{"title":"Cognex vs Hesai: Vision & 3D perception compared","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/compare/cognex-vs-hesai","comparison":"Hesai ranks 14 on the Robotics 100 with a score of 90; Cognex ranks 23 with 87. Cognex is ahead on commercials. Hesai is ahead on progress and firepower. Level on deployment, production, technology, positioning and leverage. Cognex is based in Natick, United States, Hesai in Shanghai, China. Cognex: Established. Hesai: Public, founded 2014. Cognex is named in 15 signals and Hesai in 56.","companies":[{"name":"Cognex","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/cognex","city":"Natick","country":"United States","stage":"Established","founded":null,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Cognex is a US machine-vision leader (FY26 guidance $1.13-1.15B, up from $994M in FY25; Q2-26 record revenue of $291M, +17%) whose AI-powered In-Sight 6900 (on NVIDIA Jetson) and 3900 (on Qualcomm Dragonwing) launched in 2026. It posted eight consecutive quarters of margin expansion, made its OneVision AI platform generally available (May 2026), and divested its Japan trading business, holding $622M cash with no debt. Growth is double-digit across logistics, electronics, semiconductor, and automotive.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Robotics","list":"Robotics 100","rank":23,"score":87,"tier":"member","scores":{"gate_ne":["technology","firepower"],"leverage":8,"position":8,"progress":9,"firepower":8,"commercial":10,"deployment":10,"production":10,"technology":8},"why":"Cognex supplies machine-vision cameras and inspection systems for robot guidance and production quality control, including the In-Sight 3900 with embedded AI inspection.","segment":"Vision & 3D perception","layer":"Sensing"},"signals_total":15,"facts_total":7},{"name":"Hesai","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/hesai","city":"Shanghai","country":"China","stage":"Public","founded":2014,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Hesai is a Chinese lidar leader (Nasdaq:HSAI, HKEX:2525) supplying ADAS, autonomous vehicles, and robotics, and the first in the industry to post a full-year GAAP profit (FY25 net income RMB 436M, five consecutive profitable quarters). It shipped 1.62M units in FY25 (+223% YoY) and raised FY26 guidance to 3-3.5M units, is the primary lidar supplier for NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion 10 and a Mercedes-Benz L3 supplier, and serves 50+ embodied-AI customers (Unitree, Galbot), ranking #1 in China humanoid and quadruped lidar. H1-26 revenue was RMB 1,541M/$227M (+25% YoY), with a new spatial-intelligence (Kosmo) segment beginning to contribute.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Robotics","list":"Robotics 100","rank":14,"score":90,"tier":"member","scores":{"leverage":8,"position":8,"progress":10,"firepower":10,"commercial":8,"deployment":10,"production":10,"technology":8},"why":"Hesai develops and supplies lidar products for robotics and autonomous systems, including 142,400 robotics lidar units shipped and JT128 deployments with embodied-AI customers.","segment":"Vision & 3D perception","layer":"Sensing"},"signals_total":56,"facts_total":54}],"note":"Assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence; facts and signals carry their sources."}