10x Genomics starts shipping Atera and launches an AI analysis platform

10x Genomics' revenue rose just 1% in the third quarter. Its chief executive led with something else. The single-cell and spatial biology company reported on 5 November that it has started global commercial shipments of Atera, which it lists alongside Visium and Xenium in its spatial portfolio.

"The biggest highlight of the quarter was the start of commercial shipments of Atera." Serge Saxonov, co-founder and CEO, 10x Genomics

The numbers

Revenue was $150.7 million, against $149.0 million a year earlier. As at most tools companies right now, consumables are carrying the business. They made $134.3 million of the total, split $93.1 million from single cell and $41.2 million from spatial. Instruments brought in only $6.9 million, services $9.0 million and licence and royalty income $0.5 million.

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Profitability moved more than revenue. Gross margin rose to 75% from 67%, mainly thanks to lower inventory write-downs and product mix. Operating expenses fell 3% to $129.0 million on lower personnel and lab equipment costs, partly offset by higher litigation spend. The net loss narrowed to $19.4 million from $27.5 million, and the company held $575.7 million in cash and marketable securities at the end of September.

Full-year revenue guidance rises to $625 million to $635 million, from $610 million to $630 million. Stripping out one-off patent settlement income in both years, 10x expects growth of 4% to 6% on 2025.

Software joins the pitch

The quarter also brought Sentira, a cloud analysis platform that 10x says will help customers turn complex biological datasets into insights. It runs on NVIDIA accelerated computing for spatial data processing and uses Anthropic's Claude for agentic AI analysis of single-cell data.

Saxonov framed the strategy in data terms: "As biology is entering a new era of AI and data maximalism, 10x is positioned incredibly well to benefit and to be the key enabler of progress going forward."

The bigger picture

Research tools companies have had a tough couple of years on instrument sales, as academic and biopharma buyers held back on capital spend. 10x's answer is a new spatial platform plus software that makes the data easier to use. Getting both into labs is a field job as much as a product one.

What it means for hiring

A new spatial product in its first months of shipping usually means demand for field application scientists and instrument specialists who can get early customers up and running.
Sentira puts 10x in the software and AI business. Expect interest in computational biologists, bioinformatics product managers and solution engineers who can sit between the wet lab and the cloud, in our view.
With instrument revenue small and consumables carrying the business, account managers who can grow pull-through at existing sites are worth as much as those chasing new placements.

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