Revenue grew to $3.2M in 2026Q2 but remains operationally immaterial against COGS of $12.0M, producing negative 2.7% gross margins and a $66.1M operating loss, indicating that margin improvement appears denominator-driven rather than reflecting cost discipline.
Serve Robotics Inc. (SERV) annual income statement — 5-year revenue, gross profit & net income history
| Metric | TTM | Dec'25 | Dec'24 | Dec'23 | Dec'22 | Dec'21 |
|---|
| Sales/Revenue | 9.94M | 2.65M | 1.81M | 207.54K | 107.82K | 0 |
| Revenue Growth % | 411.04% | 46.26% | 773.3% | 92.49% | - | - |
| Cost of Goods Sold | 41.95M | 18.03M | 1.89M | 1.73M | 1.15M | 42.47K |
| COGS % of Revenue | - | 680.23% | 104.15% | 833.68% | 1065.14% | - |
| Gross Profit | -32.01M | -15.38M | -75.16K | -1.52M | -1.04M | -42.47K |
| Gross Margin % | -322.06% | -580.23% | -4.15% | -733.68% | -965.14% | - |
| Gross Profit Growth % | - | -20366.76% | 95.06% | -46.33% | -2350.27% | - |
| Operating Expenses | 180.07M | 97.39M | 38.21M | 19.2M | 19.91M | 10.62M |
| OpEx % of Revenue | - | 3673.59% | 2108.37% | 9253.36% | 18468.4% | - |
| Selling, General & Admin | 82.12M | 40.02M | 10.61M | 5.22M | 4.31M | 2.61M |
| SG&A % of Revenue | - | 1509.58% | 585.61% | 2516.9% | 3998.94% | - |
| Research & Development | 77.81M | 45.27M | 24.26M | 9.95M | 13.57M | 7.09M |
| R&D % of Revenue | - | 1707.54% | 1338.22% | 4792.82% | 12581.98% | - |
| Other Operating Expenses | 3M | 12.1M | 3.34M | 4.03M | 2.04M | 924.5K |
| Operating Income | -219.34M | -112.77M | -38.29M | -20.73M | -20.95M | -10.62M |
| Operating Margin % | -2206.83% | -4253.83% | -2112.51% | -9987.04% | -19433.54% | - |
| Operating Income Growth % | - | -194.52% | -84.72% | 1.08% | -97.25% | - |
| EBITDA | -201.68M | -104.56M | -37.98M | -18.86M | -20.56M | -10.58M |
| EBITDA Margin % | -2029.17% | -3944.02% | -2095.43% | -9088.96% | -19073.55% | - |
| EBITDA Growth % | -144.8% | -175.3% | -101.34% | 8.27% | -94.38% | - |
| D&A (Non-Cash Add-back) | 17.66M | 8.21M | 309.71K | 1.86M | 388.14K | 42.47K |
| EBIT | -151.74M | -105.02M | -38.51M | -19.26M | -21.22M | -21.67M |
| Net Interest Income | 6.01M | 7.27M | -680.55K | -2.26M | -636.33K | 0 |
| Interest Income | 6.01M | 7.27M | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Interest Expense | 0 | 3K | 680.55K | 2.26M | 636.33K | 0 |
| Other Income/Expense | 8.28M | 7.75M | -902.11K | -4.09M | -902.07K | -11.04M |
| Pretax Income | -211.05M | -105.02M | -39.19M | -24.81M | -21.86M | -21.67M |
| Pretax Margin % | -2123.48% | -3961.41% | -2162.29% | -11955.83% | -20270.2% | - |
| Income Tax | -4.42M | -3.66M | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Effective Tax Rate % | 2.09% | 3.48% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Net Income | -206.63M | -101.36M | -39.19M | -24.81M | -21.86M | -21.67M |
| Net Margin % | -2079.02% | -3823.5% | -2162.29% | -11955.83% | -20270.2% | - |
| Net Income Growth % | -157.62% | -158.63% | -57.94% | -13.54% | -0.88% | - |
| Net Income (Continuing) | -206.63M | -101.36M | -39.19M | -24.81M | -21.86M | -21.67M |
| Discontinued Operations | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Minority Interest | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| EPS (Diluted) | -2.38 | -1.63 | -1.07 | -0.67 | -0.59 | -0.58 |
| EPS Growth % | -59.88% | -52.34% | -59.7% | -13.56% | -1.72% | - |
| EPS (Basic) | - | -1.63 | -1.07 | -0.67 | -0.59 | -0.58 |
| Diluted Shares Outstanding | 86.93M | 62.28M | 36.66M | 36.94M | 36.94M | 36.94M |
| Basic Shares Outstanding | 86.93M | 62.28M | 36.66M | 36.94M | 36.94M | 36.94M |
| Dividend Payout Ratio | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Quick answers to the most common questions about buying SERV stock.
For fiscal year 2025, Serve Robotics Inc. (SERV) reported total revenue of $2.7M.
Serve Robotics Inc. (SERV) reported a net loss of $101.4M for the fiscal year ending 2025.
Serve Robotics Inc. (SERV) reported an operating income of $-112.8M, resulting in an operating profit margin of -4253.8%. This margin reflects the operational efficiency of the business before interest and taxes.
