Top Chinese lidar sensor manufacturer suing US Department of Defense

Hesai Group, a prominent Chinese lidar sensor manufacturer, is suing the US Department of Defense for including it on a blacklist of companies that are allegedly linked to the Chinese military.

The Shanghai-based company said its addition to the so-called 1260H list has caused it to suffer reputational injury, a significant drop in stock prices and business loss.

Hesai made its IPO on the Nasdaq in 2023.

David Li, CEO of Hesai, said in a statement in February that "the US Department of Defense added Hesai to its list of 'Chinese Military Companies Operating in the United States' without any explanation or justification".

"We believe this inclusion is unjust, capricious and meritless. Hesai is not a military company. Hesai products are for civilian use only and have never been designed or validated for military use. This baseless inclusion undermines fair competition and ultimately imperils Americans' safety by delaying and impeding the adoption of technology that could otherwise reduce the number of vehicle accidents and save lives," Li said.

"Our inclusion on this list follows a one-year media smear campaign based on unsubstantiated, baseless and false allegations about Hesai lidars' potential involvement with military use and surveillance. Additionally, we faced an intensive lobbying effort on Capitol Hill against us, all orchestrated by lidar competitors with the aim of exploiting anti-China sentiment in the US to handicap the undisputed market leader for unfair commercial advantage," Li added.

Hesai was the world's top supplier of automotive lidar with a 47 percent share of the total global market revenue in 2022. Yole Intelligence, a market research provider, said that Hesai maintained its No 1 position in the automotive lidar market for 2023.