2025 level. From the structure, we expect approximately half our CapEx is targeted to be covered by customer prepayment arrangements, which will significantly reduce our funding requirements. Additionally, we plan to access more assets through short and long-term leases, with payment structure as operating cash flows to minimize upfront capital, commitments. For the funding position and financing needs, we currently have no equity finance plans. 2026 capital expenditure are secured through 4 channels. First, proceeds from our 2025 financing. Second are customer operating receipts. Third, the strategic customer prepayments. Fourth, the committed credit facilities from banks and financial lease institutions.

Incremental resource requirements will be made primarily through leasing to preserve balance sheet flexibility. For the guidance for the 2026, we expect our growth rate will accelerating and the EBITDA rate will improve much better in 2026 as well.

Zhou Tao (English Translation), Chairman and CEO, Kingsoft Cloud: If you look at the past results, as discussed in the prepared remarks, for the top 5 non-ecosystem customers combined revenue, for year-over-year basis, revenue growth was 44%, which is very really strong growth. Those would include internet companies, autonomous driving, and robotics. In terms of looking forward into the year of 2026, we do see extremely large demand coming from outside of the ecosystems. To some extent that such demand is actually higher than the demand from our ecosystem. The final revenue or financial results coming from that demand will actually be dependent on how much resources we’re able to secure and to deliver to such customers.

Now, from the perspective of products and solutions, we’re actually seeing more than half of the potential demand coming in for inference versus training. For the StarFlow platform, which we discussed earlier, it’s growing really fast for that business. We’re seeing better profit margin coming from that particular business. This is a result of course from the very good application and increasing penetration for agents and cloud applications. Thank you.

Nicole Shan, IR Director, Kingsoft Cloud: Thank you. Due to time constraints, this concludes our Q&A session. Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us. Look forward to speaking with you again next quarter. Have a nice day. Thank you all.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Speakers, please standby.