Honorable investors, analysts, good morning. Last night we published our 2025 annual results, and this is quite a satisfactory report card. AI is bringing to us very wide opportunities. We have already set a new round of our RMB 100 billion strategy, and we have planned a clear roadmap. Even though there are very complicated external environment and in the industry there are short-term fluctuations as well, we have much confidence in the high-quality growth in 2026. In Q1, we enjoyed record high results in our operations, and this is laying a very strong foundation for us. Now I'll defer to our CEO, Mr. Wang Wenjie, to go through our business results, and then the management will be happy to answer your questions. Thank you.
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Investors, friends. Good morning. Welcome to Sunny Optical Technology's 2025 annual results presentation.
Today, I will begin with four key judgments to directly address the issues of greatest concern to you. First, Sunny Optical's handset business continues to achieve revenue reverse trends in 2026, building on the strong implementation of our premiumization strategy in 2025. Through effective handset market volatility, through sustained ASP growth, and market gains with key overseas clients, thus achieving double-digit growth in our handset business. Second, we have established a full-stack software algorithm and integrated hardware-software solution capabilities. We have completed the development and engineering delivery of algorithms across the full spectrum of imaging, real-time perception, semantic segmentation, spatial localization, and 3D reconstruction. We have achieved breakthroughs in the market with system-level products for warehouse automation, robot AI industrial cameras, and secured a key position in visual perception within practical applications such as embodied intelligence and smart manufacturing.
We now possess the capability for larger scale delivery of algorithms and integrated hardware-software solutions required to bring AI into the real world. Third, in addition to our handset product business and vehicle businesses, we have identified four high-certainty growth opportunities for the next five years. Growth momentum will stem from the continued expansion of AI-enabled wearable smart hardware and robotics. In the long term, we will take optical perception as our core starting point and take that strategic deployment across the information domain of perception, transmission, processing, storage, display by cross-applying precision optical and optoelectronic integration technologies that have been validated through large-scale mass production will unlock our long-term growth prospects. Fourth, regarding spinning off our vehicle business, which has attracted significant attention, we'll really capitalize on industry dividends through the spin-off.
At the same time, by leveraging an independent, specialized platform, we'll maximize the value of the vehicle business, deepen upstream-downstream collaboration across the industrial chain, and jointly build and open a mutually beneficial industrial ecosystem. Moving on, I will now elaborate on the four core developments, covering a review of our 2025 performance, business highlights, future outlook, and ESG achievement. First, let's move on to the first one, results review of 2025. In 2025, we achieved revenue of [RMB 43.23 billion], representing a year-on-year increase of 12.9%. Revenue growth was primarily driven by the combined efforts of the three major segments: handsets, vehicles, and the pan-IoT sector, with the company's diverse product-based layout yielding significant rewards on profitability.
Our full-year gross margins stood at 19.1%, 1 percentage point year-on-year, driven by two key factors. First, capitalizing on market opportunities from premiumization of smartphone imaging. The product mix for mobile lenses or handset lenses and camera modules continuously optimized, driving improvement in gross margins. Secondly, the continued rise in revenue share of high-margin vehicle business increased our profits. Our net profit attributable to shareholders for the full year stood at RMB 4 .64 billion, a year-on-year increase of 71.9%, maintaining high-quality growth despite a high base. Excluding investment income of [RMB 919] million generated from the equity investment in Goertek-OLight , the company's net profit grew 37.8% year-on-year.
In terms of cost control, our overall expense ratio for 2025 stood at 11.6%, down 0.8 percentage points compared to 2024. Selling and distribution expenses fell by 20.9% year-on-year, demonstrating significant success in cost management. R&D expenses was up 11.4% year-on-year as we continue to ramp up R&D investment in handsets, vehicle, and AI-related businesses to lay the technological foundation for long-term growth. In 2026, our overall expense ratio is set to decrease further, with target ranges at 10%-11%. All financial data are detailed in the announcement, so I shall not elaborate on them here. Second session, business highlights for the whole of 2025. Firstly, handset products business. In 2025, handsets achieved steady revenue growth, rising 8.6% year-on-year, outperforming the industry as a whole.
The core drivers of this growth are our continuously deepening premiumization strategy and the ongoing optimization of our product mix. In 2025, while shipment volume of HLS and camera modules declined, ASP saw a significant increase, with lens ASP rising by over 10% and module ASP by 15%, demonstrating the remarkable effectiveness of our premiumization strategy. Specifically, in 2025, revenue from our glass-plastic HLS increased by 95.8% year-on-year. Revenue from periscope lenses rose 20.7%, accounting for 18.9% of HLS revenue. Revenue from periscope modules was up 55.9%, accounting for 20.4% of handset modules revenue. Continuous breakthroughs in high-end products have laid a solid foundation for business growth.
