Author: Ling Feng, Editor: Shui Jing
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL)'s only rival is itself.
According to the newly released semi-annual report: in H1 2026, CATL achieved a revenue of 276.9 billion RMB, a year-on-year growth of 54.80%, and a net profit attributable to shareholders of 43.3 billion RMB, a year-on-year growth of 41.98%. In addition, its total assets exceeded the 1.1 trillion RMB mark, cash and cash equivalents surpassed 340 billion RMB, net operating cash flow exceeded 60 billion RMB, and R&D investment surpassed 11 billion RMB. Multiple core data points hit record highs for the same period.
However, behind CATL's rapid surge, a "de-CATL-ization" movement is quietly unfolding in the automotive industry.
Capital is always sharp. On July10, at the close of A-shares trading, CATL's stock plunged 7.12%, marking its largest single-day drop of the year, while its Hong Kong stock fell 7.92%, the worst single-day drop since CATL went public in Hong Kong.
That day, a piece of news fermented in the industry: multiple NEV manufacturers were no longer "exclusively devoted to CATL." They were adjusting their power battery procurement strategies and beginning to introduce second-tier battery manufacturers as suppliers. The AITO M6 EV adopted Gotion High-Tech cells, enabling Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance (HIMA) to achieve mass production with second-tier battery enterprises; Li Auto's new L8 switched to Sunwoda cells; and Xiaomi, Leapmotor, and GAC Aion were also building more diversified battery supply systems.
On one side, CATL was earning a staggering 239 million RMB daily (calculated based on a semi-annual net profit attributable to shareholders of 43.284 billion RMB); on the other side, the overall profit margin of the automotive industry fell to a historical low of 3.4%, with multiple automotive giants sinking into massive losses. For instance, GAC Group projected a loss of4.06-4.57 billion RMB in the first half of the year, Seres lost 1.5-1.8 billion RMB, and NIO, Xpeng, and Li Auto reported Q1 losses of 168 million, 1.784 billion, and 2.29 billion RMB respectively, pushing multiple automotive stocks to a ten-year low.
Automakers are rising up and "forcing the King's hand." On the surface, this appears to be a major crisis for CATL, but in reality, it is an inevitable node in the expansion of the trillion-dollar empire created by Robin Zeng to a specific stage.
From an "unyielding risk-taking spirit" to "profound and boundless wisdom," Robin Zeng rode the tailwind of the industry through three major gambles, ascending to become the absolute hegemon of global power batteries. Yet, after reaching the summit, the commentary surrounding him and CATL has always been extremely polarized.
He uses capital maneuvers to navigate the industry, controlling the upstream and securing pricing power; he relies on undisputed scale advantages to become the midstream霸主 (hegemon); he influences the downstream through equity investments and C-end marketing; simultaneously, as a tech maniac, he builds technological barriers through high-intensity R&D investments; and he frequently wields the litigation stick to snipe key competitors.
On Robin Zeng, the mindset of a "techno-merchant" is vividly embodied. Some say he is "addicted to gambling," while others think he is bold and daring; some say he is overly aggressive, but others believe this is the norm in market competition; some describe him as knowledgeable, fluent in multiple languages, and gentle; while others say he is eccentric and moody.
Today, CATL is already the undisputed "world number one," but some also argue that the underlying cultural architecture of its gambling nature and the lack of a win-win mindset to expand the pie make it hard to support its evolution into a great company.
This controversy will perhaps forever surround Robin Zeng and CATL; it is a destiny he cannot escape.
Controlling the Upstream: Plotting to Become a Mining Behemoth
In 2022, lithium ore prices repeatedly hit record highs. At the World Power Battery Conference that year, Zeng Qinghong, then Chairman of GAC Group, publicly complained: "Power battery costs account for 40%-60% of the car's cost. Am I not just working for CATL now?"
Coincidentally, CATL Chairman Robin Zeng was sitting in the audience at that moment.
Subsequently, Robin Zeng also complained in his speech—he would not take the blame for rising battery prices! "Capital speculation in upstream raw materials has brought short-term troubles to the power battery industry chain. Upstream materials such as lithium carbonate, lithium hexafluorophosphate, and petroleum coke have all seen skyrocketing prices."
