Hesai Group eyes robotics as LiDAR prints 78.4% shipment growth in Q2
Hesai Group (NASDAQ: HSAI) shares fell 5.3% Tuesday after the company reported second-quarter revenue of RMB860.8 million, up 21.9%, and raised its full-year 2026 Strategic Growth Initiatives guidance to a range of RMB200 million to RMB300 million from an earlier target of RMB100 million. The next confirmable milestone is third-quarter revenue, where management guided RMB1.10 billion to RMB1.15 billion.
Key takeaways
- Hesai Group's Q2 revenue rose 21.9% to RMB860.8 million, and net income climbed 60% to RMB70.6 million, marking its fifth consecutive quarter of GAAP profitability.
- Total LiDAR shipments grew 78.4% to 628,275 units, with robotics LiDAR up 193.4% to 142,371 units and ADAS volumes up 60.1% to 485,904 units.
- Consolidated operating income fell 90.4% to just RMB2.2 million as the Strategic Growth Initiatives segment lost RMB64.0 million on its first-ever revenue of RMB44.9 million.
- Hesai raised its full-year 2026 SGI guidance to RMB200 million–RMB300 million from RMB100 million and guided Q3 revenue to RMB1.10 billion–RMB1.15 billion.
- Hesai shares fell 5.3% Tuesday following the earnings report.
Hesai Group (NASDAQ: HSAI) shares fell 5.3% Tuesday after the company reported second-quarter revenue of RMB860.8 million, up 21.9%, and raised its full-year 2026 Strategic Growth Initiatives guidance to a range of RMB200 million to RMB300 million from an earlier target of RMB100 million. The next confirmable milestone is third-quarter revenue, where management guided RMB1.10 billion to RMB1.15 billion.
The shipment print tells a supply-chain story worth reading closely. Total LiDAR units came in at 628,275, up 78.4%, with ADAS volumes reaching 485,904 units (up 60.1%) and robotics LiDAR units hitting 142,371 (up 193.4%). That throughput drove net income 60% higher to RMB70.6 million, extending Hesai's run to five consecutive quarters of GAAP profitability. The line that complicates the tape: consolidated operating income came to just RMB2.2 million.
The cost sitting inside the shipment growth
The segment split explains it. LiDAR generated RMB66.2 million of operating profit. Strategic Growth Initiatives, where management is building out robotic actuation and spatial intelligence, lost RMB64.0 million on its first-ever revenue of RMB44.9 million. One segment absorbed nearly all of the other's operating surplus. Research and development expenses rose 16% to RMB231.2 million, which the company attributed to incremental SGI investment. Gross margin came in at 40.1%, down from 42.5%, with management pointing to a larger mix of lower-margin products. Consolidated operating income fell 90.4%, even as net income rose because interest and investment income carried the result below the operating line.
What the SGI pipeline shows
Commercial evidence is building but still early-stage. Hesai delivered more than 10,000 robotic actuation modules by quarter-end and is supplying Sharpa. The Kosmo spatial-intelligence platform secured orders after prototype deliveries in July, and management expects Kosmo to begin generating revenue in the third quarter. That Kosmo ramp is the near-term inventory signal to watch: whether prototypes clear to production shipments will say more about SGI's cost absorption than a single quarter of guidance revisions.
Management expects SGI to approach $100 million in revenue and reach breakeven in 2027. Hesai reported a company-defined liquidity balance of RMB7.05 billion as of June 30, comprising cash, restricted cash, qualifying short-term investments, and long-term time deposits, which provides capacity to fund the buildout. The setup from here is whether Kosmo's third-quarter revenue conversion and the SGI loss trajectory show any compression before that 2027 line comes into view.
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Filed by the newsroom of MarketPR on August 23, 2026. Source: finance.yahoo.com. Indicative figures are not investment advice.