Horizon Robotics' licensing revenue overtook chip sales in the first half
Licence and service income again passed chip-and-module revenue as the Chinese driver-assistance supplier sold more algorithms and intellectual property than hardware.
Horizon Robotics reported revenue from continuing operations of 2.06 billion yuan for the six months to June 30, up 32.9 percent, in an interim results announcement filed to the Hong Kong exchange on Monday. Licence and service income reached 1.13 billion yuan, up 52.7 percent, against 926 million yuan from products and solutions, up 14.8 percent. Licensing therefore accounted for roughly 55 percent of revenue, regaining a lead it had held in every reported period since 2023 and lost only in the first half of 2025.
Gross margin held at 66.0 percent, which the company said was in line with the same period last year. Shipments of its Journey system-on-chip family reached 2.218 million units, up 12.1 percent, over a half in which the announcement said domestic passenger vehicle retail sales fell by 20.2 percent.
Research and development spending rose 21.9 percent to 2.76 billion yuan, which the company attributed in part to cloud-related service fees. The adjusted net loss widened 25.4 percent to 1.67 billion yuan. The reported profit of 3.78 billion yuan rests on a one-off gain of 2.78 billion yuan booked on the deconsolidation of the robotics affiliate D-Robotics.
Carizon, the joint venture with Volkswagen’s software arm CARIAD, entered mass production on Journey 6 during the period; the announcement said the resulting driver-assistance system will be fitted to seven new electric models from Volkswagen Group’s three Chinese joint ventures. Tape-out of the next-generation Journey 7, aimed at Level 3 and Level 4 use, is expected early in the second quarter of 2027. Market-share figures cited in the announcement come from unnamed third-party industry data.