Meitu's roller-coaster ride: AI revival meets rising doubts

Meitu's stock has fallen more than 50% in 2026, dropping from above HK$9 to around HK$4 after years of AI-driven gains. Its generative AI model MiracleVision helped lift revenue from continuing operations to RMB 2.213 billion in the first half of 2026, up 22.1% year over year, with paid subscribers exceeding 18.44 million. But intensifying competition from ByteDance's CapCut and Doubao, Alibaba's Qwen, and rising compute costs — RMB 134 million in cloud and compute expenses in H1 2026 — are weighing on margins and sentiment.