Ouster (OUST): Gemini Lidar Perception Software Adds Renewal Revenue, Over 550 Sites

On August 6, 2026, lidar maker Ouster (OUST) said on its earnings call that Gemini, its lidar perception software for monitoring physical sites, has become a standard for sensing and perception and gives smart infrastructure customers a real-time digital twin. That statement was qualitative only: the most recent figures for site count and renewal revenue still date from the prior quarter [1].

What Gemini does and how Ouster sells it

Ouster, Inc. (OUST) is headquartered in San Francisco. It designs and sells digital lidar sensors to customers in the automotive, industrial, robotics and smart infrastructure markets, and most of its revenue comes from sensor hardware. Gemini is the perception software it sells to site operators in logistics parks, security, transportation and large venues. The software uses deep learning AI models to read lidar point-cloud data, detects, classifies and tracks the people, vehicles and objects on a site in real time, and aggregates the analytics in the cloud [2]. It raises an automatic alert when someone enters a restricted zone or an area becomes overcrowded, replacing monitoring work that used to rely on cameras, radar or inductive loops. Gemini is sold alongside the sensors as a subscription license and sits inside smart infrastructure, a core business for the company.

From bundled sales to renewal revenue named by management

Ouster's public disclosure on Gemini started with bundled hardware-and-software sales and moved step by step to renewal revenue that management attributed to the product by name.

• November 9, 2023: Ouster said it had added new deep learning perception models to Gemini, that its software covered over 375 licensed sites, and that it had signed a contract to deploy lidar and Gemini subscription licenses at approximately 130 logistics sites. That figure is the contracted scope; the number of sites already live was not disclosed [2].
• March 26, 2024: the company added that those approximately 130 sites represent only approximately 5% of that customer's global footprint [3].
• August 7, 2025: expansion was backed by actual deployment for the first time. A long-time customer had deployed Gemini at hundreds of facilities and, driven by performance improvements from new algorithms, was testing new use cases that require more sensors [4].
• May 5, 2026: management gave a global site count measured on Gemini's own basis and attributed a renewal revenue item in the quarter directly to the software [5].
• August 6, 2026: Gemini kept the same name and the same task. After acquiring Stereolabs, a camera and AI vision company, Ouster did not fold Gemini into another product. Management instead stressed less technical, easy-to-deploy turnkey solutions [1].

What the figure of over 550 sites measures

Over 550 sites is the first deployment figure in the past three years that is stated on Gemini's own basis. Management said Gemini helps customers operate more efficiently and safely at those sites [5]. The figure counts sites. It does not say how many customers or sensors those sites represent, or how intensively the software is used, and the efficiency and safety gains are described only in qualitative terms.

The figure cannot be compared directly with the over 375 licensed sites from 2023. That earlier count covered licensed sites for the company's software and did not say whether it included only Gemini, so subtracting one figure from the other does not give Gemini's site growth.

How the deployments reach revenue, and what is undisclosed

The financial line these deployments map to is revenue, specifically the software subscription and renewal revenue tied to Gemini within the smart infrastructure business. A new site brings sensor hardware revenue and an initial software license, and a site that keeps running brings renewal revenue. If an existing customer turns on new use cases that need more sensors at sites it already has, the revenue per site could also rise.

On the first-quarter 2026 earnings call, management said Ouster recognized millions of dollars of revenue in the quarter from a significant customer renewal and attributed it to Gemini [5]. That is the first evidence on this path that has been explicitly recognized as revenue. The amount is not exact, however, and it involves a single customer. The earlier millions of dollars of "software coupled sales" were measured on a bundled hardware-and-software basis and also included another software product, BlueCity [3].

Ouster has never separately disclosed Gemini's total revenue, its recurring revenue or its gross margin. That makes it impossible to judge Gemini's contribution to total revenue, and a renewal rate cannot be inferred from one renewal.

What is confirmed, and what would settle the question of scale

What can be confirmed today is that Gemini has moved from being a selling point that helps ship hardware to a stage where it contributes revenue through renewals. What remains open is scale. The latest quarterly call did not update the site count, the customer count or revenue [1]. That only shows the company gave no new figures this period; it does not indicate whether deployment is slowing or accelerating.

Telling whether that renewal was an isolated large deal or a sign that the business has reached scale requires Ouster to disclose Gemini's software revenue separately and to update the site count on the same basis as the over 550 sites.

Application assessment

• Ouster Gemini Smart Infrastructure Perception | Business role: core business | Deployment stage: limited production | Scope: single business unit | Value type: revenue growth

Sources

[1] Drillr · Ouster, Inc. (OUST) · 2026-08-06 · Earnings call

"Since its launch in 2023, we have established Gemini as a standard for sensing and perception, providing the real-time digital twin necessary for our smart infrastructure customers to increase their efficiency and safety."

[2] Drillr · Ouster, Inc. (OUST) · 2023-11-09 · Earnings call

"Expanding software adoption to over 375 licensed sites and booking millions of dollars worth of software coupled sales, where cameras, radar or inductive loops have been used in the past."

[3] Drillr · Ouster, Inc. (OUST) · 2024-03-26 · Earnings call

"For example, within smart infrastructure, Ouster was selected by a leading global logistics company for a multi-million dollar deal to deploy our digital lidar hardware coupled with Ouster Gemini at approximately 130 logistics sites. This represents approximately 5% of this customer's global footprint."

[4] Drillr · Ouster, Inc. (OUST) · 2025-08-07 · Earnings call

"One of our long-time customers has deployed Ouster Gemini at hundreds of facilities and driven by performance improvements from new Gemini AI algorithms, this customer is now testing new high-value use cases, which require more than quadruple the number of sensors per site."

[5] Drillr · Ouster, Inc. (OUST) · 2026-05-05 · Earnings call

"Leveraging our unified platform and proprietary deep learning perception model trained on over 4 million labeled objects, Gemini empowers our customers to operate more efficiently and safely at over 550 sites around the world."