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A March 2026 report put DJI’s 2025 drone-business net profit above RMB10 billion, a figure that would top the annual profit of many individual Chinese automakers. But DJI is privately held, and no public audited income statement has surfaced to verify the estimate. The comparison is plausible; the headline is not an established, like-for-like industry ranking.
What “out-earned” means—and what it does not
The claim is about net profit, not revenue, sales volume, or company value. A company’s revenue is the money it brings in before expenses; net profit is what remains after costs, operating expenses, financing, taxes, and other items are accounted for. A business can have much less revenue than an automaker and still report more net income if it earns more profit per unit of sales.
GizChina reported that DJI’s drone business made more than RMB10 billion in net profit in 2025. That wording matters: it is not the same as a published, audited figure for DJI’s consolidated parent company. DJI has expanded into areas beyond consumer drones, including enterprise and agricultural products, cameras, robotics, and related hardware. The reported business scope may therefore differ from the scope of an automaker’s consolidated results.
The report does not point to a DJI annual report, audited filing, or public income statement showing the figure’s revenue, expenses, and net income. Treat RMB10 billion as a reported estimate, not a result independently confirmed by DJI. GizChina’s report is the source for the estimate.
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How the reported figure compares with automakers
The available figures do not support a complete, same-basis 2025 profit league table. BYD is the clearest benchmark: secondary coverage puts its 2025 net profit at about RMB33.8 billion, several times the reported DJI estimate. For other automakers, the figures in the public sources cited here establish revenue but do not provide the exact net-income amounts needed to test the claim company by company. The table separates what is known from what remains unestablished.
| Company | 2025 revenue | 2025 net income | What the figures establish |
|---|---|---|---|
| DJI | Not stated in the cited report | More than RMB10bn, reported estimate | Private-company figure attributed to a report; no comparable public audited income statement is cited. |
| BYD | Not stated in the cited comparison | Approximately RMB33.8bn | Secondary coverage reports net profit; it is well above the DJI estimate. |
| Li Auto | RMB112.3bn | Not stated here | Its 2025 filing reports revenue, down from RMB144.5bn in 2024, and vehicle-sales revenue of RMB106.7bn. Revenue alone does not settle a net-profit comparison. |
| Leapmotor | RMB76.72bn | Not stated here | Its filing reports gross margin of 18.9% and vehicle margin of 12.8%; neither is net margin. |
| NIO | RMB87.49bn | Not stated here | Its 2025 revenue increased from RMB65.73bn in 2024. The cited release also reports deliveries, not a net-income figure for this comparison. |
Sources: Gasgoo’s BYD comparison; Li Auto’s 2025 filing; Leapmotor’s 2025 filing; and NIO’s 2025 results release. The cited sources do not establish DJI revenue or net margins, so a profit-margin comparison cannot be calculated from them.
This is a comparison of one reported estimate with figures from public-company reporting, not a verified ranking of all automakers. The accounting basis, business scope, and level of audit assurance are not demonstrated to be identical. “Most of China’s auto industry” is defensible only as shorthand for many individual automakers—not the entire sector’s combined profit, and not a claim that DJI is a larger business.
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Why a much smaller drone company could make more profit per year
Cars and drones are both engineered products, but their economics differ sharply. A car requires large quantities of materials, batteries or powertrain components, substantial factory capacity, transport, retail or dealer support, warranties, and continuing service. Automakers also fund research and development across vehicle platforms and face intense price competition. Those costs can consume a large share of sales even when revenue is enormous.
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A drone is a smaller physical product, but it can bundle a high-value system: camera and gimbal, flight controller, sensors, radio links, battery management, positioning, computer vision, and mobile software. Integrating these elements can make performance and reliability—not only component cost—central to the purchase decision. Product engineering and software can therefore matter more than raw material volume, though without DJI’s verified financial statements it is not possible to quantify how much that translates into margin.
- Different cost base: Drones generally require less material and factory capacity per unit than cars, and they do not require an automotive-scale service and retail footprint.
- Value in integration: Stabilization, image quality, flight control, and ease of use can distinguish a complete system rather than a collection of commodity parts.
- Potential pricing power: A strong position in a specialized product category may help protect pricing. It does not guarantee high net margins or eliminate competition.
- Broader customer markets: Historical reporting described substantial DJI sales outside Asia, but that 2015-era context is not proof of the company’s current sales mix. International reach can diversify demand while exposing the business to regulation and geopolitical restrictions.
The market-share evidence also needs a tight definition. A U.S. government filing cited DJI at about 90% of U.S. commercial-drone registrations under Part 107 in 2024. Registrations are not the same as revenue share, global share, or share across every type of drone. A Congressional advisory report also describes DJI as holding more than 90% of the U.S. commercial-drone market, but the underlying market category should not be casually broadened to consumer, military, agricultural, or global markets. See the U.S. government filing and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report.
Why the claim needs more than a profit number
Different reporting and accounting
Listed automakers publish financial statements, but even their profit measures need care: net income may mean consolidated net income, net income attributable to shareholders, or an adjusted figure. Government support, investment gains, foreign-exchange movements, tax effects, joint ventures, and one-off charges can also affect the bottom line. For example, Leapmotor’s filing discusses other income that includes technical R&D services, parts and accessories, and carbon-credit trading; those sources should not automatically be treated as recurring vehicle economics.
DJI’s private status makes the gap more fundamental. There is no cited public DJI filing that lets readers check the estimate against revenue, operating expenses, taxes, or the definition of net profit. Historical coverage of DJI’s scale cannot fill that gap: Forbes reported a target of about US$1 billion in revenue in 2015, a decade before the profit estimate at issue. That historical report is context, not confirmation of 2025 profitability.
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The reported DJI figure concerns its drone business, while the automaker numbers are company-level results. “Last year” in the March 2026 report means 2025; using an automaker’s 2024 profit alongside it would create a mismatched comparison. Even where both periods are 2025, a business-segment estimate and a consolidated company filing are not necessarily comparable.
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Profit is not scale
China’s automotive industry is far larger in aggregate revenue and physical output. One 2026 industry report cited about 34.5 million vehicles produced and 34.4 million sold in China in 2025; those volume figures say nothing by themselves about industry-wide profit. They do make clear why a company-level profit comparison should not be mistaken for DJI surpassing the auto sector in size. The report’s production and sales context is industry scale, not a profit comparison.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.DJI’s market position is an advantage, not a guarantee
A leading position can reinforce itself: scale supports product development and manufacturing experience; an established ecosystem of accessories and users can make switching less attractive; and a trusted brand can help in applications where reliability matters. DJI’s expertise in flight control, imaging, stabilization, and integrated software can support that position.
The same concentration creates exposure. Export controls, government procurement restrictions, cybersecurity scrutiny, changing aviation rules, patent disputes, and limits on components or market access can affect sales and costs. A strong reported year, even if the RMB10 billion estimate proves accurate, would not by itself establish that future earnings will grow at the same rate.
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What a careful reading of the headline supports
The claim is economically plausible but not independently verified. If DJI’s drone business really generated more than RMB10 billion in 2025 net profit, that would exceed the annual net income of many individual automakers. It would not mean DJI out-earned China’s auto industry as a whole, and it would not put DJI ahead of BYD, whose reported 2025 net profit was about RMB33.8 billion.
The striking point is about potential profitability, not corporate size: a private drone business may produce profit on the scale of several much larger vehicle manufacturers while operating with a very different product and cost structure. Until DJI publishes comparable financial detail, the estimate remains a reported claim rather than a settled financial fact.
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