Leveraging our world-leading ultra-miniaturization etching technology and AOA ultra-high precision coating technology, we have successfully overcome numerous challenging technical bottlenecks, enabling mass production of multiple products. For instance, our high-performance ultra-large aperture cemented prism periscope solution utilizes our proprietary AOA multi-group high-precision assembly technology to achieve world's first 30-axis technology breakthrough and is also applied to a certain high-end mobile phone model. The third technology is our integrated lens and actuator module technology, which has successfully enabled mass production of a quad-cut lens module with an ultra-low height design, achieving maximum miniaturization and weight reduction. It has been successfully adopted in domestic clients' flagship high-end models. Furthermore, in 2025, we completed integration of R&D units in major overseas clients, achieving key breakthroughs across multiple projects, laying a solid foundation for future growth. Next, vehicle products business.
In 2025, as the penetration rates of advanced intelligent drives continue to rise, the vehicle optics sector is entering a period of rapid growth. We have seized these industry opportunities, steadily increasing our market share with key clients, which has driven a 21.3% year-on-year increase in vehicle revenue. We have successfully achieved mass production of several new products, including 70-megapixel ADAS cameras, long-range LIDAR transceiver modules, and large aperture glass-plastic hybrid precision lenses. In terms of internal collaboration, our lens and module teams worked together to tackle key challenges. Several projects, including variable aperture solutions and flash cleaning solutions, have passed validation by multiple leading clients. The relevant technological achievements are being rapidly converted into mass production projects, laying the foundation for the continued expansion of our vehicle business. Third is the XR business.
In 2025, overall revenue from the XR business declined year-on-year, primarily due to weak demand in the VR/MR sector and adjustments to the product launch schedules of major clients. However, revenue from our AR smart glasses camera modules surged by 800% year-on-year, effectively offsetting the impact of the decline in the VR/MR business. At the same time, overall gross margin for XR segment reached 19.6%, up 7.8 percentage points year-on-year, representing a significant improvement in profitability. In terms of internal synergy, we've built collaborative capabilities across multiple subsidiaries, optimized management model, engaging with top-tier international clients, and established a unified service interface to achieve end-to-end coordination across demand response, technology R&D, and product delivery. In 2025, we achieved several milestones. Firstly, we successfully entered the supply chains of major overseas clients for display-equipped products.
Second, we achieved mass production of smart glasses whole device based on Qualcomm AR1, Android OS . Third, our solutions became the reference design for top-tier international clients. In 2025, through a share swap merger, we completed a strategic mutually beneficial arrangement with Goertek Optic that leverages our complementary strengths. By aligning equity interests, we have achieved efficient synergy in technology, talent, and industrial resources, delivering two key strategic values. First, we're closely collaborating to become core technological providers in our near-eye displays, establishing a world-leading AR waveguide mass production platform, covering the entire process from micro-nano design to mold processing and front-end and back-end manufacturing, thereby consolidating our core strengths in technology and scale manufacturing.
Second, by leveraging the industrial expertise of both companies, we have achieved mutual empowerment in terms of customer resource and capital strength, establishing a complete chain from technology R&D to market implementation, and jointly driving the development of AR optics industry. Fourth, pan-IoT business. By 2025, our transformation into a provider of complete smart ecosystem solutions delivered substantial results. We completed the device development and commenced the mass production and shipment of AI industrial cameras and AI wearable cameras. In the robotics sector, we established end-to-end development capabilities spanning from core modules to full device. Collaborative projects with leading clients achieve stable mass production and shipments. It is worth noting in warehouse automation projects for leading overseas clients, we have progressed from mass production of individual warehouse modules to their interconnected system-level products comprising multiple devices.
This has enhanced our capabilities in development, certification, and overseas servicing of system-level products, enabled us to successfully enter core supply chains of major overseas clients' smart warehousing operations, laying the foundation for expanding further high-value system-level projects. The precision optics business. In 2025, we achieved a breakthrough in mass production capacity for integrated optics systems. At the same time, our group formally established precision optics companies to further strengthen core competitiveness in the fields of ultra-precision optical milling and molded glass. Through our proprietary high-efficiency molding technology, production molding cycle has been significantly shortened. Production efficiency was up 40%. Cost per unit fell 21%, laying a solid technological foundation for future expansion into new market segments. Finally, I would like to highlight our achievements in 2025 regarding implementation of AI technology and the development of our core capabilities of integrated hardware and software.
