{"text":[[{"start":8.22,"text":"This article only represents the author's own views."}],[{"start":12.08,"text":"Artificial brains that tell them where to go, what to do and how to do it may be the most important component in an emerging generation of humanoid and industrial robots. But also important are the sensors that help them execute those actions."}],[{"start":25.44,"text":"An emerging maker of those components is Orbbec Inc. (688322.SH), whose vision sensors help robots “see” where they are going and what they need to pick up. Now, the company is hoping to see its way to a Hong Kong IPO, complementing its existing Shanghai listing, as it searches for new investors to feed its research-heavy operation."}],[{"start":46.84,"text":"The company announced it was exploring a Hong Kong listing as early as July, following a recent trend by companies already listed on China’s domestic markets in Shanghai and Shenzhen seeking to tap Hong Kong’s more international investor pool."}],[{"start":60.82,"text":"Shenzhen-based Orbbec looks like a potential beneficiary of the movement by smarter machines into factories, warehouses and everyday life. But while its robotics business is growing rapidly, its latest financial report tells a less exciting story."}],[{"start":75.24,"text":"The company’s revenue barely rose in the first half of 2026, up just 0.5% to 437.6 million yuan ($65.2 million). That represents a huge slowdown from the 104.1% growth to 435.5 million yuan in the first half of 2025. Orbbec’s profit in the first half of this year also fell 30.8% to 41.6 million yuan."}],[{"start":102.48,"text":"The gap between booming enthusiasm for its robotics and Orbbec’s overall lackluster results reflects the company’s own transition from its current business mix and the one it is trying to build. Its cameras and other vision products traditionally performed more mundane functions like scanning and payment applications, a relatively mature business. Gains in newer, high-growth areas like robotics have yet to replace lost sales in those more mature areas, while the cost of developing and selling new products keeps rising."}],[{"start":131.32,"text":"That puts pressure on a turnaround that has only recently taken hold. Orbbec earned a profit of 127.9 million yuan on revenue of 940.7 million yuan in 2025, its first annual profit since listing on Shanghai’s STAR Market in 2022."}],[{"start":131.82,"text":"Robotics reboot"}],[{"start":148.36,"text":"There are good reasons for its recent move into robotics. Advances in AI are helping robots learn tasks and respond to spoken instructions, raising the prospect of machines that can handle more varied work. Businesses also want automation to fill labor gaps and take over repetitive jobs, according to the International Federation of Robotics. Cameras such as Orbbec’s, which measure distance and identify objects’ positions, supply information those machines need to act on their surroundings."}],[{"start":176.64,"text":"Its latest financial report names Chinese humanoid robot maker Leju among Orbbec’s camera customers. Another customer for its sensors is reportedly the high-profile Unitree, whose humanoids and robot dogs have capture public imagination with their acrobatics and other performances, according to Chinese media."}],[{"start":194.96,"text":"But such high-profile demonstrations are largely for show and don’t often result in large orders. Instead, Orbbec’s management points to robots performing more mundane tasks like cleaning, delivery and materials handling as nearer-term opportunities because their work is relatively standardized."}],[{"start":212.04,"text":"Meanwhile, the company’s older applications, while less sexy, still matter. Orbbec attributed much of its first-half growth last year to products used for scanning and payments. Meantime, management has said uneven demand for traditional biometric applications like face and fingerprint recognition were holding back overall revenue growth."}],[{"start":231.68,"text":"Ant Group, the Alibaba affiliate behind Alipay, is a key customer and major cause behind this year’s sales slowdown. Orbbec’s sales to Ant and its affiliates fell to just 53 million yuan in the first half of 2026 from 130.9 million yuan a year earlier. Sales to other customers rose 26.3% over that time, adding roughly 80 million yuan. But that barely replaced the 78 million yuan in lost business from Ant."}],[{"start":259.56,"text":"Orbbec says its robot-vision revenue more than doubled in the first half of this year, without disclosing the amount. The strong growth is encouraging, though the failure to give a sales figure means its contribution is probably still relatively small."}],[{"start":260.06,"text":"Sales slowdown"}],[{"start":270.04,"text":"Orbbec’s slowdown actually dates back to last year, when revenue growth eased to about 6% in the final quarter of 2025. It grew by a similar amount in the first quarter of this year, before slipping into contraction in the second quarter. As that happened, the company’s profit also swung from growing by 27.5% year-on-year to 31 million yuan in the first quarter of 2026, to plunging 70.3% to 10.6 million yuan in the second."}],[{"start":302.08,"text":"On a more positive note, the company’s gross margin improved from 41.3% in the first half of 2025 to 48.5% in the first half of 2026 as higher-margin products made up more of its business. But expenses, whose growth is outpacing revenue growth, ultimately undermined the company’s profits. In particular, R&D spending rose 22.2% to 111.4 million yuan, consuming about a quarter of revenue."}],[{"start":331.2,"text":"Management is asking investors to be patient, arguing that years of development are beginning to pay off. The company is also expanding into equipment that records demonstrations used to train robots. Last month, it announced a partnership with robotics startup Lingchu Intelligence, also known as PsiBot, to combine its recording hardware with the startup’s data software. The aim is to make collecting and managing robot-training data easier, opening another market for Orbbec’s hardware."}],[{"start":359.32,"text":"Funding that expansion is probably a factor behind Orbbec’s potential Hong Kong listing. The company raised 980 million yuan via a share placement through its Shanghai listing in June, mainly for research and manufacturing projects with a combined budget of nearly 2 billion yuan. It is also building a Vietnam factory expected to begin production in 2027."}],[{"start":381.48,"text":"Bocom International still expects the company to bounce back from its recent revenue and profit contractions. The bank cut its 2026 revenue forecast for Orbbec by 24% in August, but its revised estimate of 1.23 billion yuan would still represent growth of about 30% from 2025. It expects new robot-vision and training-data products to help sales in the second half of the year."}],[{"start":406.3,"text":"Investors already place considerable value on that potential. Orbbec currently trades at about 39 times 2025 sales, even after its shares fell about 40% over the last two months. That’s well ahead of the roughly 26 times for Mech-Mind (9615.HK), the industrial robot-vision company that listed in Hong Kong this month. Orbbec had more than twice its rival’s revenue in 2025, although their business mixes differ."}],[{"start":437.16,"text":"A Hong Kong listing could give Orbbec more money to pursue the robot opportunity that looks like the best bet to jumpstart its growth. Whether its robotics business can grow fast enough to replace lost sales elsewhere and translate to stronger profits remains the open question for Hong Kong investors."}],[{"start":459.04,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789469094_4655.mp3"}