Cognex adds a $106 million employee package to its $500 million cash price for RealSense

The $106.5 million Cognex has committed to RealSense's employees is 21 percent of the $500 million it is paying for the company ^[1][2]. Not all of it is payable now. The $56.5 million cash portion runs three years, at target, subject to performance modifiers, and about $50 million arrives as restricted stock ^[2][3]. Across 180 employees that averages around $592,000 each ^[5][3]. The distribution is uneven, and the two publishers count it differently: Calcalist reports most of the 135 Israel-based staff will get at least NIS 1 million, while Globes says at least 80 of the 140 in Israel will, 110 of them former Intel employees ^[7][8][6].

Shareholders split the $500 million. Against the $102 million valuation at which RealSense raised $50 million 14 months ago, that is 4.9 times ^[11][4]. Globes describes the outcome as a 500 percent return for the Taiwanese lead investor and Intel Capital, a figure that needs the retention and stock money counted in: the full $606.5 million is 5.95 times $102 million ^[11][5]. Whether the $102 million was pre- or post-money is not stated in either report. Post-money, the $50 million bought about 49 percent ^[9].

Intel kept 20 percent and one of five board seats when it spun the unit out in July 2025 ^[9][12]. Its share of the cash is about $100 million ^[6]. Intel paid $650 million for the Israeli software company Granulate in 2022 and then closed it, according to Globes, so the RealSense stake recovers roughly 15 percent of that one write-off ^[18][10].

"I sat down with Pat Gelsinger and said, 'Don't shut it down, let me spin it out,' and he agreed. I wouldn't say Intel regrets it today, but it's clearly a missed opportunity for them," Orbach told Calcalist ^[15].

In revenue terms, RealSense guides to $80 million to $90 million for 2026, growth of more than 50 percent, with two profitable quarters behind it ^[13]. That growth rate implies 2025 revenue of roughly $53 million to $60 million ^[8]. The cash alone is 5.9 times the midpoint of the guide, and the whole package is 7.1 times ^[7]. At the spinout the business was loss-making on $8 million a quarter, so the guide is about 2.7 times its annualised revenue then ^[14][19][11].

There are two ways to read the price. If RealSense holds the position Globes describes, above half the market for humanoid robots, high-end industrial robots and robotic arms, then 5.9 times a revenue line growing at 50 percent is a cheap way for a machine vision incumbent to own the depth camera layer ^[17]. That share figure comes from one publisher, and it is not broken out by product. If the 2026 guide instead reflects robot programs stocking sensors ahead of deployment, the $80 million floor is a peak and Cognex has paid seven times a cyclical top. Revenue below that floor would settle the question.

Cognex has committed more to retaining 180 people than RealSense's entire annualised revenue at the spinout, about three times more ^[12]. The cash is coming entirely from Cognex's existing balance sheet, and neither publisher reports what that balance is ^[1].