In terms of AI implementation, we've enhanced capability and scenario-based applications to drive empowerment of AI across the entire production process, forming a closed-loop system encompassing data governance, model training, production line application, and data feedback. Multiple AI application scenarios have been successfully implemented. Through AI-driven defect quality reduction, we have achieved an average 10% increase in UPH on production lines without modifying equipment.
Through AI-recommended forming machine parameters, we have shortened product development cycles by over 30%. Through AI SOP visual monitoring, we have achieved 100% real-time closed-loop interception of non-compliant operations, abnormal risk, and critical processes such as plasma cleaning, thereby improving product acceptance rates. In terms of core capability development, leveraging in-house full-stack R&D expertise in optic, device, electricity, and computing, we have developed a multimodal AI-powered optical perception system, establishing end-to-end technical capabilities spanning perception, processing, and application.
All core technologies have undergone successful productization. This system is based on our proprietary multi-spectral visual sensor matrix and high-precision AI vision sensing solutions, combined with AI-driven imaging enhancement technology and edge lightweight intelligent perception algorithms, and has already covered scenarios such as object detection and biometric recognition. Currently, related products have achieved mass shipments, and our core algorithms have been platformed, successfully reused across multiple projects.
Furthermore, we have mastered high-precision multi-sensor calibration and multimodal data fusion technologies. Relying on a full-stack in-house development architecture, we have established an integrated system design featuring hardware-software synergy, thereby simplifying our system delivery barrier. Building on the system capability, we have developed a robot vision solution featuring deep synergy between perception hardware, intelligent algorithms, and robot device system. It has been delivered in a customized way to several leading clients across various industries, receiving positive market feedback.
That concludes our overview of our business and capacity-building achievements in 2025. We will now move on to part three: outlook for the future. Firstly, handset business. Although the global handset market is forecast to contract by 12.9% in 2026, we're confident that our handset business will achieve growth against the trend. This confidence stems from the sustained increase in ASP, driven by solid progress we made in our move towards the premium segment in 2025, as well as the optimization of our customer structure. In 2026, we'll continue to drive growth from both the product and client sides, further consolidating our growth momentum. On the product side, while shipments of low-end models are expected to decline, we'll continue to strengthen our core technological advantages and deepen our vertically integrated solutions to drive sustained volume growth on high-end products.
As the unit price of high-end products is several times that of standard products, we can effectively hedge against industry fluctuation through continued improvement in ASP. We forecast that by 2026, revenue from glass-plastic hybrid HLS will grow by over 150%. Periscope lens revenue will increase by 40% year-over-year. Periscope module revenue will rise by over 20% year-over-year. Revenue from integrated actuator modules will grow by over 50% year-over-year. These products will deliver stable and predictable profit growth to the business, becoming the core drivers of counter-trend growth in handset sector. The growth trajectory for our client side is clear. Firstly, we continue to increase our overall market share among leading clients, Huawei and Samsung, with this growth primarily concentrated in the product lines.
Secondly, we are achieving continuous growth in cooperation with major overseas clients. With our lens market shares steadily increasing, substantial progress has been made on relevant major projects. More encouragingly, we have expanded our product lines. Revenue from major overseas clients is projected to grow by over 100% in 2026, injecting significant revenue and profit growth into the handset business. In 2026, we anticipate that revenue from handset business will grow by 5%-10% year- on- year, with gross margin for mobile or handset lenses stabilizing at 25%-30%. Gross margin target for handset camera modules at no less than 8%. Next is vehicle business. Vehicle optics have become a core necessity for smart cars.
Driven by AI technology and the concept of software-defined vehicles, smart cars are evolving from a mere means of transport into a third space that encompasses the entire journey. This fundamental shift in nature places high demands on driving safety, resiliency, immersive cabin experience, and natural human-vehicle interaction. Vehicle optical solutions are the core foundation underpinning this industrial transformation. Based on our firm conviction regarding the long-term growth potential of this sector and to further unlock development potential of our vehicle business, our company is pursuing spin-off listing of the vehicle business on the share market with a scale of this public offering not exceeding 15%.
The core objective of this spin-off is to utilize independent capitalized platform to further amplify the industrial value of the vehicle business, attract global talents, and simultaneously introduce cornerstone investors with synergistic industrial resources, thereby deepening our company's global footprint and collaborative capabilities within the vehicle supply chain. Subject to the Hong Kong Exchange disclosure rules requirement of listings, this results presentation will only provide core official information regarding the vehicle business without delving into further details. Please refer to our company's official announcements for subsequent developments.
