watch nowRobots on the factory floor. Self-driving vehicles on the Las Vegas strip. Even a substitute for man's best friend — the robotic dog.They are all part of the physical artificial intelligence buildout that depends on high-tech, low-cost lidar, the critical sensors that allow these technologies to see their surroundings.A Hesai lidar sensor.CNBCAnd at the heart of this buildout is Hesai Technology, a Shanghai-based lidar manufacturer blacklisted as a national security threat in 2024 by the U.S. Department of Defense, which designated Hesai as a Chinese military entity. While the blacklist prevents Hesai and the 187 other companies and subsidiaries on the list from securing Pentagon contracts, there is nothing illegal about using these products in nonmilitary applications. Hesai's presence on the blacklist does not prevent U.S. companies from using Hesai's technology.Government officials and security experts say the use of Chinese lidar could open this new, critical infrastructure to cyberthreats with potentially serious consequences and become a backdoor for Beijing to access sensitive data collected by the lidar technology. David Li, Hesai's co-founder and CEO, says the narrative that his company poses a threat is fiction.David Li, Hesai's co-founder and CEO.
Chinese lidar maker with Nvidia ties accused of being cyber risk for U.S.
Hesai Technology was blacklisted as a national security threat in 2024 by the U.S. Department of Defense, which designated Hesai as a Chinese military entity.
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