Howard Huang, founder, chairman and CEO of Orbbec.
Orbbec
In 2013, Howard Huang, a trained engineer specializing in optical measurement, founded Orbbec in hopes of turning his academic research into real-world applications. From a base in the Chinese hardware hub of Shenzhen, his company develops 3D vision cameras, which allow machines to perceive depth like human eyes do, and enable them to better navigate the environment.
Fast forward to today, Orbbec’s technology is powering the rise of China’s humanoid robot sector. Its 3D vision cameras have become essential components in machines like state-backed X-Humanoid’s Tiangong Ultra, which beat some 20 robot runners in what was billed as the world’s first humanoid half-marathon in Beijing in April. Riding on the country’s recent robot frenzy, Orbbec’s shares on the Shanghai stock exchange have skyrocketed more than 315% over the year, boasting a market cap of $5.2 billion.
Huang, the 45-year-old chairman and CEO of Orbbec, is the company’s largest shareholder with a 27% direct stake. Based on his holdings, Forbes estimates Huang’s net worth to be $1.4 billion.
As humanoid robots have yet to go mainstream, Orbbec’s current main revenue stream remains its 3D vision cameras for facial recognition systems used in contactless payment and medical insurance verification. In the first half of 2025, Orbbec posted a net profit of 30 million yuan ($4 million), reversing a net loss of 81 million yuan a year earlier. During the same period, its revenue more than doubled to 436 million yuan, with 62% coming from modules for facial recognition systems in retail and healthcare.
The company attributed the growth partly to the rising sales from 3D vision cameras for payment applications, including those used in the facial recognition system deployed by Jack Ma-backed Ant Group. The Chinese fintech giant’s digital payment platform Alipay allows shoppers to check out at supermarkets and other retail stores simply by scanning their face. Ant Group is Orbbec’s biggest outside investor, holding a 9% stake through subsidiary Shanghai Yunxin Venture Capital.
Tiangong Ultra, the humanoid robot equipped with Orbbec’s 3D vision cameras, won a humanoid half-marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2025.
VCG via Getty Images
Orbbec generated 31% of its first-half revenue from robotics, with 4% from “others” (Orbbec declined to provide details) and the rest from industrial applications such as 3D scanning for defect detection and assembly simulation. For now, Orbbec’s clients in the robotics space are mostly service bot makers, including China’s Pudu Robotics and Gausium, which specialize in cleaning bots, as well as patient care bots company Robocare and warehouse bot manufacturer Twinny from South Korea. Orbbec claims that its market share in 3D vision cameras for service bots in China is more than 70%.
The company has recently added a few humanoid robot developers to its client roster. Besides the Tiangong Ultra model, which was co-developed by X-Humanoid and Chinese billionaire Zhou Jian’s Ubtech Robotics, Ant Group’s robotics unit also adopted Orbbec’s advanced 3D vision cameras. Orbbec confirmed that its modules are used in the wheeled, two-armed R1 bot unveiled by Ant Lingbo Technology, also known as Robbyant, in September.
To capitalize on China’s robot boom, Orbbec announced in September it plans to raise up to 1.9 billion yuan through a private share placement. The company said it will use the proceeds to fund research and development on “AI vision and spatial perception technology” for robotics, including the development of better chips and software to enhance machines’ ability to simulate human vision. Orbbec expects its revenue from robotics to post a compound annual growth rate of about 100% over the next three to five years.
Prior to Orbbec, Huang was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology research center. He earned a Ph.D. in engineering from the City University of Hong Kong, got his master’s from National University of Singapore and bachelor’s from Peking University in Beijing.
Orbbec’s first breakthrough came in 2017, when the company secured a deal with Ant Group to embed its 3D vision cameras into Alipay’s facial recognition payment system. A year later, Orbbec partnered with Chinese smartphone maker Oppo to launch the world’s first Android smartphone with 3D facial recognition technology, which allows biometric authentication. It came seven months after Apple launched its first iPhone with such a feature in late 2017.
In an interview with state-owned Guangdong Radio and Television in 2023, Huang said Oppo was initially hesitant in working with Orbbec because his company was small at the time. “[Oppo] at first had concerns about our reliability, but in the end they couldn’t find anyone more reliable than us,” said Huang in the interview. “We were confident. It was challenging, but if Apple could do it, why couldn’t we?”
Over the years, Orbbec has attracted investors including Hong Kong-based investment firm SAIF Partners (a spinoff from SoftBank) and MediaTek Ventures, the venture capital arm of Taiwanese chip design giant MediaTek. The company expanded into supplying 3D vision cameras for robots in 2016, and doubled down on the space in 2022. That year, Huang took Orbbec public on Shanghai’s Star market in a 1.2 billion yuan IPO.
“My motto is: ‘Climb the highest peaks in the best of times, and tackle the toughest challenges in the most cutting-edge industries,’” Huang said in another interview with the City University of Hong Kong in August. “Achieving global influence in the robotics industry—that is the highest peak we aim to conquer.”