Thirdly, the 2026 plan for the XR business. In 2026, due to the launch schedule of new AR products by major overseas clients, the AR-related business within the XR segment continued to face pressure, with full-year AR revenue projected at RMB 2 billion. However, we remain confident in the segment's long-term growth, primarily due to two key certainties.
First, due to the support of growth in core business and the expansion of strategic layout. In 2026, we'll continue to deepen cooperation with leading industry clients to consolidate our globally leading market share. Addressing the industry pain points of lightweight and highly integrated AR glasses, we will leverage our accumulated capabilities in optical miniaturization R&D and large-scale mass production to drive the development of ultra-compact optical engines, actuator integration modules, and other products aligning with the new product development lifecycles. With gradual mass production commencing in 2026, with partners, we're jointly developing optical engines for [Skylens] combination products with top international clients, with mass production of these products scheduled for 2027, which is expected to become a key growth driver for the XR business that year.
Furthermore, through our strategic equity stake in [Goertek OLED], we're securing strong footprint in the AR optics sector. In 2026, [Goertek OLED]'s overall revenue will reach a new level. Currently, they are advancing projects with several major consumer electronics clients in AR optics sector. Meanwhile, simultaneously pushing product R&D across various technical paths, bringing enabling solutions for diffractive waveguides. Nano-imprint solutions with different substrate materials such as resin, glass, and SIC support the industrialization of combined products. Regarding the whole device business, we'll continue to iterate on products, scale existing projects, refine our multi-platform capability, and drive breakthroughs in more application scenarios. Secondly, the larger scale proliferation of hardware for real-world AI personal assistants.
The strong growth of overseas clients AR glasses in 2025 has made it clear to us that with the further development of AI technology, real-world AI assistants are moving from concept to core application. For such AI assistant to create real value, the first step is to see the world clearly. Only by accurately perceiving physical scenes through vision can it achieve understanding, decision-making, and value output. The camera is the key configuration of such interactive AI devices, serving as the eyes of AI. The industry is currently exploring a variety of directions, including AI glasses, AI phones, smartphones with visual capability, and desktop hardware. Regardless of which category achieves mass market adoption in the future, visual perception will remain a core feature. Consequently, the logic behind the industry is clear.
As AI technology continues to iterate, demand for AI-assisted real-world scenarios will rise rapidly, driving continued expansion of the consumer AI hardware market and fueling steady growth in camera shipments. At the same time, edge AI vision is subject to stringent constraints regarding computing power consumption, and form factor, with its performance being highly dependent on the quality of raw data from front-end visual perception. Moreover, the more powerful the AI abilities, the higher demands on accuracy, efficiency, and environmental adaptability of visual perception. These factors will drive evolution of cameras towards miniaturization, low power consumption, high dynamic range, high robustness, and low distortion, thereby continuously enhancing technical specifications and value of individual units.
Currently, building upon our core hardware capabilities, we have established a lightweight edge-side vision algorithm system for consumer-grade AI hardware, featuring technological capabilities as edge-side image enhancement, spatial semantic understanding, DOF space pose tracking, and high-precision 3D reconstruction at close range. Through deep synergy between algorithms and hardware, we have established a core competitive advantage based on integration of software and hardware, thereby enhancing added value of our products.
At the same time, we're able to provide customized solutions tailored to clients' diverse needs, thereby continuously strengthening our technological barriers. This represents one of Sunny Optical's high-certainty growth opportunities for the next five years. Fourth is robotics business, a strategic sector in which we are focusing our efforts and will continue to invest carefully. Currently, we have established end-to-end development capabilities ranging from core robotic module to whole device.
For typical applications such as warehouse logistics, lawn mowing, and small pool cleaning. Through in-depth collaboration with industry-leading clients, we're continuously building up core visual perception technologies and refined visual perception systems for humanoid robots. In the future, we will leverage the technical expertise across multiple scenarios to extend our capabilities into more complex scenarios, providing critical visual support for practical implementation of the robotics industry.
In 2026, our pan-IoT revenue grew rapidly, with revenue growth exceeding 60%. The above outlines the strategic positioning and implementation pace of our various business segments. Overall, in 2026, the group's revenue and operating profit are both expected to achieve growth of no less than 7%. Next, I would like to share with you our long-term strategic assessment of the convergence of AI and optics. The core intersection of light and AI, information, a common cornerstone.