The next day, CATL's Chief Scientist Wu Kai also responded: "Many OEMs complain that we battery manufacturers have taken all the profits. In reality, we are also struggling at the edge of profitability. It is very painful."
Raw material costs for power batteries account for over 60% of total costs. In 2022, the price of lithium carbonate skyrocketed from 50,000 RMB/ton to a historical extreme of nearly 600,000 RMB/ton. CATL's gross margin was once compressed to below 15% (in Q1 2022), with a net margin of only about 4%.
This acute pain prompted Robin Zeng to conceive the idea of controlling the upstream.
No mineral product can escape the宿命 (destiny) of cycles. After experiencing an epic-level super fluctuation in the lithium ore market, CATL deeply realized the importance of extending the industry chain.
In April 2026, two pieces of news caused ripples in the industry. At the beginning of the month, CATL hired Chen Jinghe, the recently retired founder of Zijin Mining and the "King of Asian Mines," as a consultant for its mining department to assist in expanding upstream mineral supply. It had been just over three months since his official retirement on January 1 this year.
In the middle of the month, CATL announced its plan to invest 30 billion RMB to establish CATL Resources Group (Xiamen) Co., Ltd., positioned as a professional investment, operation, and management platform in the field of new energy minerals.
Even earlier, CATL and China Molybdenum (CMOC) held cross-shareholdings, forming a strategic alliance through capital ties. In 2021, CATL's Brunp Recycling spent 137.5 million USD to acquire a 23.75% stake in CMOC's KFM copper-cobalt mine. This investment secured CATL's priority procurement rights for 20% of global cobalt resources and also bound CMOC to this super client.
From scattered trial investments to capital equity participation, and then to establishing a specialized mineral company, CATL's foray into the upstream has entered a stage of professional operation.
In 2015, the company took controlling stake in Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology, entering the power battery recycling track, building a full life-cycle closed loop of "production-use-echelon utilization-regeneration" in advance, and utilizing "urban mines" to establish a resource buffer zone by recycling and regenerating nickel, cobalt, and lithium. At that time, CATL's financial scale was not yet massive. Robin Zeng's forward-looking layout was not intended for heavy-asset mining, but rather to use recycling to hedge against raw material price volatility risks first.
In 2018, CATL was listed on the ChiNext board. With the support of a capital platform, CATL grew stronger, initiating global "positioning-style equity participation" and launching early overseas mineral layouts, locking in resource selection rights through small-scale equity investments.
That year, the company ultimately completed the acquisition of North American Lithium; in 2020, it invested 8.58 million CAD in the Canadian lithium company Neo Lithium, whose core asset was the Tres Quebradas (3Q) salar lithium project in Argentina.
By 2021, as international lithium prices surged rapidly, Robin Zeng quickly started the M&A war machine, accelerating global mine purchases. In September that year, CATL attempted to acquire Canada's Millennial Lithium entirely for 377 million CAD. Although it defeated Ganfeng Lithium, it was ultimately outbid by Lithium Americas. Subsequently, CATL had to invest 240 million USD to acquire a stake in the Manono lithium mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa, the third-largest globally.
Domestically, in 2022, CATL won the bid for the Jianxiawo lepidolite mine in Yichun, Jiangxi, for 865 million RMB. This is one of the largest lepidolite mines in China and is regarded as its subsequent important lithium resource base. At the same time, it acquired the Sunway spodumene mine in Sichuan through bankruptcy reorganization.
In terms of nickel resources, CATL cooperated with Lygend Resources and Indonesian state-owned enterprises to land a 6 billion USD nickel hydrometallurgical industrial park, integrating the chain from nickel ore to hydrometallurgy to ternary precursors, avoiding the price risks of simply purchasing nickel intermediate products.
Simultaneously, it made a massive equity investment in CMOC, becoming the second-largest shareholder, directly locking in the large-scale KFM copper-cobalt mine in the DRC to solve the core cobalt resource supply for ternary batteries.
The CATL Resources Group established this year is the key integration to consolidate these scattered layouts into a professional management platform.
