Cognex's AI Vision Platform Is Now Inspecting Server Racks

Cognex reported record Q2 2026 revenue of $291 million on August 6, marking its eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. Strong AI-driven demand across the semiconductor and electronics sectors, along with rapid expansion in its data center business, supported the quarter’s performance and enabled the company to issue full-year guidance for the first time alongside its second-quarter results.

Cognex also made its OneVision platform generally available during the quarter. The cloud-based service lets customers train AI models for Cognex's embedded vision systems and develop inspection applications without requiring extensive machine vision expertise. 

Cognex said hundreds of customers have adopted OneVision. "I'm not sure we could have solved these problems a couple of years ago without technologies like OneVision," said Matt Moschner, CEO of Cognex. The statement refers specifically to the complex inspection applications now being deployed in data center manufacturing.

The Data Center Opportunity

Cognex has served data centers for several years, but the prior application included automated and secure drive removal and destruction during ongoing facility maintenance. The company is now seeing demand for machine vision across the manufacturing and supply chain processes supporting new data center construction. 

The revenue is currently concentrated in the first of three application tiers. Quality inspection for the component suppliers building the physical infrastructure of servers and racks including connectors, electrical parts, PCBAs, and metal enclosures. 

A specific deployment was disclosed on the call. Insight 3900 vision systems mounted on robots are being used to inspect fully assembled server racks, confirming that all major components are installed correctly and meet strict quality requirements before deployment. 

The inspection process covers hundreds of points and small features across the racks. Moschner said server racks can cost tens of millions of dollars, making defects and related downtime costly. 

The second tier which includes vision systems for contract manufacturers assembling components into servers, is described as early but beginning to emerge. The third tier, deployment, maintenance, and operations of live data centers remains nascent. 

Data center revenue is currently growing more than 30% year over year and represents a low single-digit percentage of Cognex's $291 million quarterly revenue. Moschner said the company is still on "the early side of the growth wave."

AI Across the End Market Portfolio

AI-driven vision adoption is broadening across all five of Cognex's end markets. In semiconductor, demand continues to be driven directly by AI infrastructure investment. Cognex has served semiconductor OEMs for decades through its vision systems and the Moritex advanced optics and lighting business acquired in 2023. 

Moschner described the current cycle as potentially more durable than prior semiconductor cycles due to sustained AI infrastructure investment, with full-year semiconductor outlook raised to double-digit growth.

In electronics, AI is driving a new wave of innovation as manufacturers incorporate increasingly sophisticated functionality into next-generation devices, including AI-oriented consumer hardware requiring PCBA inspections at the density and accuracy that only AI-based vision can reliably deliver. 

In packaging, Cognex's latest AI classification, defect detection, segmentation, and optical character recognition tools are enabling penetration into applications that were previously not technically feasible with traditional machine vision.

Cognex issued its first full-year guidance alongside a second quarter report, projecting revenue of $1.13 billion to $1.15 billion for 2026, representing approximately 15% growth at the midpoint, with adjusted EBITDA margin of 29% to 31%.