Underwater robot orders surge, but why is only half the business case settled?

The underwater robot sector saw a concentration of financing and orders in 2026: Shihang Intelligent's orders for the year exceeded 1 billion yuan; Shenhai Zhiren signed 8 work-class ROVs in South America and Southeast Asia with total contracts of 300 million yuan; and Ouka Zhibo won two consecutive water-area cleaning projects totaling about 27.17 million yuan. The article uses Shenhai Zhiren, Weilan Shenhai, and Ouka Zhibo to represent three hurdles—selling equipment, completing tasks, and replicating platforms—and notes that scarce underwater data, unproven stable profits, and a shortage of onshore engineering talent remain the parts of the industry that have not been settled.