The joining of Chen Jinghe injects a professional soul into this platform. Robin Zeng and Chen Jinghe are both Fujian-born entrepreneurs; one controls nearly 40% of the global power battery market share, and the other is the creator of a top-three global mining empire.
Their cooperation reflects an exquisite complementarity. CATL provides capital, new energy scenarios, and global channels, while Chen Jinghe possesses counter-cyclical methodologies and cross-border project operation experience.
Robin Zeng's move to increase upstream mineral resources fully demonstrates his "risk-taking nature." For example, the average lithium oxide grade of the Yichun Jianxiawo lithium mine is only 0.27% (far below the general industrial grade of lithium deposits), and the cash cost of lithium extraction is as high as 100,000-110,000 RMB/ton. Coupled with the subsequent crash in lithium ore prices, it triggered an impairment provision of 6.652 billion RMB. Now, due to the expiration of the mining license, the resumption of production at this mine is still in a tug-of-war.
However, this still cannot stop CATL's ambition to become the "King of Mines."
Robin Zeng's master, Mike Zhang, was extremely fond of playing mahjong. When celebrating his 60th birthday in 2003, he had someone write a calligraphy scroll reading "unyielding risk-taking spirit" and hung it in his office.
After seeing it, Robin Zeng discussed it with Mike Zhang, who said: "If a thing has a 50% chance of success, you can do it." But Robin Zeng replied, "I only need 10% to start, so my risk-taking spirit is stronger." Later, he simply had someone write another scroll reading "even more unyielding risk-taking spirit."
Act first and then improve the success rate. Robin Zeng's logic is "unyielding risk-taking spirit" combined with an "engineering mindset," betting when there is only a 10%-20% chance, and then using engineering methods to push the winning rate higher.
Besides lithium mines, CATL is also deeply bound with other suppliers, strictly controlling costs through locked volumes and prices. Earlier this year, it reached a six-year procurement agreement with Ronbay Technology for 3.05 million tons of LFP cathode materials, with a total amount exceeding 120 billion RMB. Simultaneously, it invested 3.175 billion RMB to participate in Fulin Precision's private placement, securing the second-largest shareholder position, with a future three-year LFP supply of no less than 3 million tons.
In terms of electrolytes, it signed 3-year long-term agreements with Capchem and Yongtai Technology respectively, totaling about 770,000 tons, corresponding to about 730GWh of cell capacity.
The layout of upstream mining is not just to smooth out the risks of severe raw material price fluctuations, but also a key gamble for CATL to establish its industrial hegemony.
Over 400 Billion RMB Investment to Solidify Midstream Scale and Crush All Rivals
If laying out the upstream is "defense," then in the midstream, CATL is on the "offense."
Robin Zeng's strategy is to overwhelm everything through scale advantages. Today, whether in power batteries or energy storage batteries, CATL is a globally leading behemoth.
In 2025, CATL's global leading position was further consolidated. Its annual lithium battery sales reached 661GWh, a year-on-year growth of 39%.
According to SNE Research data, power battery installations reached 464.7GWh, with its market share increasing by 1.2 percentage points to 39.2%, ranking first for nine consecutive years. Among them, its overseas market share leaped to 30%, and cumulative global battery installations have exceeded 24 million vehicles.
In the rapidly growing energy storage sector, CATL also ranks first. In 2025, the company's energy storage battery shipments reached 167 GWh, with a market share of 30.4%, topping the global chart for five consecutive years, with approximately 2,300 cumulative application projects worldwide.
By comparison, CATL's power battery installations are 2.4 times that of the second-place BYD, and its energy storage battery shipments are also 2.4 times that of the second-place Hithium (69 GWh).
In any highly marketized field, it is a truly astonishing phenomenon for the industry leader to create such a massive scale gap with the second place.
Since this year, CATL's market discourse power has been further strengthened. From January to May, its market share in power battery installations increased by another 2 percentage points, reaching 40.2%; in the first half of the year, domestic installations increased by nearly 3 percentage points, reaching 46%.
The same applies to the rapidly growing energy storage market. CATL has been the global champion in energy storage batteries for five consecutive years. In 2025, the company's energy storage battery sales reached 121GWh, a year-on-year growth of 29.13%. It maintained its global number one market position in the first quarter of this year.
