On March 18, 2025, Blue Orca Capital published a report in which it announced that it had a short position in Hesai Group. Blue Orca stated that, in its opinion, Hesai is a “Nasdaq-listed Chinese scam actively lying to investors, the Department of Defense, and a United States federal court. In our view, it dishonestly attempts to escape its designation as a ‘Chinese military company’ by insisting that it has no involvement with the Chinese military. Yet, we found clear smoking-gun photographic and video evidence that Chinese military vehicles are outfitted with Hesai LiDar systems.”
On this news, the price of Hesai American Depositary Shares (“ADSs”) fell $1.74 per ADS, or 7.8%, to close at $20.56 per ADS on March 18, 2025.