Xiaomi-backed robot chip designer Amicro clears Hong Kong listing hearing as sales rise 42% and losses widen
Zhuhai-based Amicro, which designs robot-specific chips, sensors and navigation software for cleaning and service robots, published its post-hearing information pack on the Hong Kong exchange on 30 September 2026 and is seeking a Main Board listing under Chapter 18C. Revenue rose 42.3% to RMB406.7 million in 2025 on more than 3.5 million solution sets sold, while the net loss widened to RMB155.1 million.
Amicro sold more than 3.5 million robot navigation solution sets last year. IDC counted about 25,000 humanoid robots shipped worldwide in the whole first half of 2026. On our arithmetic each set brought in at most about RMB110. That gap between volume and value sits at the centre of the Hong Kong listing the Zhuhai company moved closer to on 30 September 2026, when it published its post-hearing information pack on the exchange's disclosure site, the document that appears once the listing committee has heard an application.
Amicro, registered as ็ ๆตทไธๅพฎ็งๆ่กไปฝๆ้ๅ ฌๅธ, is applying for a Main Board listing under Chapter 18C, Hong Kong's regime for specialist technology companies, in the robotics and automation category, according to the filing. The offer size, price and the split of proceeds are redacted. What the filing does show is a supplier of robot brains for mass-market machines that has tripled its gross margin in two years but still loses money on every reporting period, and the open issue is whether the cheap end of robot silicon can become a durable business before larger chipmakers move in.
Sales are compounding faster than the losses are shrinking
Revenue rose from RMB206.0 million in 2023 to RMB285.8 million in 2024 and RMB406.7 million in 2025, a 42.3% increase last year, the company said in the filing. That is a compound annual growth rate of 40.5% over two years. In the first four months of 2026 revenue reached RMB129.7 million, up 50.6% from RMB86.1 million a year earlier. Gross margin climbed from 6.1% in 2023 to 11.9% in 2024 and 27.7% in 2025, then slipped to 23.9% in the January to April 2026 period.
Losses have not followed the margin up. The net loss was RMB113.2 million in 2023, RMB98.9 million in 2024 and RMB155.1 million in 2025, and it reached RMB66.7 million in the first four months of 2026 against RMB25.3 million a year earlier. The filing attributes the losses to sustained research spending and to gross profit that is not yet large enough to cover research and operating costs. R&D expense was RMB132.6 million in 2025, equal to 32.6% of revenue, down from 51.6% in 2023 but back up to 43.9% in early 2026. Cash and cash equivalents stood at RMB171.8 million on 30 April 2026, and operating activities used RMB68.9 million of cash in 2025. The company lists four uses for the proceeds: its R&D technology platform, customer ecosystem development, strategic acquisitions and working capital.
- 2023
- 206
- 113.2
- 6.1
- 106.3
- 51.6
- 2024
- 285.8
- 98.9
- 11.9
- 115.1
- 40.3
- 2025
- 406.7
- 155.1
- 27.7
- 132.6
- 32.6
- Jan-Apr 2025
- 86.1
- 25.3
- No data
- No data
- 39.4
- Jan-Apr 2026
- 129.7
- 66.7
- 23.9
- No data
- 43.9
Source: Amicro post-hearing information pack, HKEX, 30 Sep 2026. Figures disclosed, not estimated; null = not disclosed in the filing. Two-year revenue CAGR = (406.7/206.0)^(1/2) minus 1 = 40.5%.
As of Oct 1, 2026
Those figures describe a company still buying its way to scale, so the next question is what exactly it sells.
A chip, a sensor kit and the code that ties them together
Amicro describes its products as intelligent mobile robot solutions built on a platform it calls Amicro Core, which combines its own robot-specific systems-on-chip with modules, sensors, algorithms, software development kits and toolchains. It sells three tiers. Inertial navigation solutions let a robot estimate its position from motion sensors. Unimodal solutions add one main perception sensor. Multimodal solutions fuse several sensors with AI-driven decision-making, which the filing describes as the mainstream choice for higher-end products. In 2025 multimodal solutions accounted for 44.5% of revenue, unimodal 31.6% and inertial navigation 2.9%, with supporting modules adding 16.0%. Together, solutions made up 95.0% of sales.
The company is fabless: production partners handle wafer fabrication, chip testing and packaging, the filing says. Its customers build cleaning, service and companion robots, with other uses including pool cleaning and commercial cleaning. Recent development work includes a high-performance line laser sensor, a three-in-one multimodal sensor and a compact rotating-mirror lidar. Amicro reports 1,363 intellectual property items, including 1,125 granted patents, of which 819 are invention patents, and more than 142 patents granted overseas.
