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The agricultural drone is no longer the hard part. XAG is now trying to automate the charging, refilling and ground work that still keep people in the loop.
What does an automated farm look like? A tractor moving through a field without a driver? A drone spraying crops without a pilot? Or a system where machines can finish a job, recharge, refill and start again with little human intervention?
All three visions are beginning to take shape. In the U.S., John Deere has brought autonomy to tractors and precision spraying through products such as its autonomous 8R tractor and camera-based See & Spray technology. Texas-based Hylio has taken another route, building autonomous agricultural drones and software that lets one operator manage multiple aircraft.
China’s XAG overlaps with both approaches but is trying to connect more pieces of farm automation. Its portfolio spans agricultural drones, ground robots, autopilot systems for conventional machinery and smart-farm infrastructure. Its newest products push that strategy one step further: automating some of the work that happens when a drone is back on the ground.
At XAG’s SuperX Farm in Guangzhou on July 6, founder Peng Bin used a mobile app to send two X150 agricultural drones into the field. More notable was what happened between flights. An XA1 drone station recharged the aircraft, while an LM1 system mixed and refilled liquid for spraying. The process from charging and refilling to takeoff took about three minutes.
The setup forms XAG’s new X Series agricultural robot system, combining an X100 or X150 drone with a drone station and automated liquid-handling equipment to automate route planning, spraying, charging, refilling, and cleaning.
The harder part starts when the drone lands. Charging, refilling, cleaning, and relaunching still require human hands. XAG’s latest system is designed to automate more of that turnaround.
A long pivot into agriculture
XAG began in Guangzhou in 2007 as XAircraft. Before settling on farming, the company experimented with power-line inspection, search and rescue, logistics and other drone applications.
Its agricultural turn came in 2013. During a trip to cotton fields in Xinjiang, the team began considering whether drones could replace labor-intensive pesticide spraying, co-founder Gong Jiaqin said in a 2022 interview with TechNode. XAG first developed the business in Xinjiang, expanded across China and began moving overseas around 2017 and 2018.
Japan became one of its first major overseas markets. Gong told TechNode that its fragmented farmland resembled China’s more closely than the large farms common in countries such as the U.S., Australia and Brazil. An aging rural population also created demand for smaller automated machines.
Internationalization was slow by design. Hardware had to meet different certification requirements, while farmers often needed one or more planting seasons to decide whether new equipment could genuinely improve productivity. Gong said the company’s early years overseas were therefore spent largely on product validation and local partnerships.
Capital followed the expansion. In 2020, XAG raised RMB 1.2 billion, or roughly $182 million at the time, in a round co-led by Baidu Capital and SoftBank Vision Fund II. GL Ventures invested another RMB 300 million in 2021.
XAG withdrew its STAR Market application in 2022, when the company was still loss-making and China’s capital markets were under pressure. A person familiar with XAG told 21st Century Business Herald at the time that market conditions were the main consideration behind the withdrawal.
When XAG returned to the public markets with a Hong Kong listing application several years later, its finances looked markedly different. Revenue rose from RMB 614.5 million in 2023 to RMB 1.07 billion in 2024 and RMB 1.17 billion in 2025, while the company swung from a RMB 132.8 million loss to a RMB 123.8 million profit over the same period.
The turnaround was driven largely by rising overseas drone sales, higher gross margins and tighter expense ratios.
XAG later withdrew its application for Shanghai’s STAR Market in 2022 and turned to Hong Kong. Its latest Hong Kong listing filing shows revenue rising from RMB 614.5 million in 2023 to RMB 1.07 billion in 2024 and RMB 1.17 billion in 2025. Net profit reached RMB 123.8 million in 2025.
From an autonomous drone to an autonomous workflow
XAG’s 2026 lineup extends beyond drones. It includes the P200, P150 Ultra and P120 agricultural drones, along with agricultural rovers, autopilot systems for conventional machinery, smart irrigation products, and the new RM80 autonomous mower.
The X Series offers the clearest indication of where the company wants to go next.
The X100 carries a 50-liter liquid tank, while the X150 carries 85 liters. Rather than requiring workers to handle every turnaround manually, the drone can return to an XA1 station for charging, while the LM1 system prepares and replenishes spraying liquid. The system can also automatically clean the tank, pipelines, and nozzles after a job.
The RM80, introduced at the same July event, extends the automation push to the ground. The electric four-wheel-drive machine can plan routes, automatically return and perform mowing and vegetation-clearing tasks in orchards and fields.
Compared with U.S. companies, XAG’s distinction lies partly in the breadth of the system it is assembling.
Texas-based Hylio focuses on aerial application, with software that lets one operator manage multiple agricultural drones. John Deere approaches automation through farm machinery, using autonomous tractors and camera-based See & Spray systems for targeted weed control.
XAG sits somewhere across those categories. It sells aerial spraying systems like Hylio, but has also developed ground robots, tractor autopilot and farm IoT products. The X Series adds another layer by automating charging and chemical handling around the drone itself.
That breadth, however, has not yet translated into equally diversified revenue. Agricultural drones generated RMB 1.02 billion in 2025, or 87.6% of XAG’s revenue. Agricultural rovers and autopilot systems each contributed about 1.5%, while smart-farm IoT products accounted for 3.1%.
Why automate more of the farm?
Agriculture is a difficult environment for robots. Weather and terrain change, while machines must deal with dust, water, chemicals, trees and other obstacles. A breakdown during a short spraying or planting window can quickly become costly.
Yet those constraints also strengthen the case for automation, particularly where farm labor is scarce.
In 2022, Gong told TechNode that agricultural technology would only become commercially meaningful when it could replace most of the human work in a complete production step or deliver a substantial efficiency gain. Four years later, the X Series partly reflects that vision: beyond autonomous flight, it automates charging, mixing, and refilling, reducing some of the labor still required between missions.
The global test
XAG now has to make that automation model work across very different farming systems.
According to latest Hong Kong listing filing, its distributors cover nearly 70 countries and regions. Overseas revenue reached RMB 419 million in 2025, or 35.9% of total revenue, up 13% from a year earlier.
The company is also pushing further into the U.S. In February, XAG introduced the P150 Max at the Spray Drone End User Conference in Kansas City, positioning it for spraying, spreading, mapping and on-farm logistics.
The U.S. is a useful test for XAG, where it competes with both farm-machinery incumbents and domestic drone makers. XAG enters the market with a portfolio spanning drones, smaller ground robots, and farm automation systems.
That makes XAG’s overseas expansion a test not just of its drones, but of its broader automation model. The company has already built a sizable business in the air. Its next bet is on how much work can be taken off the ground.
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