Cognex Corporation has agreed to acquire RealSense, the depth-sensing camera and robotic perception company Intel spun out in 2025, for approximately $500 million in cash, the companies announced today. The deal pulls RealSense's 3D perception hardware, used in fixed-arm robotics, autonomous mobile robots, quadrupeds and humanoids, under the same roof as Cognex's 2D and 3D machine vision systems.
Matt Moschner, president and CEO of Cognex, said the acquisition positions the combined company to offer a "full-stack visual intelligence platform, spanning industrial ID, 2D and 3D machine vision measurement to 3D depth perception and robotic navigation." Nadav Orbach, CEO of RealSense, described the company's mission as building the "Visual Cortex of Physical AI" and said joining Cognex gives it access to a global industrial customer base it would have taken years to build alone. For engineers already running Cognex vision systems for inline inspection and gauging, the deal signals depth-sensing and robotic navigation are headed toward the same platform used for measurement and defect detection, not a separate product line.
Cognex is entering the robotic perception market, which it estimates at $600 million today and expects to grow more than 25 percent annually to roughly $1.6 billion by 2030. RealSense is projected to generate $80 million to $90 million in revenue in 2026, more than 50 percent growth over the prior year, according to the companies. Dennis Fehr, Cognex's CFO, called the transaction "highly aligned with our disciplined M&A strategy" and said RealSense is expected to be accretive to Cognex's growth profile over time.
The financing comes entirely from Cognex's existing cash and investments. As part of the deal, Cognex plans a three-year, $56.5 million cash retention program for RealSense employees, subject to performance modifiers, plus restricted stock units valued at approximately $50 million under its 2023 Stock Option and Incentive Plan. Evercore advised Cognex on the transaction. Before the deal closes, expected in the fourth quarter of 2026, RealSense will spin off its Facial Authentication product line into a separate, independent company focused on the biometrics market.