Overall, in 2025, CATL's global battery sales reached 661GWh, lithium battery capacity was 772GWh, and capacity under construction at the end of the period was 321GWh, with total capacity breaking through 1000GWh. This number means that CATL's annual capacity has already exceeded the combined total of most of its global competitors by several times.
According to statistics from the 24 Tide Industry Research Institute (TTIR), over the past 11 years (2015-2025), CATL's power battery and energy storage system capacity grew by 296 times.
Not only in the main battery business, but Robin Zeng's ambition is to lead comprehensively across the entire industry chain.
According to statistics from the 24 Tide Industry Research Institute, from 2018 to the present, CATL has announced 29 major investment projects, with a total investment budget as high as 450 billion RMB. There are up to 21 projects with a single investment budget of over 10 billion RMB, mainly covering power batteries, energy storage batteries, integrated projects for positive and negative electrode materials and lithium battery recycling, and overseas R&D bases. The speed and ferocity of these investments are rarely matched in the industry.
Such massive and frequent, sharp investment plans have brought extremely solid structural barriers to CATL.
In the power battery industry, scale means a triple advantage. First, procurement bargaining power: the larger the scale, the lower the procurement cost of upstream materials; second, R&D cost amortization: the same 1 billion RMB R&D investment, when amortized over a base of 100GWh versus 1000GWh, sees a gradual decrease in unit cost; third, depth of customer binding: once an automaker selects a supplier, the switching cost is extremely high, and the scale advantage will continue to self-reinforce.
Data shows that in 2013, there were about 40 power battery companies in China, which expanded to over 200 by 2016, but by 2025, only 52 had installation records, with the top 10 holding a combined market share of 94%. By H1 2026, the number of power battery installation enterprises shrank to 40, and the market share of head enterprises further concentrated.
The speed and intensity of industry consolidation far exceeded expectations. Since CATL surpassed Panasonic, Samsung, and LG to top the global chart in 2017, its market share in the power battery field has never been lower than 30%, and it has also稳居 (steadily held) the global number one spot in the energy storage market since 2021.
Robin Zeng's obsession with scale has its underlying philosophy. In the early stages of entrepreneurship, he set three iron rules: the market must be large enough, there must be adjacent technologies, and the technical threshold must be high. Power batteries perfectly fit these three criteria. The global NEV market is measured in trillions of dollars, battery technology spans multiple fields such as materials science, electrochemistry, and structural mechanics, and its manufacturing barriers are accumulated through countless process iterations.
This continuous extension and spillover of scale advantages have built a competitive moat for CATL that is hard to shake.
Influencing the Downstream: From B2B to B2B2C Ecosystem Leader
In the downstream of the industry chain, Robin Zeng is doing something no one has tried before: transforming a B2B battery supplier into a C-end brand perceivable by consumers.
Robin Zeng attaches great importance to "differentiation" and "premium pricing." He once said, "Whether to do a business mainly depends on what differentiation the product has and whether it can provide unique value to customers. We must obtain a premium at the market end, including technology premium, quality premium, and brand premium."
This ability to transform technological advantages into market brand premiums is the unique skill of a techno-merchant.
In August 2024, CATL landed its first "CATL New Energy Life Plaza" in Chengdu. The plaza's first batch of exhibitions featured nearly 50 brands and nearly 100 car models, centrally displaying models equipped with CATL batteries through a "display only, no sales" approach.
At the same time, CATL's online and offline advertising campaigns were fully rolled out, with "When choosing an EV, look for CATL" becoming the core slogan.
This is virtually a replica of Intel's "Intel Inside" strategy. Back then, Intel influenced PC manufacturers' procurement decisions in reverse by instilling the concept of "look for Intel processors when choosing a computer" into consumers.
When consumers start to care about "what battery this car uses," automakers will be locked in reverse in their choices. The difficulty of "de-CATL-ization" upgrades from B-end procurement gaming to C-end brand gaming.
In 2022, Robin Zeng frankly stated: "For every 3 NEVs globally, 1 is equipped with CATL's battery." And the domestic proportion might be close to half.
