RoboSense's Robotic LiDAR Push Sparks Profit Forecast

RoboSense just forecast its first quarterly profit, powered by robotics LiDAR.

Shares of the Hong Kong-listed RoboSense (2498.HK) jumped as much as 15% in early trading on February 20, 2026 after the company issued a profit alert that it would report no less than RMB 60 million of net profit for Q4 2025. The move signals a tangible shift in the company’s growth engine from autos toward robotics, with the robotics segment appearing to lift overall profitability.

The company pointed to sustained sales momentum across 2025, led by its LiDAR business for robotics applications. RoboSense reported robotics LiDAR sales of more than 303,000 units for the year, a staggering year-on-year rise of more than 1,142% versus 2024. In the fourth quarter alone, total LiDAR unit sales reached 459,600, of which 221,200 were deployed in robotics use cases. That robotics slice was nearly on par with ADAS-related LiDAR sales for the quarter, underscoring a meaningful broadening of the company’s revenue mix beyond automotive applications.

This pivot toward robotics reflects a broader pattern among Chinese LiDAR producers: automotive demand has matured, while demand from industrial automation and service robotics has grown more rapidly and with potentially higher margins. RoboSense’s own communications point to a strategic diversification, positioning robotics as a major growth engine alongside its traditional automotive business.

Beijing’s policy arc around smart manufacturing and domestic robotics ecosystems helps explain why a LiDAR specialist would pursue robotics more assertively. In Chinese-language reporting, the shift is often framed as “expanding beyond automotive” into “robotics applications,” with companies emphasizing not only unit volume but also higher-margin opportunities tied to customization, service, and longer-term deployment cycles in factories and logistics networks. RoboSense’s results appear to align with that narrative: the late-2025 profit alert has investors parsing whether a robotics-enabled margin lift can sustain into 2026 and beyond.

Two practitioner takeaways stand out for supply chain teams and competitors. First, the robotics LiDAR opportunity is growing from a niche adjunct to a core product line for Chinese sensor suppliers, which means procurement teams should expect a more “industrial-grade” LiDAR option set, with attention to robustness, calibration workflows, and value-added services that tie LiDAR sensing to automation platforms. Second, margins may be skewing higher in robotics relative to automotive ADAS, but that trajectory hinges on continued demand for industrial automation and on pricing discipline in a more fragmented supplier landscape. For rivals, RoboSense’s acceleration in robotics is a reminder that the Chinese LiDAR ecosystem is evolving from a pure automotive play into a multi-application supplier network.

RoboSense’s narrative remains contingent on execution: sustaining robotics demand, managing component costs, and converting unit sales into sustained profitability. If the robotics wave maintains its current pace, the company could become a more balanced engine of growth—less reliant on car OEM cycles, more exposed to the tempo of factory automation and service robotics across China and beyond.

Sources

RoboSense Shares Surge 15% on First Quarterly Profit Forecast Driven by Robotics LiDAR Growth