Hesai Group (HSAI.US) and its Hong Kong-listed HESAI-W (02525.HK) have just released their second-quarter 2026 financial results, giving capital markets a clearer view of a hard-tech company that is becoming more versatile while simultaneously boosting its growth visibility. During the reporting period, Hesai's lidar business—a robust and reliable "cash cow"—continued to deliver on its growth potential, while its strategic growth initiatives (referred to as "SGI") made history by contributing revenue for the first time, driven by early commercial breakthroughs in its power module segment. With multiple growth drivers firing in tandem, second-quarter revenue reached RMB 860 million, while GAAP net profit surged 60% year-over-year to RMB 70.55 million.

Notably, the substance of Hesai's latest earnings report extends beyond the financial figures. According to the company, its spatial intelligence platform Kosmo has completed its first batch of prototype deliveries and secured orders from several leading humanoid robot manufacturers, including Galbot. Revenue from this segment is expected to kick in as early as the third quarter. These developments signal that Hesai is rapidly evolving into a full-stack infrastructure platform for robotics and physical AI, with its capability coverage now spanning the perception, comprehension, and execution layers. Given the better-than-expected commercial progress and market demand for its SGI business, Hesai has significantly raised its full-year revenue guidance for this segment to RMB 200-300 million, with projections of RMB 700 million next year, at which point it is also expected to break even.

Cash cow delivers steadily while SGI business exceeds expectations

Hesai's second-quarter report sends a powerful value signal to the market—the company has transformed from a pure lidar manufacturer into a robotics and physical AI infrastructure platform covering the entire "perception, comprehension, and execution" chain. This Q2 report represents the first systematic validation of that structural shift. Perception is Hesai's foundation, and it underpins the company's expansion into the comprehension and execution layers. During the quarter, total lidar shipments reached 628,300 units, up 78.4% year-over-year, with ADAS lidar deliveries at 485,900 units, representing a 60.1% increase.

In terms of market influence, according to data from Gasgoo Research Institute, Hesai has maintained the top spot in the main lidar market share ranking for 17 consecutive months, holding a commanding lead in the automotive main lidar segment. While automotive perception remains a pillar, Hesai's robotics perception business has also entered a phase of rapid scaling, with robot lidar deliveries hitting 142,400 units in the quarter, a staggering 193.4% increase year-over-year. More than 50 embodied intelligence companies, including Unitree, Ants Lingbo, Rongyao Robot, Galbot, Xinghitu, and Yuanli Lingji, are rapidly integrating the JT128 lidar, driving continued growth in delivery volumes.

The sustained volume growth at the perception layer not only contributes stable revenue and profits—Hesai has now achieved GAAP profitability for five consecutive quarters—but also provides ample cash flow to support expansion into the comprehension and execution layers. If lidar represents the "eyes," then the Kosmo spatial intelligence platform is the "brain." Kosmo deeply integrates Hesai's custom lidar, multi-sensor inputs, and proprietary 3DGS and AIGC algorithms, seamlessly capturing and reconstructing three-dimensional environments with high fidelity. This transforms spatial data collection from a complex, costly endeavor into standardized, scalable infrastructure. Kosmo completed its first batch of prototype deliveries in July, secured orders from leading humanoid robot companies including Galbot, and is expected to begin contributing revenue in Q3, with over 200 cross-industry potential partners currently in discussions. The deployment of Kosmo marks Hesai's transition from "spatial perception" to "spatial intelligence."

Hesai's self-developed robot power modules serve as the "joints and muscles" of robots. Leveraging core electric-drive technologies in chips, materials, and precision manufacturing, Hesai has built a comprehensive actuator product matrix covering full-body joints for embodied intelligence. Compared to leading market products, its power modules are approximately 37% smaller in volume, achieve three times the torque density and power density, and deliver over 95% transmission efficiency. On the commercialization front, Hesai has chosen to first tackle the most technically challenging actuator—the "dexterous hand"—using rigorous hand-scenario testing to validate the reliability and precision of its modular architecture, then replicating this proven solution across shoulder, wrist, and elbow joints. In the current quarter, the power module business began generating revenue, with cumulative deliveries exceeding 10,000 units by the end of Q2, and shipments expected to grow to six-figure levels by 2027.

Multiple business lines advance in parallel, sharpening growth visibility

In today's fervent tech-investment climate, global capital is aggressively seeking assets that offer both high certainty and strong growth potential. Hesai's latest second-quarter report paints exactly that picture—a hard-tech company with a solid foundation and rapid growth trajectory, accelerating from the lidar sector into the broader robotics and physical AI landscape. Certainty first comes from order visibility. This quarter, Hesai secured a global designation from the Volkswagen Group, covering multiple models across its Chinese joint-venture brands. Its ultra-long-range, thousand-plus-line lidar ETX won a new designation from Great Wall Motor, with mass production expected by the end of 2026. Following the Bozhi 3X, Hesai has also secured a new designation for the GAC Toyota Bozhi 7 model, continuing to expand its partnership with Japanese automakers. Its multi-lidar solution has expanded from the Li Auto L9 and L8 to the RMB 250,000-class L6, with up to four units per vehicle. To date, Hesai's products cover all top ten automotive brands by sales volume in China. Meanwhile, the JT128 lidar is rapidly entering the procurement lists of more embodied intelligence customers. This multi-dimensional expansion of the customer matrix continues to elevate order certainty and growth visibility.

The commercialization of new businesses has opened fresh growth channels for Hesai. The SGI business contributed revenue for the first time this quarter, prompting the company to raise its full-year revenue guidance substantially to RMB 200-300 million, with expectations of approximately RMB 700 million by 2027 alongside a break-even milestone. These string of better-than-expected numbers underscore the tangible progress: power modules expanding from dexterous hands to full-body joints, and the Kosmo spatial intelligence platform securing orders from leading humanoid robot companies with revenue expected from Q3. Technological reserves lay the groundwork for longer-term growth. Hesai's 6D full-color ultra-sensitive SPAD-SoC chip, "Picasso," has advanced from R&D to the product integration stage and is ready for mass production. This is the world's first SPAD-SoC to achieve native fusion of color and depth information at the chip level. The new-generation ETX lidar equipped with this chip is expected to begin mass production and delivery in the second half of 2026. The 6D full-color lidar has the potential to become the industry's next-generation perception standard, providing critical hardware infrastructure for the mass production of L3/L4 high-level autonomous driving.

At this point, a clear business architecture has emerged: lidar serves as a strong "cash cow," consistently delivering stable revenue, profits, and positive cash flow, while the SGI business carries the second growth curve, accelerating toward large-scale commercialization. The parallel advancement of both business lines positions Hesai as the industry's only company that covers the full "perception, comprehension, and execution" chain while achieving commercial deployment across all layers. This unique full-stack capability lies at the core of Hesai's scarcity value. For capital seeking both certainty and growth, a company with increasingly transparent growth visibility like Hesai is undoubtedly a key candidate worthy of long-term tracking in any investment portfolio.