Hesai Doubles SGI Revenue Guidance as Actuation Modules Ramp Faster Than Expected, Robotics Lidar Nearly Triples
Q2 2026 earnings call, August 18, 2026
Hesai Group used its second-quarter print to formalize what has been building for several quarters: a pivot from being the world's leading automotive lidar supplier to positioning itself as a full-stack hardware platform for robotics and physical AI. The headline number for investors was a sharp upward revision to the company's Strategic Growth Initiatives, or SGI, segment, with full-year 2026 revenue guidance raised from RMB 100 million to a range of RMB 200 million to RMB 300 million, driven almost entirely by faster-than-expected commercialization of robotic actuation modules. CFO Andrew Fan told analysts the segment is now expected to reach approximately $100 million in revenue in 2027 and hit breakeven that same year, a timeline management said was pulled forward because "commercial demand and the speed of tech validation came in well ahead of what we originally modeled."
Actuation Modules Move From R&D to Revenue Faster Than Guided
The most consequential new disclosure was the speed at which Hesai's actuation business, essentially robotic joints and motors, has gone from lab project to shipping product. Cumulative shipments exceeded 10,000 modules by the end of the second quarter, and the company is ramping toward roughly 10,000 modules per month in the near term, with six-digit annual volumes expected in 2027. CEO David Li described the underlying technology as "a breakthrough," citing roughly 3 times the torque and power density of leading competing products in a package 37% smaller, with transmission efficiency above 95% and validation through 2 million operating cycles.
The demand driver behind this ramp is Sharpa, a humanoid robotics company that Li co-founded and where Hesai supplies actuation modules under a related-party framework agreement. Management disclosed it is seeking shareholder approval to raise the annual transaction cap with Sharpa from RMB 100 million to RMB 300 million, with the majority of this year's volume expected to be actuation modules rather than lidar. In August 2026, a Sharpa humanoid is set to autonomously run a full shift at a Dairy Queen store in Shanghai preparing Blizzard treats, which management billed as "the world's first zero retrofit commercial deployment of its kind." Li was direct about why this related-party relationship matters strategically beyond the revenue line: "Through Sharpa, we can also gain firsthand insight into what actuation systems actually need to deliver in real-world environments... Hesai puts its technologies onto robots. The robots in turn tell us what the market really needs, from performance metrics and form factors to reliability requirements." He was equally direct that the ambition extends well past one customer, framing Hesai's role as "effectively selling the shovels in the physical AI gold rush."
Kosmo Spatial Platform Gets Early Commercial Validation
Kosmo, Hesai's spatial-intelligence camera and cloud platform aimed at solving the sim-to-real gap for robot training data, shipped prototypes in July and generated initial orders within seven days, including from humanoid robotics firm Galbot. Management said the product reconstructs a 200 square meter space at roughly five times the efficiency of a leading alternative, with fidelity sharp enough that 4-millimeter text on a restaurant menu remains legible. More than 200 prospective partners have engaged since an April preview, spanning robotics, film, gaming, tourism and advertising. CFO Fan was explicit that Kosmo's 2026 contribution will be modest, "low 8-digit revenue," with actuation modules representing the majority of SGI revenue this year, but he flagged a mix shift toward Kosmo in 2027 as recurring cloud and licensing revenue scales at what management expects to be structurally higher margins than the roughly 40% blended SGI target.
Core Lidar Business Still the Cash Engine, Multi-Lidar Trend Accelerating
Away from the new SGI narrative, the core lidar business continued to perform: total net revenue reached RMB 861 million ($127 million), up 22% year-over-year, marking a ninth consecutive quarter of growth, with GAAP net income of RMB 71 million ($10 million), up 60% year-over-year and a fifth straight profitable quarter. Total lidar shipments rose almost 80% to over 628,000 units, with robotics lidar shipments up 193% to 142,000 units and management now guiding to another 2-3 times increase in robotics shipments for full-year 2026. The company reiterated its 3 million to 3.5 million unit full-year lidar shipment guidance and issued third-quarter revenue guidance of RMB 1.1 billion to RMB 1.15 billion, with 800,000 to 850,000 units shipped. Management flagged that the third quarter should be the point at which revenue from outside ADAS lidar approaches or exceeds half of total revenue, a meaningful mix shift. The company also highlighted design wins with Great Wall Motor for its long-range ETX lidar and with Volkswagen's China joint-venture brands, alongside continuing share leadership, citing Gasgoo data showing 44% share of China's long-range ADAS lidar market in June and 17 consecutive months at number one.
Margin Defense Amid Rising Multi-Lidar Content Per Vehicle
On pricing, management pushed back against the framing that industry competition is compressing economics, arguing instead that content per vehicle is rising as cars move from a single long-range lidar to multi-sensor configurations of three to six units for redundancy under China's incoming Level 3/4 safety standards taking effect in 2027. Fan said advanced configurations combining ETX and FTX lidars can push total lidar content to $500 to $1,000 per vehicle, and reiterated a close-to-40% full-year gross margin target. On the competitive entry of RoboSense at Xiaomi, Fan was measured, noting "market sourcing is normal in the auto industry" while emphasizing Hesai has no intention of chasing share through price cuts, invoking Apple's smartphone profit-share dynamics as the model Hesai is pursuing: "leadership isn't just shipping the most units. It's capturing a leading share of the industry economic value."