Light serves as the fundamental carrier of information in the physical world, while AI represents the intelligence paradigm for information processing. Currently, the focus of competition within AI is shifting from which model is larger or greater computing power to which entity better understands the law governing the evolution of the real world, and which can integrate AI more effectively into real physical systems. Physical systems serve as the core gateway through which AI acquires real-world data. Their performance determines the depth and precision of physical AI's understanding of reality. Based on this judgment, we have divided the evolution of optical perception into three progressive stages, with Sunny Optical having completed the corresponding strategic planning and implementation at each stage. The first stage is seeing the world clearly.
For intelligent systems to perceive the real physical environment in a stable and reliable manner, they must not only recognize the appearance of objects but also grasp their spatial-temporal context. Relying on high-precision optical perception systems, we are constructing a four-dimensional spatial-temporal coordinate system that is perceptible, interactive, and verifiable. Our optical technology capabilities enable AI systems to capture detailed information from the physical world with stability and precision, and our core products in this field have already achieved a leading global position. The second stage is understanding the world. True understanding relies not only on algorithms but also on the information-handling capabilities of sensors. Traditional RGB vision technology struggles to capture the essence of objects. For example, it cannot effectively distinguish between an icy road surface and a wet road surface.
Therefore, technologies such as multi-spectral, hyperspectral, and polarization sensing are required to truly obtain the physical properties of objects, ensuring that understanding is built upon a more reliable foundation of optical perception. Our company's Guangyun AI algorithm platform possesses the capability to research, develop, and implement algorithms for full-chain modeling of optoelectronic imaging, multiple physical information perception, high-precision spatial pose estimation, and 3D scene geometric reconstruction. This enables cross-scenario reuse of core algorithms, providing unified underlying technical support for a wide range of integrated hardware and software solutions.
The third stage involves active participating execution. As the dimensions of visual perception become richer and data volumes increase, the traditional model of committing the entire video stream to the backend processing can no longer meet the needs for low latency, high security operation in real world scenarios. Consequently, optical perception systems evolve towards the sensing computing integrated architecture, deeply integrating to the perception decision execution closed loop, enabling optical modules not only to submit raw video streams, but also to output secured semantic streams.
Through compute power and algorithms integrated at the sensor end, semantic segmentation, causal reasoning, and rapid decision-making are completely augmented locally, forming a low-latency response mechanism. Currently, our warehouse automation systems products, complete robotic systems, and AI industrial cameras have all achieved closed-loop implementation from perception to execution. As I mentioned earlier, with light serving as the carrier of information, optical perception represents the core entry point for data. We'll take this as our starting point and develop a comprehensive strategy along the information chain depicted in the diagram, sensing, transmission, processing, storage, display.
Today, I will focus on the core hub of this chain, the transmission stage, specifically introducing the optical interconnect technology that is of such interest to you all. Our natural extension into the fields of optical interconnect is underpinned by the fact that the manufacturing processes for optical sensing and optical communication devices share a high degree of commonality. The technological and process advantages our company has accumulated over many years in the traditional optical sector can be directly transformed into core support for optical interconnect industry chain, primarily manifested in the following two aspects. First, the reuse of optoelectronic packaging and active alignment technologies.
Our large-scale application of COB processes, as well as our independently developed high-precision six degrees of freedom AA active alignment and adjustment equipment enables submicron coupling and alignment between optical chips, lasers, and optical fibers, ensuring high yield rates and high consistency in optical module packaging.
Secondly, the reuse of ultra-precision micro-nano-optical manufacturing capabilities, leveraging our deep expertise in ultra-precision machining and coating processes, we can mass produce core passive optical interconnect components such as microlens arrays, microprisms, and high-density fiber arrays, meeting the core requirements of low loss and low crosstalk in high-speed optical communications. At the same time, to meet the ever-increasing demand for high-speed interconnects in computing networks and data centers, we have established a strategic focus on silicon-based optoelectronic chip technology. We have already achieved significant milestones in the R&D of core optoelectronic integrated devices, such as high-speed optical modulators and optical switches.
In summary, by leveraging the synergies of these technologies and our forward-looking strategic positioning, we'll be able to establish a clear competitive advantage in the field of optical interconnect. Our core high-precision packaging technology will further evolve into the cornerstone for the future manufacturing of intelligent optoelectronic hybrid sensors and photonic chips, laying a solid foundation for Sunny Optical's rapid development in the AI era. Moving forward, we'll continue to take optics plus AI as our core driving force. Leveraging our robust technical capabilities in engineering and manufacturing expertise, we'll continue to deepen our strategic positioning along the information chain, unlocking long-term growth opportunities for the company. Now we move on to the fourth part, ESG outcomes.