Besides C-end reverse penetration, CATL also gains powerful dominance over the downstream through capital marriages and entering the battery swapping field.
In recent years, CATL has cumulatively invested in multiple automakers, including Aiways, Neta, Avatr Technology (holding once reached 23.99%, currently the second-largest shareholder), Zeekr, BAIC BluePark, Chery Holding, and IM Motors.
These investments are not purely financial; they deeply bind customers through capital ties. When a battery supplier is simultaneously a shareholder of an automaker, "de-CATL-ization" is no longer a simple procurement decision.
At the same time, CATL is also making a massive entry into the battery swapping field. In 2022, CATL released its passenger car battery swapping brand EVOGO (Chocolate Battery Swapping). As of May 2026, Chocolate Battery Swapping has landed 1,650 stations nationwide, which will break through 3,000 by the end of the year, covering nearly 190 cities. The company plans to form a "11 vertical and 9 horizontal" highway battery swapping network by 2027.
Unlike NIO, CATL promotes an "open ecosystem model." It has currently attracted OEMs such as Changan, GAC, BAIC, Wuling, and FAW to join the same battery swapping standard, proposing to jointly build 100,000 shared energy replenishment infrastructure stations.
Selling batteries is a one-time business, while battery swapping is a continuous transaction. Every swap is a service touchpoint, energy management data stays in its own hands, and user relationships precipitate on its own platform. This forward-looking layout of battery swapping will once again enhance CATL's stickiness to downstream automakers and even C-end consumers.
Robin Zeng explicitly stated at the Chocolate Battery Swapping Ecosystem Conference in December 2024: "All future new battery technologies from CATL will be first applied to Chocolate Battery Swapping models." This means that future technologies such as sodium-ion batteries, condensed-state batteries, and solid-state batteries will prioritize adaptation for Chocolate Battery Swapping models. Users can directly upgrade batteries through swapping, achieving continuous evolution of range and performance.
However, such an aggressive style also makes automakers love and hate CATL at the same time. Many automakers have begun "in-house battery development" or "introducing second suppliers" to reduce their dependence on CATL.
However, reality is cruel. In 2025, among the in-house camp, besides BYD which sells and produces itself, only Geely's ENERGEE and GAC's Inpow Battery Technology squeezed into the domestic top 15 in installations, with a combined market share of only 2.78%. Even adding SVOLT, which originated from Great Wall, it is only 5.48%, not even a fraction of CATL's share.
At the end of June this year, CATL's contract liabilities (customer advance receipts) remained as high as 36.483 billion RMB. Automakers shout "de-CATL-ization" on one hand, but pay in advance to lock in capacity on the other.
GAC, which played the victim in 2022 by complaining about "working for CATL," cooperated with it again in 2024 to launch battery swapping models. There was even an automaker executive who once said quite aggressively, "If you don't lower the price, you won't have me as a customer," but often ended up visiting CATL's door later.
CATL's super dominant position makes automakers both in awe and reluctant to leave.
Tech Maniac: Building a Technological Fortress with Hundred-Billion Investments
According to statistics from the 24 Tide Industry Research Institute (TTIR), CATL's annual R&D investment scale has achieved high-speed growth for at least 11 consecutive years, breaking through 20 billion RMB for the first time in 2025. From 2024 to June 2026, CATL's cumulative R&D investment has exceeded 100 billion RMB (105.3 billion RMB, accounting for 5.04% of revenue).
Someone once asked Robin Zeng: "Is it worth spending over 20 billion RMB on R&D every year?"
Robin Zeng responded: "The question itself is wrong!" At the Super Tech Day in April 2026, he rarely emphasized, "For CATL, R&D investment is not a cost, but the ability to cross cycles."
He emphasized that whether in industry troughs, raw material price surges, or fierce price wars, CATL has always adhered to high-intensity R&D investment, because "first principles" tell us that the boundaries of electrochemistry are far from being reached, and the possibilities of materials science have not been exhausted.
Continuous ultra-high-intensity R&D investment has built extremely deep technological barriers and leading advantages for CATL.
