MEMSIC Takes the Stage at SENSOR CHINA 2026 Opening Forum and Wins the “Sensing Force of the Year” Award

SENSOR CHINA 2026 opened at the Shanghai Cross-Border Sourcing Convention & Exhibition Center on September 16. MEMSIC made a high-profile appearance at the Sensor Industry High-Quality Development Forum, the opening forum of SENSOR CHINA 2026, where it joined industry peers to explore cutting-edge trends and innovation directions within the intelligent sensing sector. At the concurrent awards ceremony of the International Intelligent Sensing New-Quality Innovation Competition, MEMSIC was honored with the “Sensing Force of the Year” Award for its profound technological accumulation, sustained innovation capacity and industrial influence.

As China’s first professional exhibition dedicated to intelligent sensing systems and solutions, SENSOR CHINA has grown hand in hand with the sensor industry since its launch in 2016 and is now counted among the world’s three major sensor expos. This year’s opening forum featured an impressive lineup of speakers, including Distinguished Foreign Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Min Gu, Yuansheng Guo, Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Committee of the Central Committee of the Jiu San Society and Fellow of the American Academy of Artificial Intelligence, Weijia Zhong, Product Director of Siemens Xcelerator China, and Jian Lu, CEO of MEMSIC, alongside other distinguished academic and industrial representatives.

It was a rare opportunity for top experts and corporate leaders to share insights at the same forum, covering forward-looking topics such as optical neuromorphic intelligence, sensor-AI integration, industrial agents and the evolution of sensing technologies. Jian Lu delivered a keynote speech titled Building the Foundation with Sensing, Embracing a New AI World. He thoroughly analyzed the transformation directions and development opportunities of the sensor industry amid the AI wave, bringing the session to a climax.

AI Reshaping the Sensor Industry: From “Data Collection” to “Participation in Decision-Making”

Nearly every major technological innovation relies on sensors. As industries and applications grow increasingly intelligent, driven notably by AI, sensors are evolving from auxiliary components into fundamental resources. The massive volumes of data required for AI operations are continuously extracted from the physical world by sensors, and the data collected by sensors forms an essential foundation for AI advancement.

Market forecasts reflect this shift. The global AI sensing technology market is projected to expand from USD 4.626 billion in 2025–2026 to USD 16.37 billion by 2032, representing a growth rate of 253.9%. By contrast, the traditional MEMS motion sensor market will record a compound annual growth rate of only 6.1% over the same period. This contrast signals that the industry’s growth engine is rapidly shifting toward AI.

At the industrial level, AI impacts the sector along three dimensions: intelligence, integration and ecosystem development. Take geomagnetic sensors, where MEMSIC holds global leadership. When single-point directional measurement is upgraded into a sensor matrix combined with algorithms, the system gains spatial perception capabilities. Instead of outputting only discrete physical quantities, sensors generate event and spatial information and begin supporting judgment and decision-making.

Against this backdrop, sensor companies in the AI era must fulfill three roles: precision manufacturing specialists proficient in processes and products; translators bridging physical signals and digital intelligence; and technology innovators who embrace AI and enable on-device data collection, processing and analysis.

Accelerated Localization: Building Competitive Moats Through Long-Term Accumulation

From a competitive landscape perspective, the localization rate of core categories including magnetic sensors and inertial sensors remains below 15%, with international giants continuing to dominate high-end markets. Scaling sensor production cannot rely merely on capital investment; it demands years of accumulated process know-how, product expertise, quality systems and customer trust. For MEMSIC, closing the gap with global leaders and capturing opportunities brought by intelligentization remains a long-term commitment.

While import substitution brings growth dividends for local sensor manufacturers, competitive pressure has not diminished. Following successful localization, companies face fiercer head-to-head competition with domestic peers. To gain an edge in this new round of competition, firms must strengthen control over supply chains, industrial chains and manufacturing processes, consistently uphold product quality, and compete in global markets through continuous innovation.

For its manufacturing strategy, MEMSIC adopts the Fab-Lite model. The sensor industrial chain is long, capital-intensive and highly customized. Accordingly, MEMSIC concentrates resources on the most critical front-end and core back-end stages of production. The underlying logic is straightforward: front-end processes define product performance, while back-end operations determine product quality.

26 Years & 4.6 Billion Shipped Units: Humanoid Robots Bring New Variables

With 26 years of experience in automotive-grade applications, MEMSIC has shipped more than 4.6 billion chips in total, including over 3 billion consumer-grade units. In the Android device market, MEMSIC’s geomagnetic sensors hold over 40% market share, and its accelerometers exceed 30% market share. These achievements rest on the world-exclusive thermal sensor patent technology, globally leading capacity and shipment scale for AMR magnetic sensors, and ultra-low-power capacitive MEMS products.

Two application milestones further demonstrate MEMSIC’s technological strength. First, MEMSIC’s automotive-grade geomagnetic sensors have been adopted aboard multiple satellites worldwide, withstanding harsh environments including cosmic rays. Second, within AI medical care, three leading high-end medical device manufacturers are collaborating with MEMSIC on custom matrix sensors. These enable precise in-vivo positioning via spatial sensing and support the safe deployment of AI medical applications.

Looking ahead, humanoid robots are poised to become one of the most important growth markets for the sensor industry. A single humanoid robot may require roughly 100 encoders. Based on the long-term scenario of three humanoid robots per person, the relevant market could reach the trillion-RMB scale and potentially become another ultra-large market following CIS and memory chips.

To address this emerging demand, MEMSIC is advancing three product lines in tandem: 6-axis gyroscopes, encoders and eOIS image stabilization driver chips to further expand market reach. In the AI era, MEMSIC positions itself as a provider of space-time references and state anchors, a key enabler for edge AI and intelligent sensing, and a technical consultant dedicated to enhancing user experience. It connects the physical world with digital intelligence through sensing technology.

Industry Recognition: MEMSIC Wins the “Sensing Force of the Year” Award

At the SENSOR CHINA 2026 China Sensing Industry Night and International Intelligent Sensing New-Quality Innovation Competition Awards Ceremony held on the evening of September 16, MEMSIC received the “Sensing Force of the Year” Award. Having served the industry for more than a decade, SENSOR CHINA presents this honor to salute “every force in sensing” and recognize trailblazers who deliver breakthroughs from zero to one for their pioneering spirit.

This accolade resonates deeply with MEMSIC’s journey. Twenty-six years ago, the company embarked on MEMS development. Through 26 years of automotive-grade engineering and cumulative shipments of 4.6 billion chips, it has emerged as a pioneer among domestic sensor makers. It has carved out a unique technical path with its globally exclusive thermal sensor patents, secured its competitive standing with the world’s largest-capacity and highest-volume AMR magnetic sensors as well as ultra-low-power capacitive MEMS devices. Moreover, its automotive-grade geomagnetic sensors have endured cosmic radiation for space missions, extending the frontier of Chinese intelligent sensing into outer space.

From pioneering new technical routes to opening up new application fields, MEMSIC interprets the true meaning of the “Sensing Force of the Year” through repeated zero-to-one breakthroughs — and the story of Chinese sensor innovation is still unfolding.