A young supplier with a concentrated customer base
The company was set up as a limited liability company on 26 March 2014 and converted into a joint stock company on 13 August 2021. It had 273 research staff on 30 April 2026, equal to 75.8% of its workforce, which implies about 360 employees in total. Pre-IPO investors held about 66.97% of the share capital before the offering, according to the filing, and the investor group it names includes Xiaomi, SummitView Capital and China Merchants Capital.
Customer concentration has eased but remains high. The largest customer accounted for 41.4% of revenue in 2023, 19.3% in 2024, 28.2% in 2025 and 26.3% in the first four months of 2026. The top five customers took 67.9%, 55.1%, 44.6% and 57.0% across the same periods. On the supply side the largest supplier accounted for 13.9% of purchases in 2025, down from 38.2% in 2023.
That profile places Amicro in a different part of the robot compute market from the companies that have drawn the largest cheques this autumn.
Third place in a market that is still fragmented
Frost & Sullivan figures cited in the filing put the intelligent mobile robot solutions market at RMB9.7 billion in 2025, up from RMB4.2 billion in 2021, a compound annual growth rate of about 23.5%, and forecast roughly RMB38.1 billion by 2030, a 31.4% annual rate. Amicro ranks third among Chinese providers by 2025 revenue with about 4.2% share, the filing says.
The money elsewhere in robot compute is aimed higher up the stack. D-Robotics raised US$400 million in a Series C on 17 September to sell its Sunrise chips to Chinese robot makers, and SiMa.ai raised US$150 million at a US$1.45 billion valuation on 28 September for edge chips aimed at humanoids and drones, ROBOTNESS reported from their announcements. Unitree Robotics listed on Shanghai's STAR Market on 18 August. Amicro's products go into household and commercial machines sold in the millions rather than the thousands.
- Amicro
- CN
- Cleared HKEX listing hearing (Chapter 18C)
- No data
- No data
- 2026-09-30
- D-Robotics
- CN
- Series C
- 400,000,000
- No data
- 2026-09-17
- SiMa.ai
- US
- Series C
- 150,000,000
- 1,450,000,000
- 2026-09-28
- Unitree Robotics
- CN
- STAR Market IPO
- No data
- No data
- 2026-08-18
Disclosed figures from company releases and exchange filings verified by ROBOTNESS; null = not disclosed or not in USD (Unitree raised RMB6.1bn in its STAR IPO). Amicro offer size is redacted in the filing.
As of Oct 1, 2026
Why the cheap end matters
A household cleaning robot has to solve the same three problems as a humanoid: where am I, what is around me and where should I go next. Simultaneous localisation and mapping, the technique behind that first question, used to need a separate processor, a sensor board and licensed software. Folding the processor, the sensor interfaces and the navigation stack into one supplier's package lowers the bill of materials for appliance makers that do not want to build robotics teams of their own. Amicro's 2025 numbers suggest that model works at volume but at thin unit value: about RMB386 million of solution revenue spread over more than 3.5 million sets.
For the wider industry, the filing is a reminder that the robotics silicon already shipping in the millions is not the large-model chip in a humanoid but the navigation SoC in a floor cleaner. Any supplier that controls that socket gains a distribution channel into hundreds of consumer and commercial robot designs, which is the strategic value Xiaomi and other investors appear to be backing.
The risks the filing does not resolve
Losses widened in the first four months of 2026 while gross margin fell back, which suggests price pressure in consumer robots is reaching the component layer. Cash of RMB171.8 million covered about 2.5 years of 2025 operating cash burn before the offering. A quarter of revenue still comes from one customer. And the redacted offer terms mean investors cannot yet judge the valuation against revenue.
ROBOTNESS analysis
Amicro's listing is a bet that the cheapest robot brains, not the most capable ones, will be the first robotics chips to earn money at scale, and its 2026 numbers show that bet has not yet paid.
The evidence for the first half of that claim is volume: more than 3.5 million sets in a year, revenue compounding at 40.5%, gross margin up 21.6 percentage points in two years. The evidence against the second half is the income statement: gross profit of about RMB112.7 million in 2025 did not cover R&D of RMB132.6 million alone, and the January to April 2026 loss already equals 43% of the full 2025 loss.
The strongest counter-argument is that Chapter 18C exists precisely for companies at this stage, and that a fabless model with 75.8% of staff in R&D has operating leverage that only shows once volume crosses a threshold. The 2025 margin jump supports that view.
Bull case. Multimodal solutions keep rising as a share of sales, gross margin returns to the high twenties and the company sells the same platform into lawn, pool and commercial robots, turning listing proceeds into a broader customer base. Investor ties to a major consumer electronics group give it early access to new robot categories.
Bear case. Appliance makers squeeze component prices further, larger chip suppliers bundle navigation into their own SoCs, and the 2026 margin slip proves structural. Losses then outrun the cash raised and the company returns to the market within two years.
Signals to watch:
- The final prospectus, expected after the hearing, which will disclose offer size, price range and the split of proceeds.