According to statistics, over the past decade, CATL has invested over 100 billion RMB in R&D, with over 22 billion RMB in 2025 alone, a year-on-year growth of 19.02%. The company has recruited an R&D team of nearly 23,000 people, holds over 60,000 patents, and has ranked first in the industry in patent application increments for six consecutive years.
CATL has built a three-tier R&D architecture. The top tier, the 21C Innovation Lab, is responsible for cutting-edge basic research and next-generation battery R&D, including solid-state batteries and electrolytes, lithium-air batteries, lithium metal anodes, novel cathode materials, electrolytes, and future Pack systems. These new technology R&D cycles often take 5-10 years, belonging to long-cycle projects facing the future.
The middle tier, the CTR/Research Institute, is responsible for application fields. The EVC (Cell Development Dept.) focuses on 1-3 year cell development, and the BSD (Battery System Development Dept.) is responsible for current Pack design.
The bottom tier, the Product Development Dept., is responsible for engineering, directly docking with downstream automakers to do mass production solutions, processes, and delivery.
Robin Zeng likens this structure to a "carrying pole" and a "lottery ticket." The "carrying pole" is the current rice bowl—core technologies like lithium-ion batteries, condensed-state batteries, sodium batteries, and perovskite batteries require "seeking perfection." The "lottery ticket" represents frontier directions that are uncertain but could change the rules of the game; the wisdom lies in "preparing but not necessarily using." He explicitly instructed R&D to be "not just one, two, or three generations ahead of competitors, but four."
Holding a lottery ticket doesn't mean cashing it in immediately, but once the timing arrives, it is a killer move unmatched by others. This is similar to what Amazon's Jeff Bezos said: "If your vision can reach seven years into the future, there are very few people who can compete with you, because very few companies are willing to make such long-term technological reserves."
This investment is bearing fruit. At this year's Super Tech Day, CATL released five core products at once, revealing the company's R&D achievements.
The 3rd Gen Shenxing Superfast Charging Battery achieves a full charge in 6 minutes at room temperature and charges to 98% in 9 minutes at minus 30 degrees, once again refreshing the global record for power battery charging rates, redefining the balance between charging speed and lifespan.
The 3rd Gen Qilin Battery boasts an energy density of 280Wh/kg and a 1,000 km range, achieving a combination of ultimate lightweighting and ultra-long range, becoming the ideal choice for high-end NEVs balancing long range and lightweighting.
The Qilin Condensed-State Battery has an energy density of up to 350Wh/kg, setting a new record for mass-produced batteries, with a 1,500 km range. It applies aviation-grade condensed-state technology to the passenger car field for the first time. This technology has completed its maiden flight verification on a 4-ton commercial aircraft and is about to undergo further verification on commercial aircraft over 8 tons.
The 2nd Gen Xiaoyao Super Extended-Range Hybrid Battery pushes the pure electric range of extended-range hybrids to 600 km, standardizing 10C superfast charging across the series. It pioneers the "super hybrid system" technology, covering all extended-range hybrid scenarios from mainstream family use to high-end versatility with three technical routes: LFP, extended-range hybrid, and ternary.
The New Sodium-ion Battery pushes sodium-ion batteries from technical verification to industrial landing, breaking through bottlenecks such as extreme water control, hard carbon gas generation, aluminum foil adhesion, and self-generating anodes, and will officially enter large-scale mass production by the end of 2026.
These products cover the four major material systems of LFP, ternary, condensed-state, and sodium-ion, achieving closed-loop control from material innovation and structural design to the energy replenishment ecosystem.
Moreover, different material systems have different positioning. LFP is suitable for developing superfast charging technology routes; ternary materials are always the high ground for high energy density competition; condensed-state can reach aviation-grade applications; and sodium-ion shows prospects in extreme temperature scenarios and energy storage fields.
In terms of battery swapping, the Choco-SEB No. 26 battery was also launched, equipped with 800V high voltage. The first batch is a 75 kWh version, with larger capacity versions to follow, fully adapting to Class B to C 800V models. Thus, Chocolate Battery Swapping will cover the complete vehicle matrix from Class A0 to C.