In 2025, we continue to deepen our commitment to ESG, maintaining an AA rating from MSCI ESG, a globally leading position in the industry, while our FTSE Russell ESG score rose from 3.5 to 4.0. At the same time, we formally published our first climate-related disclosure report and updated the group's carbon reduction targets to reach carbon peak emissions by 2028, reduce total carbon emissions by 20% by 2030, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, thereby putting corporate social responsibility into practice through concrete actions. Ladies and gentlemen, investors, the curtain has risen on the AI era. Optics serves as the core gateway through which AI enters the real world. Sunny Optical stands at the very center of this pathway. We possess mature technological expertise, proven business achievements, a clear growth trajectory, and a well-defined long-term strategy.
We very much look forward to working with all of you, our investors, to seize the historic opportunities in the optical industry during the AI era and to witness Sunny Optical's long-term growth together. That concludes my presentation. We'll now move on to the Q&A session. Thank you all.
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Thank you management for the presentation. Now we will proceed to Q&A. If you want to ask questions, please raise your hand and then introduce your name and your organization. The gentleman on the first row on the left, please.
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I'm Huatai Securities' Huang Leping. Congratulations on your very good results. I have two questions. First question, on the last slide. So there are five development stages, AI plus optics development plan. My question is, first, right now, looking at last year's R&D expenses of RMB 2-odd billion, what is your future R&D plan in the future?
Now, most of your revenues are from perception related products. If you want to realize revenue, apart from those perception-based products, what about transmission-based products? How much revenue will be realized in the future?
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Okay. Let me answer your question. Originally, concerning our plan, well, it is made in relation to the industrial operations. Starting 2025, apart from making plans in the industry, our departments, our business departments have made many different plans and deployments. As you know, we will establish many research institutes in Shenzhen, in Europe. Of course, we have other plans which we cannot disclose now. In terms of core semiconductor production and packaging, in areas where this is more advanced, we have already made some plans and deployments.
Our consideration of this matter is that we have been paying attention. Back then, the volume and the scale was not big yet. For optical modules like 100G and so on that are a bit more established than the investments and also the large products are not many. Now opportunities have emerged. Now, for our handset business, it has declined. That is because of the internal storage. Where is inner storage? It has gone to the computing power. For computing power development after that, well, originally, in terms of technology investment and output, return was not that good, but now it has changed to a more positive situation. I have to solve a number of problems. For example, power consumption and also power supply.
That needs new technology. I think now we have a very good solution to the problem. If you talk about the optical transmission, the information volume is a few hundred times, not a few times. When it comes to resources consumed, it is totally different. Now, for computing power center, we have intelligent systems, and now they are very active. How do you put it? I think we need to make use of intelligent ways to enhance and ensure ourselves. We think that this is the broad direction. However, at what time are we going to see how much sales or revenue? Well, I cannot give you an answer now. There are many big manufacturers. If you ask them, not even they can tell you the answer.
I think that it would be quite fast. It is not true that we did not know about it in the past. In the past, the input/output is not satisfactory. Now, everybody is developing in this direction. The big companies are striving to promote this direction. We think that there will be many opportunities. Establishment of research institutes both domestically and overseas is something that we will be working on. In the future, there will be some new updates from us.
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Second question is about XR. Now, for VR, it is already quite stable. For AR, apart from the first one in the U.S., the second manufacturer is also launching many open platforms and new platforms. What do you think about the XR market? This year, revenue declined slightly.
When product format changes from VR to AR, then what will be the change in the volume for you? In the AR product line, if volume rises, then at what time do we need to pay attention to what so as to embrace an explosion stage? Thank you.
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Now, looking at the current situation for VR, it is already fixed in shape. It is an expansion screen, mainly to solve the gaming experience and scenario needs. In the market, there are already many products in use. For example, Quest series that you know, Apple Vision Pro. And also in recent years, for whole device plant, a lot of immersive glasses have been produced. Whether these products can sell or not, how much is the DU, how many...
What is the number of DU? For Vision Pro, the first day I bought it, I found it very exciting. I spent the whole afternoon working with it. On the second day, I spent two more hours to sort things out. On the third day, I find it too heavy. Afterwards, I no longer used it. It is a good product. Of course, you can use this kind of glasses in other scenarios. Now, for VR, where in the past, the perspective was about experience. Now I think everybody's quite clear of it. I don't think there is the possibility of achieving breakthrough in volume growth. For AR it's different. It is still evolving.
