Espressif Systems
About
About Espressif Systems
Espressif Systems was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Shanghai. The public fabless semiconductor company listed on the Shanghai STAR Market in 2019 and develops RISC-V and Xtensa-based SoCs, modules, development boards, operating software and cloud-connected tooling. Official company data reports more than 1.5 billion cumulative IoT SoC shipments across all markets.
Robotics exposure comes from the combination of low-cost embedded compute, wireless connectivity and a large open-source developer ecosystem. ESP32 devices can handle peripheral control, communications, machine vision preprocessing and local AI workloads inside robots, but they are not complete autonomy systems. Existing supply evidence links Espressif chips to named robotic products, while the broader installed base spans consumer and industrial IoT. Korthos therefore tracks the repeatable enabling layer without assigning the full shipment total to robotics.
Operations
Output & shipments
- Shipments
2025-12-31 - Espressif reported more than 1.5 billion cumulative global IoT-chip shipments across its full portfolio; this is a company-wide AIoT figure, not a robotics-only total. - all Espressif IoT chip families and end markets
Source
Supply
Supply chain relationships
- Holybro
Outbound - electronics and robotics components - The Bluetooth-equipped Holybro Kakute H7 V1.5 uses an Espressif ESP32-C3; a no-Bluetooth version is also sold
Source - Chestnut Robotics
Outbound - Compute & Control - Chestnut Robotics Aero Hand Open uses an Espressif ESP32-S3 onboard microcontroller
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare RoArm-M1 incorporates a Espressif ESP32-WROOM-32 controller
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare UGV Beast Raspberry Pi AI Kit integrates an Espressif ESP32 motion controller on its driver board
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare UGV01 configurations with the General Driver board use Espressif ESP32 controller
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare WAVEGO Pro uses an Espressif ESP32-D0WDQ6-V3 controller
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare UGV Rover Jetson Orin AI Kit integrates an Espressif ESP32 motion controller on its driver board
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare UGV Rover Raspberry Pi AI Kit integrates an Espressif ESP32 motion controller on its driver board
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare UGV Beast Jetson Orin AI Kit integrates an Espressif ESP32 motion controller on its driver board
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare RaspRover integrates an Espressif ESP32 motion controller on its driver board
Source - Yahboom
Outbound - Connectivity - Yahboom MicroROS Self-balancing Robot uses Espressif ESP32 for wireless communication
Source - Hiwonder
Outbound - Compute & Control - Hiwonder miniAuto Pro uses Espressif ESP32 control, with ESP32-P4/C5 in its WonderLLM AI configuration
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare WAVE ROVER uses an Espressif ESP32 controller
Source - RadioMaster
Outbound - Compute & Control - RadioMaster specifies Espressif ESP32 controllers in current ELRS receivers and modules
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare WAVEGO uses a Espressif ESP32 controller on its driver board
Source - Hiwonder
Outbound - Compute & Control - Hiwonder NexArm ROS uses an Espressif ESP32 controller
Source - Arduino
Outbound - Compute & Control - Arduino Alvik uses an Espressif ESP32-S3 processor in its included Nano ESP32 controller
Source - Hiwonder
Outbound - Compute & Control - Hiwonder xArm AI uses Espressif ESP32 in its CoreX controller
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare HexArth incorporates a Espressif ESP32-WROOM-32 controller
Source - Hiwonder
Outbound - Compute & Control - Hiwonder LeArm AI uses an Espressif ESP32 controller
Source - Yahboom
Outbound - Sensing - Yahboom PALMSLAM integrates an Espressif ESP32 processor in its lidar expansion board
Source - Hiwonder
Outbound - Compute & Control - Hiwonder NexArm ROS Mobile Chassis Kit uses an Espressif ESP32 controller
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare RoArm-M2-GA incorporates a Espressif ESP32-WROOM-32 controller
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare RoArm-M3 uses a Espressif ESP32-WROOM-32 controller on its driver board
Source - Hiwonder
Outbound - Compute & Control - Hiwonder MechDog AI uses Espressif ESP32 control and an ESP32-S3 AI module
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare UGV02 incorporates a Espressif ESP32 controller
Source - Waveshare
Outbound - Compute & Control - Waveshare RoArm-M2-S incorporates a Espressif ESP32-WROOM-32 controller
Source - Hiwonder
Outbound - Compute & Control - Hiwonder NexArm ROS Sliding Rail VLA Kit uses an Espressif ESP32 controller
Source - Flywoo
Outbound - Communications - Flywoo specifies the Espressif ESP8285 MCU in its integrated ELRS receiver
Source
Funding
- 2018-05-09 - Private investment - Intel Capital and Beijing Singularity Power co-lead investment in Espressif
Espressif received an amount-undisclosed investment co-led by Intel Capital and Beijing Singularity Power Investment Fund. - source: espressif.com
Investors
- Beijing Singularity Power Investment Fund - Participant - VC - 1 funding event - first seen 2018-05-09
- Intel Capital - Participant - Corporate / CVC - 1 funding event - strategic/corporate - first seen 2018-05-09
Financials
- 688018.SS - Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market - CNY
Team
- Teo Swee Ann - Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Founder, board chair and chief executive of Espressif.
- Wang Jue - Board Secretary - Executive management and corporate-governance contact.
- Shao Jingbo - Financial Director - Current executive responsible for the company’s finance function.
Timeline
Events
- 2018-05-09 - Funding - Intel Capital and Beijing Singularity Power co-lead investment in Espressif
Espressif explicitly identified Intel Capital and Beijing Singularity Power Investment Fund as co-leads. The company did not disclose the investment amount or a valuation. Espressif said the financing would strengthen research and development and support expansion in artificial intelligence and IoT solutions.
Source
Relations
Relationships
- M5Stack
Majority Owner - Espressif acquired a majority stake in M5Stack, extending its ESP32-centered modular hardware and developer ecosystem.
Context
Comparable profiles
- Skyworks
comparable profile - Wireless Semiconductors
- Peraso
comparable profile - Wireless Semiconductors
- Broadcom
stack adjacency - Embedded Semiconductor Component Supplier
- GigaDevice
stack adjacency - Embedded Semiconductor Component Supplier
- MICROIP
stack adjacency - Embedded Semiconductor Component Supplier
- Fortaegis
stack adjacency - Embedded Semiconductor Component Supplier
- HDSC
stack adjacency - Embedded Semiconductor Component Supplier
Context tags
- Embedded control semiconductor supplier - Peer Group - Verified against official company materials and existing source-backed supply evidence during full-profile enrichment.
- Embedded semiconductor component supplier - Stack Layer - Verified against official company materials and existing source-backed supply evidence during full-profile enrichment.
- Wireless Semiconductors - Peer Group - Verified against official company materials and existing source-backed supply evidence during full-profile enrichment.