Ouster Buys Stereolabs to Build Unified LiDAR-Camera Platform for “Physical AI”

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Ouster NYSE: OUST used a conference call to outline its acquisition of Stereolabs, positioning the deal as a step toward a “unified sensing and perception platform” aimed at enabling what executives repeatedly described as “Physical AI.” The call featured Ouster CEO Angus Pacala, CFO Ken Gianella, and Stereolabs co-founder and CEO Cecile Schmollgruber.

Deal rationale: combining LiDAR, cameras, compute, and software

Pacala said Ouster, which “invented Digital LiDAR in 2015,” has shipped nearly 150,000 sensors to more than 1,000 customers worldwide and has pursued a diversified strategy across automotive, industrial, smart infrastructure, and robotics. He highlighted Ouster’s acquisition of Velodyne in 2023 and the subsequent release of smart infrastructure software products Gemini and Blue City.

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With the acquisition of Stereolabs, Pacala said Ouster now offers “Physical AI’s first unified sensing and perception platform,” combining “high-performance digital LiDAR, cameras, AI compute, sensor fusion and perception software, and cutting-edge AI models.” He argued that as industries move from “simple automation towards physical AI,” customers increasingly want to fuse LiDAR and camera data for safety and performance across conditions.

Pacala described LiDAR as providing depth accuracy and strong performance in “dark and obscured conditions,” while cameras provide “high-resolution context, color, and texture.” He said Ouster and Stereolabs are bringing “complex system development under a single roof,” including sensor design, compute, software, and system validation, with the goal of ensuring components work seamlessly together for customers.

Stereolabs overview and customer footprint

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Schmollgruber said she co-founded Stereolabs in 2010 with a focus on enabling machines to “see, think, act, and learn.” She described the company’s portfolio as including industrial-grade ZED cameras, AI compute “powered by NVIDIA’s platform,” and in-house AI vision software. She said the ZED cameras provide 2D and 3D color data with low latency and, combined with Stereolabs’ Neural Depth Engine, can deliver “up to 10 times sensing price-to-performance advantage over traditional cameras.”

Schmollgruber added that Stereolabs has shipped over 90,000 ZED cameras to more than 10,000 customers across 75 countries, serving robotics, industrial, and smart infrastructure use cases. She also emphasized Stereolabs’ developer ecosystem, saying “many thousands of developers” rely on its perception software and AI models. She said Stereolabs’ co-founders Edwin Azzam and Olivier Braun will continue to lead the Stereolabs team, with an emphasis on continuity for products, customers, and the developer community.

What changes for customers: sensor fusion “ready today” and a new software layer

During Q&A, Pacala said the combined sensor fusion offering is available immediately. Responding to a question about maturity and timelines, he said the “sensor fusion platform is ready to get today,” citing a demonstration using “four ZED X cameras fused with an Ouster OS1” in an automated forklift, available via the ZED SDK.

Pacala said a key customer benefit is reducing the need for customers to act as system integrators. He described the historical burden of sourcing components, enabling sensors to communicate, and building software for fusion, calibration, and visualization. He said the combined offering is intended to deliver “seamless, synchronized, and calibrated data on day one,” along with Ouster’s global support from prototype to production.

Pacala also described how Stereolabs fits into Ouster’s product strategy. He said Ouster has historically had a “barbell strategy” of hardware on one end and targeted end solutions like Gemini and Blue City on the other, while Stereolabs has invested in the “middle layer,” which he referred to as an “autonomy stack” and middleware for safety-critical sensor fusion and AI-based perception. Pacala said Ouster expects to build a three-tier strategy spanning:

• Hardware (LiDAR, cameras, and AI compute)
• Middleware (autonomy stack, sensor fusion, and AI algorithms)
• End solutions (including Gemini and Blue City, and potentially future products)

AI training, simulation, and competitive positioning

Executives from both companies emphasized proprietary AI training efforts. Pacala said Ouster’s Gemini and Blue City incorporate training data from “over 4 million labeled objects” and have been validated at “over 800 sites.” He also said Stereolabs’ Neural Depth Engine was trained using “over 10 million images” drawn from a mix of simulated and real-world industrial environments, and that Stereolabs has made a significant investment in simulation that Ouster expects to apply more broadly internally.

Asked about competitive differentiation, Pacala said the company believes it is “in a class of our own right now” with a combined offering of “seamless LiDAR camera and AI compute with all the algorithms to go with it,” adding that Ouster’s selection of Stereolabs among vision companies was deliberate.

Financial terms, timing, and operations

Gianella said Stereolabs is a “high-growth, high-margin business” and provided unaudited fiscal year 2025 results indicating revenue “upwards of $16 million” with positive EBITDA. He said the acquisition was completed using $35 million in cash on hand and 1,800,000 shares, with a portion of the shares vesting over four years.

Gianella said the deal will be accounted for as a business combination and that Ouster expects to begin consolidating Stereolabs’ financial results in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. He noted Ouster’s fiscal 2025 earnings call is scheduled for March 2, and that fourth quarter fiscal 2025 results will not include Stereolabs. He added that Ouster’s first quarter 2026 results (period ending March 31) will include approximately seven weeks of Stereolabs operations.

On manufacturing and operational synergies, Pacala said Stereolabs has built an “incredibly efficient” business with a small operations team, while Ouster expects to contribute manufacturing and operations expertise, potentially supporting scale, quality, and cost reductions.

About Ouster NYSE: OUST

Ouster, Inc is a leading provider of high-resolution digital lidar sensors, software and services designed to enable advanced perception capabilities across a range of industries. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, the company develops modular lidar solutions that capture precise three-dimensional data in real time, supporting applications from autonomous vehicles and robotics to mapping, smart infrastructure and industrial automation.

The company's core product lineup features multi-beam digital lidar units available in various form factors, including compact models for robotics and drones and larger units for automotive and mapping systems.

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