This massive, rich product and technology system that can realize different types, different scenarios, and different price points is a competitive advantage that other industries can hardly match.
The Litigation Tiger: Sniping Competitors with Legal Weapons
When technological barriers are high enough and patent accumulation is thick enough, the law becomes the sharpest weapon.
CATL's patent litigation strategy presents a progressive logic of "fighting small monsters to practice, then battling strong enemies."
Robin Zeng once complained: "Many people entering the battery industry, the first thing they do is find CATL to poach people, or steal a bit of technology, then go to equipment manufacturers and material manufacturers, take a bit of the formula, put it all together, say they have money to invest, and then they enter."
Looking through the rearview mirror of history, the "patent judicial defense war" launched by CATL has been going on for many years.
Since 2020, CATL has successively taken many industry peers to court, including Tafel, CALB, SVOLT, Hithium, etc., involving patent infringement, non-compete agreements, trade secrets, and so on, and has even escalated to the criminal level.
First Battle: Tafel. In 2020, CATL sued Jiangsu Tafel and Dongguan Tafel at the Fujian Provincial High People's Court for infringement of the "anti-explosion device" utility model patent, claiming 120 million RMB in damages.
In June 2021, the first instance ruled that Tafel constituted infringement, ordering it to pay over 23.3 million RMB in compensation and immediately cease manufacturing and selling the infringing products. None of the parties appealed.
This case became the first high-value patent infringement compensation case in China's power battery industry, firing the first shot of CATL's judicial litigation and having a strong warning significance for the industry.
Second Battle: CALB. Starting in July 2021, CATL launched a protracted patent lawsuit against CALB, including patents for "positive electrode sheet and battery," "anti-explosion device," "current collector component and battery," "lithium-ion battery," and "power battery top cover structure and power battery," claiming a total of over 600 million RMB.
By October 2024, the two sides were attacking each other. CALB filed a counterclaim against CATL, submitting compensation demands as high as 1.007 billion RMB to the Hubei Provincial High People's Court and the Jiangsu Provincial High People's Court respectively.
This tug-of-war has seen both sides win and lose. Currently, CATL has lost 2 cases, won 3, and 5 are yet to receive a first-instance verdict.
To this end, CALB Chairman Liu Jingyu even made a proposal during the 2025 Two Sessions, warning against the "weaponization" of patents and calling for strengthened regulation of malicious litigation using "weapon patents," aiming to curb vicious competition and reshape the innovation ecosystem.
This move also reflects the deterrent effect of CATL's litigation strategy from the side, and illustrates that the legal war has escalated from a commercial means to the core battlefield of industry gaming.
In addition, CATL also highly values non-compete agreements and trade secrets. In 2022, because a former employee violated a non-compete agreement, CATL sued SVOLT for suspected unfair competition.
The conflict and dispute with energy storage "dark horse" Hithium are even more intense. Hithium was founded by Wu Zuyu, a former CATL engineer. Wu Zuyu was also one of the middle-level managers previously granted options by CATL. However, after obtaining equity incentives, Wu Zuyu left to start his own business in 2019.
Hithium ranked in the global top three just 6 years after its founding, fully living up to its dark horse attributes. It sprinted towards the HKEX in 2025, but to date, after submitting its prospectus 3 times, it has still not succeeded. The biggest constraint comes from CATL's legal sniping.
In 2023, CATL first filed a lawsuit regarding Wu Zuyu's non-compete restriction, resulting in a final judgment to pay 1 million RMB in liquidated damages. Subsequently, the former employee Zhang Min case and Feng Dengke case broke out one after another.
The two sides have been to court multiple times. CATL sued Hithium for unfair competition, claiming 150 million RMB. After the Feng Dengke incident broke out, the conflict further escalated. Currently, the case has entered criminal procedures, with both sides holding their own views and no final conclusion yet.
Robin Zeng once compared lithium batteries and photovoltaics: "China's photovoltaics are the best in the world, so why aren't they making money? It's because intellectual property isn't protected, and there is vicious competition in the industry. As soon as new technology comes out, it is instantly sold to another company, and that company instantly copies it. The same thing, they invest less in R&D but sell it at a low price. Now they are even externalizing the involution, selling cheaply in overseas markets and undercutting each other. The root cause is insufficient intellectual property protection."