- Annual results for 2026, due by 31 March 2027 under Main Board rules, showing whether gross margin recovered above 27.7%.
- The share of revenue from the largest customer in that report, against 28.2% in 2025.
- RMB171.8m at 30 Apr 2026
- More than 3.5m solution sets sold in 2025
- Post-hearing information pack, HKEX, 30 Sep 2026
- No. 3 in China, about 4.2% share (Frost & Sullivan)
- RMB406.7m (+42.3%)
- Revenue RMB129.7m, net loss RMB66.7m
- RMB155.1m
- Main Board, Chapter 18C (robotics and automation)
- Xiaomi, SummitView Capital, China Merchants Capital
- 27.7% (6.1% in 2023)
Why it matters
Amicro is the first sizeable listing candidate whose product is the navigation silicon inside mass-market robots rather than the robot itself. Its filing gives investors a rare audited look at the unit economics of robot compute at consumer volumes: more than 3.5 million sets, about RMB386 million of solution revenue and therefore no more than about RMB110 per set.
That number frames every valuation conversation about robot chips. Humanoid compute suppliers argue for high prices per unit on low volumes; Amicro shows what the opposite model looks like after a decade of work. If public investors pay up for it, other suppliers of low-cost robot SoCs and sensor kits in China will follow it to Hong Kong under Chapter 18C.
Rival analysis
Within robot compute, D-Robotics is the closest Chinese comparison by ambition: its US$400 million Series C on 17 September funds Sunrise chips sold to robot makers across categories. D-Robotics positions its chips as the compute layer for China's robot makers broadly; in our reading its pricing rests on more capable robots, where silicon value per unit is higher but volumes are still small. SiMa.ai, with US$150 million at a US$1.45 billion valuation, sells edge AI chips to humanoid, automotive and drone makers outside China.
Amicro's real competition is less visible: in-house navigation teams at large cleaning-robot brands and general-purpose SoC vendors that bundle navigation software. The filing does not name its two larger domestic rivals, but its 4.2% share at No. 3 shows a market where no supplier controls the socket. That fragmentation is both the opportunity and the reason pricing power is weak.
Valuation context
The filing redacts the offer size and price, so no valuation can be computed yet. What can be measured is the revenue base: RMB406.7 million in 2025 with a 40.5% two-year compound growth rate and a 38.1% net loss margin. For comparison, the private robot-compute rounds ROBOTNESS tracked in September (D-Robotics at US$400 million raised, SiMa.ai at a US$1.45 billion post-money) were priced on expected humanoid and edge AI demand rather than current sales.
We would judge the eventual price against two anchors: a multiple of 2025 revenue consistent with loss-making Chapter 18C peers, and the cash need implied by 2025 operating outflow of RMB68.9 million plus R&D growth. Any offer materially larger than two years of that burn would signal acquisition plans, which the filing lists among the uses of proceeds.
Supply-chain implications
Amicro is fabless. It relies on third-party partners for wafer fabrication, chip testing and packaging, and its largest supplier took 13.9% of purchases in 2025, down from 38.2% in 2023. The filing does not name the foundry or process node, which leaves open how exposed the company is to capacity or export-control changes.
On the demand side its customers build cleaning, service, companion and pool robots, a supply chain concentrated in southern China that exports globally. New in-house sensors (a line laser, a three-in-one multimodal sensor and a compact rotating-mirror lidar) show a push to capture more of the bill of materials around the chip, which would raise revenue per set but also inventory and manufacturing risk.
Signals to watch
First, the final prospectus: offer size, price range, cornerstone investors and the percentage split of proceeds between R&D, ecosystem, acquisitions and working capital. A large acquisition allocation would indicate consolidation of the fragmented supplier base.
Second, the 2026 annual results, due by 31 March 2027, for gross margin (27.7% in 2025, 23.9% in January to April 2026), the largest-customer share (28.2% in 2025) and whether multimodal solutions keep rising above 44.5% of revenue. Third, any announcement of design wins outside floor cleaning, such as lawn or commercial robots, which would test the platform claim.
Analyst view
Thesis: Amicro proves there is a volume market for robot navigation silicon, but not yet a profitable one; the listing buys time for mix and scale to close the gap. Confidence: medium. The audited volume and margin trend are strong evidence for the first half; the widening early-2026 loss and redacted terms keep us from higher confidence.
What would change our view: two consecutive reporting periods with gross margin above 28% and R&D below 35% of revenue would make us more constructive. A further fall in margin alongside a rising top-customer share would push us to a bearish reading.
Questions you should be asking
What share of 2025 revenue came from customers outside floor-cleaning robots, and how fast is it growing?
Why did gross margin fall from 27.7% to 23.9% in early 2026, and is that price, mix or component cost?
Which foundry and process node do the current SoCs use, and what is the dual-sourcing plan?
How much of the proceeds is earmarked for acquisitions, and in which part of the sensor or software stack?