Hesai held the global launch of Kosmo at its Maxwell super factory in Shanghai on October 14, unveiling a 3D world data engine and disclosing that it has entered robotic motion modules and begun commercial deliveries. Li Yifan said that LiDAR units that sold for more than RMB 300,000 back then can now be produced for around $200, with the production cycle shortened to one unit every five to six seconds.
The article analyzes the computing requirements of vision-only and LiDAR-fusion approaches in autonomous driving, arguing that computing demand is not simply determined by the number of sensors, but by how the perception system processes data and by its algorithm architecture.
Data from NE Times shows that LiDAR installations in Chinese passenger vehicles reached 525,500 units in August 2026. Hesai installed 182,436 units, just 65 fewer than Huawei, and the two together accounted for 69.4%. The growth logic is extending beyond simply adding vehicle models to multiple LiDARs per vehicle, robot perception and 3D spatial mapping.
Why we recommend it: The original paper provides monthly installation and market share data, useful for assessing the automotive LiDAR market landscape
CCTV host Dong Qian interviewed Xia Haiyun, chairman of Guangzai Technology, an incubatee of the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, on the program Trust in China, discussing the path of independent innovation in domestic LiDAR.
Hesai, Seyond and RoboSense successively released financial reports in August. Comparing the three, the article points out that as mass-produced vehicle models, robotics and embodied intelligence become real demand, the growth logic of leading LiDAR companies is diverging.
RoboSense plans to sell its embodied robotics complete-machine business for RMB 59.878 million and focus on supplying key components to robot manufacturers. Seyond has signed a design win with Chuneng Automotive for a forward-facing primary LiDAR, while Hesai has also announced new moves in spatial intelligence.
Ozone lidar uses the differential absorption principle for atmospheric monitoring. All-solid-state products are easy to maintain and integrate, and are expected to become mainstream.
In the first half of 2026, RoboSense shipped 719,200 units, up 169.6% year on year, while Seyond shipped 450,900 units, up 364.8%. The article compares the scale, profitability and second growth curves of the three companies.
The Leapmotor A05 launched on August 11, bringing LiDAR to vehicles in the 80,000-yuan class.
LiDAR installations totaled 1.595 million units in 2024 and 3.316 million in 2025; 2.282 million units were installed in the first half of 2026, with Huawei's 896-beam LiDAR becoming the new benchmark.
Hesai reported net revenue of RMB 3.028 billion in 2025, and the article discusses its valuation.
Hesai sold about 1.62 million LiDAR units in 2025, with revenue of RMB 3.028 billion and its first full year of GAAP profitability.
O-Film and Luming Photonics are deepening their collaboration to scale solid-state LiDAR deployment based on the ADS6311 SPAD chip.
Six companies incubated by the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics - Kaisis Technology, Guangzhiyun, Guangzai Technology, Aijie Photonics, Bangqizhou, and Gaoxi Thermal - were selected for the proposed first batch of Hangzhou's "Promising Seedlings" enterprises. Kaisis Technology was also selected for the proposed 2025 Hangzhou "New Eaglet" enterprise list. The selected companies cover areas including cold atom clocks, optical intelligent algorithms, LiDAR, silicon-based optoelectronic chips, and metasurface optical devices.
Guangzai Technology, an incubated company of the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, collaborated with the University of Cambridge, Southeast University and others to publish a paper in Sustainable Cities and Society, proposing SCE-Model, a spatiotemporal carbon emission model optimized by machine learning and validated by LiDAR. The model output is highly consistent with coherent differential absorption LiDAR observations (R² = 0.79; ±5 ppm), enabling hourly, block-level carbon emission mapping.
The research project "Study of High-Precision, High-Sensitivity Wind Field Measurement Technology Based on Optical Frequency Comb Calibration," completed by Professor Xia Haiyun, chief scientist and founder of Guangzai Technology, won second prize in the 2024 National Defense Science and Technology Progress Award, marking a major breakthrough for Guangzai Technology in national defense science and technology honors. The award, announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, is the highest distinction in the national defense science and technology field. Guangzai Technology is a high-tech LiDAR company focused on the R&D and manufacturing of intelligent LiDAR systems for ground-based, airborne, shipborne, and spaceborne platforms.
In the five years since it began operations, the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics has incubated more than 60 optoelectronic 'hard tech' companies, over 20 of which have secured follow-on financing, drawing more than 2.5 billion yuan in external capital in total. Its full-chain 'equipment + funding + talent' model, backed by a modular and standardized service system, helps scientists cross the 'valley of death' in technology commercialization. The incubated companies span atmospheric laser remote sensing, gallium oxide single crystals, cold atom clocks and other fields. The operating model was reported by Daily Business News and reposted and endorsed by the Hangzhou Municipal Government and several other government new media platforms.
The Atmospheric Multi-Parameter Doppler LiDAR developed by a team led by Professor Xia Haiyun, founder of Hangzhou Guangzai Technology Co., Ltd., an incubated company of the Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Mechanics, and dean of the School of Atmospheric Physics at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, won the Gold Award on the China Optoelectronic Instrument Brand List at the third Jin Sui Awards. The final review selected 49 winning projects, including 14 gold, 20 silver and 15 bronze awards. Guangzai Technology focuses on single-photon, coherent, femtosecond, superconducting and microwave photonics technologies, developing intelligent remote sensing LiDAR for ground-based, airborne and spaceborne platforms.