For new products, new launches, there are many. As we all know, international big clients gave different numbers and they are achieving a leap forward. For companies that are not working on hardware, they may have too rosy picture about the world, but things are not that fast, really. The mentality has changed. In the past, we're talking about display, but later on when there are new products launch, it is not related to display anymore. For display, I think it is about information delivery. It is still needed. I think XR is going to see very good development. With these glasses, they're used to acquire and collect data. I think this kind of uses will increase. Besides, it is like the AI brain. It is then connected to your own brain.
It is like a hub linking these two sides. If this is the perspective, then I think the AR glasses will see very good development. Of course, we need other favorable market circumstances. When it comes to a volume explosion, just now the investor asked a question. There are other big companies doing a lot of promotion. Our plan is that we will start mass production in 2027. Now we are doing preparation because there are many ecological or ecosystem software issues. There are more and more companies participating in the field. This shows that this industry will develop even faster. In the past, I thought it would happen five years later, but then now it would be within five years. I think within or after two to three years, we'll see a stage change.
That would be the situation.
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Next question, please. The gentleman on the first row.
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Thank you, management. I am Tony Zhang from CLSA. Recently, I can see that your company has cooperation with different subsidiaries in terms of equity. For example, the vehicle business. Now regarding investment strategy, in which areas will you cooperate with external parties? Are you going to bring in new investors? And which new business development will you aim at? What is the outlook and plan, please?
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Right. In my results presentation just now, basically, I had already given clear explanation on this point. For vehicles, we would bring in many ecosystem supply chain working partners. Now, at present, we would like to make our company more open, and then we hope to achieve win-win with more synergy in ecosystem development.
In the past, we did not have this kind of equity or shareholding change. For example, M&A or spin-off or collaboration. We did very little in the past, but in the future we'll do more of this. We think that in this world we cannot only rely on ourself fighting the battle. We have to work with the ecosystem so as to achieve further development. Then we can each party can capitalize on its own strength. That is a better method. Well, I also explained about some new technologies. You will notice that some technologies are developed jointly by us and our partners. That would be better.
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All right, next question. The gentleman over there. On the first row.
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Thank you. My name is Hu Guoqiang . I talk about optics plus AI. That slide with the five components.
You have a saying that optics and AI being combined, this is the future era, so now we are in the perceptual dimension. Just now you also said that in the future you will gradually extend from physical world to transmission processing and even intelligent agent. My question is, for Sunny Optical in the future, regarding value layout, how is your plan and deployment? For the long cycle, in which areas will you focus more on in your development? Thank you.
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This is a very good question. This is also an important issue in our long-term strategic plan and consideration. Internally, we have gone through a lot of discussion and consideration. Now what we have described includes things that we have considered. How should we explain in easier terms?
I think I can talk about the change process of our thinking and also our collaboration plan. We work on mass production optical products. I think you have much understanding. In the past, you saw our large scale production, highly efficient production and automated production, large scale production. Many of our technologies are developed towards this direction. In the next stage, first of all, we'll continue to insist on this direction. Because it doesn't only bring us cash flow, it is also a fundamental support for our long-term development. However, with the AI era, we know that between optics and AI, there can be favorable combination for joint development. Of course, we have to give deeper thoughts to this matter. Regarding mass production, precise large-scale production, we will turn it to production and system solutions.
Both will coexist. A few years ago we started to make this point already. That means we want to develop towards system solutions, and the core is software and algorithm. What is the difference between other people's software and algorithm? This is a problem that we need to solve. We focus on optical perception, optical solutions. Regarding software and hardware, our core modules and optical instruments, well, they can be strongly connected with our algorithm and other capabilities. We can enhance its efficiency and also it can achieve low latency. A few years ago, I already said that our microscope image detection AI software is even faster in recognizing image than many internationally acclaimed AI professors. I asked how come that's the case?
That professor said that this is definitely possible because you are using hardware and optical parameters, so efficiency can be enhanced. Your algorithm speed is faster than mine, so this is definitely possible. Optical front-end hardware and the rear-end software algorithm are combined. I think we have the advantages comparing with the pure software. In the future, optical perception intelligence system, I think this will play a very important role. That's the first point. Secondly, we are working on optical hardware and core components, so that means we use the optical method to reach evolution. Many technologies are actually common. In the future, the algorithm will be multidimensional information collection. Now we are RTP, and then I think you know, future evolution and future.