Regarding the reason for suing competitors, Robin Zeng's explanation is also very direct: to avoid price wars, "the first thing is to protect intellectual property, which is also why we have to sue them."
And after winning a lawsuit, CATL can still reach cooperation with the sued party. After Tafel lost the lawsuit, it still proposed a technology licensing request to CATL.
It can be seen that CATL's litigation strategy is extremely aggressive yet clever. On one hand, it raises the compliance costs and legal risks for competitors through litigation, weakening their price competitiveness; on the other hand, CATL occupies a super strong position in the industry, and the size gap between the two sides is huge. Litigation can also serve to deter small and medium players.
Through the path of "litigation—settlement—technology licensing," competitors can later be transformed into technology licensing targets, opening up a business model based on intellectual property.
First, use high R&D investment to build technological leadership and patent barriers; then use legal means to transform technological advantages into market advantages; and finally, through a combination of "patent moat + legal offense," ultimately force competitors to either pay compensation, accept technology licensing, or exit the competition.
King of Cash: The True Foundation to Cross Cycles with Nearly 300 Billion RMB in Net Cash
Many years ago, an internal speech by Ren Zhengfei titled "The Company's Overall Business Policy Must Shift from Pursuing Scale to Pursuing Profit and Cash Flow" ignited social circles.
Ren Zhengfei said in the opening: "The next ten years should be a very painful historical period, and the global economy will continue to decline. Now, due to the impact of wars and the continued blockade and suppression by the United States, the economy worldwide will not improve in the next 3 to 5 years. Coupled with the impact of the pandemic, there should not be a single bright spot in any region globally."
"Make survival the primary guideline and pass the chill to everyone." To this end, Ren Zhengfei required the internal team to change their mindset and business policy, shifting from pursuing scale to pursuing profit and cash flow, to ensure survival through the crisis of the next three years.
Given the current economic and financial environment, while paying attention to enterprises' globalization and integration expansion strategies, we should also have an in-depth understanding of their cash flow, capital strength, and changes. Especially in the current economic and financial environment, high警惕 (vigilance) should be given to enterprises expanding with high debt.
In modern commercial history, there are many cases of industrial giants expanding frantically and ultimately collapsing due to "cash flow depletion and debt crisis outbreaks."
So, what is the situation regarding CATL's cash flow and capital strength?
According to statistics from the 24 Tide Industry Research Institute, since 2015, CATL's net operating cash flow has always been positive (net capital inflow), showing a trend of sustained high growth. From 2015 to the present (H1 2026), this item alone has created 535.7 billion RMB in net cash flow for it, far exceeding the net profit scale of the same period. The net cash flow to profit ratio is 1.93, indicating that its cash flow and earnings quality are at a high level.
With the support of strong cash-generating power, CATL's capital strength also maintains a strong growth trend. As of the end of June 2026, CATL held 340.6 billion RMB in cash and cash equivalents, while short-term interest-bearing debt (short-term borrowings and non-current liabilities maturing within one year, etc.) was 42.9 billion RMB. Calculated this way, its net cash is about 297.7 billion RMB, which is 3.54 times that of BYD in the same period.
Capital strength far exceeding that of competitors gives CATL the strength and foundation to resist all risks.
On the evening of July 24, while releasing the semi-annual report, CATL also released an equity repurchase report: it plans to use 20-40 billion RMB to repurchase company shares, and all repurchased shares will be "used for cancellation and reduction of the company's registered capital." This fully demonstrates "confidence in the company's future development and recognition of the company's value."
Author's Note
With technology + scale as the axis, extending bidirectionally to the upstream and downstream, binding partners with capital, suppressing competitors with law, and ultimately building a closed-loop empire from minerals to consumers, and from materials to ecosystems.
Looking at the entire power battery track, only CATL in the whole world can achieve this.
However, this overly sharp and vigorous style also makes CATL appear too aggressive.
As an industry insider said, CATL always wins, but the underlying cultural architecture of its "gambling nature," with a winner-takes-all mentality at its core, makes it hard to support its evolution into a great company.