Black Sesame (stock code: 2533) recently released its financial results for the first half of 2026. The company reported revenue of 458 million yuan in H1 2026, a significant 81.3% increase from 253 million yuan in the same period last year.
Revenue from assisted driving products and solutions reached 395 million yuan during the period, marking a 66.8% year-on-year growth compared to 237 million yuan previously. The group achieved total chip shipments exceeding 6 million units in the first half of 2026. Additionally, revenue from embodied intelligence and solutions reached 47.2 million yuan, highlighting the emergence of the group's second growth curve.
Following the launch of the Huashan A2000 series at the beginning of the year, Black Sesame is accelerating the fixed-point mass production processes for A2000 solutions with major OEMs including Dongfeng, Yutong, and Chery. The company continues to deepen business collaborations with strategic top-tier clients, with cooperation spanning passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and unmanned logistics. It has secured mass production project designations covering L2+ to L3 assisted driving functions, with chip engineering adaptation capabilities validated in high-level smart driving scenarios. As co-developed solutions with algorithm partners such as Yuanrong and Nullmax are gradually rolled out, the Huashan A2000 chip will officially enter mass production in the second half of the year.
To ensure large-scale production and delivery of the A2000, Black Sesame is simultaneously building a complete and open high-level assisted driving system. This system is underpinned by high-computing-power chips, proprietary self-developed software SDKs, a full-chain AI toolchain, and end-to-end or vision-language-action (VLA) reference models, while remaining compatible with third-party algorithm ecosystems. The entire technical solution is benchmarked against the national mandatory standard "Safety Requirements for Autonomous Driving Systems of Intelligent Connected Vehicles," set to take effect on July 1, 2027, positioning the company ahead of schedule for large-scale commercial deployment of L3 autonomous driving.
During the reporting period, Black Sesame completed the acquisition of Yizhi Electronics. Yizhi Electronics specializes in low-power, cost-effective AI SoCs and full-stack solutions, with core technological accumulation in neural processing units (NPU), image signal processors (ISP), audio/video codecs, and analog IP. Its products have already achieved mass production in smart vehicles and edge-side intelligent AI scenarios. According to post-acquisition operational statistics, Yizhi Electronics generated operating revenue of 164.5 million yuan in H1 2026, showing notable year-on-year improvement, reflecting the gradual release of benefits from product structure optimization, new customer acquisition, and economies of scale.
Black Sesame recorded a gross profit of 227 million yuan in H1 2026, a substantial 261.9% increase from 62.7 million yuan in the corresponding period last year. Gross margin improved to 49.5%, up 24.7 percentage points from 24.8% previously. Selling expenses totaled 37.7 million yuan, while general and administrative expenses reached 136 million yuan. Research and development expenditure amounted to 860 million yuan, compared to 618 million yuan in the prior-year period.
The company incurred a net loss of 770 million yuan for H1 2026, slightly widening by 1% from the net loss of 762 million yuan in the same period last year. Adjusted net loss for the period stood at 643 million yuan, an expansion of 17.2% compared to the adjusted net loss of 549 million yuan previously.
On January 8, 2026, Black Sesame entered into subscription agreements with Shanghai Jixin Enterprise Management Partnership (Limited Partnership), Shanghai Shuangchuang Jinhong Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. (Shanghai Shuangchuang), and SpreadCom, respectively, to allot and issue a total of 30,131,900 new shares at a subscription price of HK$18.88 per share. Net proceeds from the initial subscription amounted to approximately HK$538 million.
On March 9, 2026, the company entered into a subscription agreement with Infini Global Master Fund to allot and issue a total of 33,544,600 new shares at the same subscription price of HK$18.88 per share, raising net proceeds of HK$632 million.
As of June 30, 2026, Black Sesame held cash and cash equivalents of 1.138 billion yuan. The company stated that in H1 2026, the group remained anchored to its strategic vision of "becoming the world's strongest edge-side AI inference solution provider." Looking ahead, the group will continue to focus on the core edge-side AI inference strategy, advancing along three main lines: the smart vehicle core business, the robotics new track, and the broad edge-side AI market. It aims to drive large-scale product deployment, continuous technological iteration, and business model innovation, while consistently consolidating its full-stack technological moat. At today's market close, Black Sesame's share price stood at HK$10.64, giving the company a market capitalization of HK$7.61 billion.
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