In the future physical information and then, spectral information and so on. In the future will be a perception intelligent agent, on multi dimensions. I think that is our broad development direction. In the future, our glasses and our personal assistants will be equipped with these. The second area. Well, if you refer to this slide, after perception transmission, if you talk about these technologies. Perception, transmission seem to be separate. However, many fundamental technologies are the same. We are talking about the, optical glass, functionality. We always consider different, light sources and also optoelectronic, conversion. Basically, when it comes to transmission, storage, computing, these are all related, and we have to make use of the unique characteristics of optics, to do the work.
In the future, in the area of optics, technology, we will achieve more breakthrough, and we'll do more research so that in the future, in the AI era, our capability and technology can meet the huge needs. These are our two directions. One is the perception intelligent agent. Second, on the foundation of optics, we will expand and lay out the fundamental pathway so that in the future, in the AI era, we will possess strong optical fundamental capabilities. We'll become a optical perception intelligent agent company.
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Okay, next question, please. The lady in the second row.
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I'm Bernstein Alex . My question is about AI optical communication. In the future, will your products be within traditional optical modules, or it will be in CPU packaging technology?
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Well, the direction is definitely the latter one.
It is possible that in the former one there might be some connection, but we will definitely develop towards the latter direction because if I still focus on the former one, then it is not that meaningful.
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Okay. In the PPT, you listed out some processes. In which area are you going to increase volume? Is it about coating or the micro lens? Have you set strategies to build a research institute, or is it true that your products are already in later stage research and then next year, the year after next year, there'll be commercialization?
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I don't know how to differentiate the stage. Definitely, we are not in planning stage.
We are not in the planning stage because I, as I said earlier, we already have colleagues doing the advanced work. Because it was still early back then. Now there are more and more opportunities. People come and ask whether we can do this and that. In last year, no one asked these questions, so people still have a lot of doubts. What is the value behind? People still have doubts, but this year it seems that the situation is different. The technology is different. There are some investor companies which are very good. Their products are already used very widely, so we have to seize the parts in which we are more competent in. We should not do things that we are not strong in.
If you talk about optical modules, right now, the light is very small. The light engine is very small. The others are points. We will connect this with optoelectronic conversion. You just talked about optical fiber matrix and so on, those are our major directions. I believe we're actually in 2027, 2028, there'll be a lot of new things coming out. Of course, we have to work with our clients. We do have internal plans and schedule, I think it is not the right time to disclose it yet.
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My next question is about handset. Overseas handset customers, this year may enjoy big increase in revenue. Is it true that it is related to North America variable aperture or that there is some progress with Korean customers?
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Well, I did not mention the North American customers and Korean customers. Definitely it is a big customer overseas, and there is some certainty in the growth. You cannot say more because otherwise if I give too much details, I will be fined.
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Okay. Thank you. The lady on the fourth row. Because of time, this will be our last question.
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Thank you. Good morning. I'm Wen H anj ng from CICC. Because of time limits, I will ask a more detailed question. This year, we can see that storage has caused impact to consumer electronics. For high-end camera this year, there won't be a big threat to the business. This year, regarding handsets, regarding pressure faced, if you do a breakdown in different price ranges, what do you think? Thank you.
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Okay. Handsets, correct?
You want me to talk about handsets? Okay. For handsets, you are worried about sales decline. As I already said just now. We will not suffer from a decline. Of course, we have to work hard, and we will be able to achieve our established plan and targets. Well, just now, one question was about overseas big clients. I won't talk about it. For our Chinese clients, they did not all decline. There are companies which enjoyed very good growth. For that company, we also have very good business relationship. With their growth, we also will enjoy growth together. This is a very important point. Such growth is high-end as well. You know about that customer. There is this only client for a Chinese brand that is growing.
At the end of last year, their plan was 50% growth. In the first half this year, they will still have some new plans coming out. Under these circumstances, it is not easy to achieve such high growth, so there will still be growth. For our storage issue, some people are of the view that in the second half of the year, it will be alleviated, especially starting from Q4. The point is for new storage solutions, are there any other new storage solutions that will come out? I think that things will not happen all of a sudden. In Q4 last year, all of a sudden, they realized that there was not enough. That's not possible. I think the tight situation has been there already.
In the future, I think, there would be some alleviation. For handsets, we do admit that this year, this business is not good. In fact, the situation is very painful. Many people have changed to other business or industries. Okay, I think we have taken a lot of time already.
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Okay. We will conclude our presentation here. Thank you for your participation.