Hesai shipped 23,405 robot joint and hand modules in its second quarter of selling them, and Sharpa is the only customer it names

Hesai, the Shanghai company best known for lidar, shipped 23,405 robotic actuation modules in the third quarter, up 96.8% from 11,890 in the second, it reported on Nov. 10. These are the motor-and-reducer actuators that drive robot hands and joints, and full-body joint modules have now joined hand modules in mass production. Cumulative shipments reached 35,295 by the end of September, exactly the second and third quarters added together, which means Q3 was only the second quarter in which Hesai sold them.

The 2027 forecast is more modest than it sounds. Hesai says monthly capacity has reached 10,000 modules and expects annual shipments to hit six digits in 2027. Q3 already averaged about 7,800 a month; 100,000 a year is about 8,300. The factory is not the constraint. The customer list is: the only buyer Hesai names is Sharpa, its "anchor customer," whose new D01 full-body robot and W02 dexterous hand both run on Hesai modules with Hesai's own reducer and motor designs.

Joints are where the humanoid budget goes

Chief financial officer Andrew Fan said actuation modules typically account for more than 50% of a humanoid's bill of materials. That is the reason a lidar company wants them. Hesai's new segment for these bets, which also includes its Kosmo 3D-scanning business, brought in RMB 90.5 million in Q3, and Hesai says its revenue for the first nine months already passed the original full-year target of RMB 100 million. It kept its 2026 guidance for the segment at RMB 200 million to 300 million.

Lidar still pays for all of it. Hesai shipped 729,673 lidars in the quarter, 91,618 of them for robots, and the lidar business earned RMB 145.5 million in operating income. Group revenue rose 34.3% to RMB 1,068.3 million, while research spending rose 27.8%, a rise Hesai attributes partly to the new segment.

Hesai calls the W02 "ultra-compact" and "lightweight," which makes Sharpa a demanding first reference. Whether a second buyer's name appears next to it is what the fourth-quarter report can answer.