Serve Robotics Inc. (SERV) generated $-15.4M in gross profit for the year, representing a gross profit margin of -580.2%. This demonstrates the company's core pricing power and production efficiency.
Key Metrics
Top Statement Risk
Unit economics unproven at scale
Metrics are mathematically derived from official filings.
Revenue Scaling From Near-Immaterial Base
Serve's quarterly revenue rose roughly 240% year over year to $3.2M in 2026Q2, yet sequential growth decelerated to 4.0% from 37.1% in 2025Q2, per its reported quarterly statements — growth remains real but off a base that is still operationally immaterial.
The trajectory is best read as a deployment ramp rather than commercial traction: revenue climbed from $946.7K in 2024Q1 to $3.2M over eight quarters, which is meaningful in percentage terms but represents a business still generating single-digit-million quarterly top line while spending $49M-plus on R&D and SG&A. The deceleration in quarter-over-quarter growth from double digits to low single digits, following a spike in 2025Q2, suggests growth may be lumpy and tied to robot deployment timing rather than a smooth demand curve. Investors should treat the durability of the ramp as unproven until revenue scale matches the cost base.
Negative Gross Margins Signal Structural Cost Gap
Gross margin deteriorated from positive 62.8% in 2024Q1 to negative 273.3% in 2026Q2, as COGS of $12.0M overwhelmed $3.2M of revenue, according to Serve Robotics' disclosed figures — each incremental unit of revenue currently destroys rather than creates gross profit.
The margin inversion appears driven by the mismatch between hardware-heavy cost of sales — robots, sensors, field infrastructure — and a revenue base too small to absorb those fixed and semi-fixed production costs. This is materially different from software-adjacent peers such as Coursera, whose 54.6% gross margin reflects scalable delivery, or Instacart's 73.7% take-rate model; SERV is effectively absorbing full commercialization infrastructure ahead of demand. Until revenue scales several multiples above current levels, the negative gross margin will cap any path to profitability regardless of operating discipline.
Margin Recovery Driven by Revenue, Not Efficiency
Operating margin improved from negative 77.2% in 2024Q4 to negative 20.4% in 2026Q2 even as absolute operating losses swelled to $66.1M, per Serve's quarterly income statements — the ratio improvement appears to be denominator-driven rather than evidence of cost discipline.
Operating leverage has not yet been demonstrated: absolute operating losses have roughly doubled from $13.6M in 2024Q4 to $66.1M in 2026Q2, meaning the company's fixed-cost intensity is rising alongside revenue rather than being absorbed by it. SG&A showed an unusual jump to $29.1M in 2026Q2 from $16.8M in Q1 — a step that warrants monitoring as it may signal a new spending phase rather than a one-off. Genuine operating leverage would require gross profit to inflect positive first, since a structurally negative gross line makes SG&A efficiency a secondary concern.
R&D and SG&A Outrun Revenue by Order of Magnitude
R&D expense climbed from $6.6M in 2024Q1 to $20.3M in 2026Q2, while SG&A grew from $1.1M to $29.1M over the same period, based on Serve Robotics' reported line items — combined opex now exceeds quarterly revenue by roughly fifteenfold.
The cost structure is characteristic of a hardware commercialization build: R&D has scaled steadily (3x over eight quarters) to support robot development and fleet deployment, but the more volatile SG&A trajectory suggests heavy investment in go-to-market, operations, and public-company overhead. The fact that COGS alone reached $12.0M against $3.2M of revenue indicates that even before overhead, the core delivery economics are unprofitable at current volumes. Management's expense trajectory, rather than cost discipline, appears to be the operative variable — a pattern that makes the company highly sensitive to any further revenue shortfall.
Stock Compensation Dominates the Income Statement
Stock-based compensation reached $14.7M in 2026Q2 — more than four times Serve's $3.2M of revenue — while the net loss of $64.1M modestly exceeded the operating loss of $66.1M, indicating a small non-operating credit amid otherwise unremitting losses.
SBC as a percentage of revenue is effectively unbounded at this scale, which suggests ongoing dilution is a structural feature of the equity rather than a temporary cost of a growing business; the $14.7M charge also appears to have driven the sharp SG&A step-up in the quarter. The narrow gap between operating and net losses provides no meaningful earnings-quality signal beyond confirming there is no material non-operating offset to the core burn. Investors should assess dilution-adjusted returns carefully, since reported EPS of negative $0.80 understates the true economic cost of equity compensation when the numerator is still negative.
A Story That Depends on Capital Markets Staying Open
Serve's negative 273.3% gross margin, $66.1M quarterly operating loss, and $14.7M of stock compensation imply that the business's viability rests on continued access to external capital rather than self-funded operations, per reported financial statements — a setup short-sellers typically target.
The core challenge to the narrative is arithmetic: the company is spending roughly fifteen times its revenue on combined operating costs while its gross profit remains deeply negative, meaning neither revenue growth nor margin expansion has yet altered the cash burn trajectory. The peer set underscores the gap — even loss-making Coursera maintains a 54.6% gross margin, whereas SERV's negative gross line means growth at current unit economics worsens, rather than improves, absolute losses. If capital markets conditions tighten or if the deployment ramp stalls at its current low-single-digit sequential pace, the gap between the equity story and the reported income statement would likely widen materially.