Insta360 buys $298 million of memory chips as it chases DJI beyond 360 cameras

Someone holds up two hemispherical lenses on a stick and records in every direction at once. They pick the frame afterwards ^[1]. Cofounder Max Richter puts that buyer in a gap in the market. "We don't try to fight against the rise of the smartphone in photography and content creation," he told The Verge ^[5]. The company sees "an opportunity between smartphone users and professional cameras," he said ^[6].

Insta360 is betting that this buyer turns up in large numbers ^[3]. Spread over the 10 million cameras it has sold to date, the memory purchase comes to about $30 a camera ^[4][1]. The Verge measures the sum against GoPro's entire valuation ^[3]. GoPro is a distant third in IDC's smart camera data. It had 3% share in Q2 2026, after its shipments halved to 200,000 ^[13]. The Verge's report does not say what Canon, Sony or DJI spend on memory, so the purchase cannot be ranked against the parts budgets of larger camera makers ^[3].

Richter wants Insta360 to become a "top imaging camera company" or "even a tech company," competing with Canon, Sony, Nikon and Fujifilm ^[7]. IDC's Q2 2026 figures show where buyers put Insta360 outside the 360 category. It took 43% of detachable action cameras and 17% of GoPro-style non-detachable models. Its new Luna Ultra took 6% of gimbaled cameras ^[12].

Richter pitches both new formats on convenience. "When you think about mirrorless, for us it would really go into making it more convenient and making a camera that is really suited for a new generation of content creators, not necessarily what's already out there on the market," he said ^[9]. On glasses: "we wouldn't necessarily compete with companies on smart intelligent features," he said ^[10]. Both pitches are about easy, high-quality capture for people who are not professional photographers ^[10][18].

Most of the volume in that middle ground goes to DJI ^[11]. Canon, the traditional leader, shipped 4.5 million digital cameras last year, according to Nikkei data ^[14]. DJI shipped 4.3 million cameras in a single quarter, according to IDC ^[15]. The two trackers count differently, but DJI's quarter comes to about 96% of Canon's year ^[2].

For a team planning a similar move, the volume forecast behind every parts order should state the market share it assumes and the category that share was measured in. Insta360's figures show how far apart the answers sit. It holds 73% of 360 cameras ^[2], 43% of detachable action cameras and 6% of gimbaled cameras ^[12]. For the mirrorless cameras and glasses still in development, the only input so far is Richter's account of who the buyer is ^[8][9].