China AV Newsletter - Mar. 2024

Despite the growing trade war that impact on some crucial components supply chain, Nvidia announced an expendion of collaboration with multiple Chinese OEMs including BYD, Zeeker, Xpeng, LiAuto and others. Moreover, Intel backed company, Horizon Robotics filed for IPO in Hong Kong Stock Exchange, using Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley services. We can observe that trade between the nations in the AV sector is still extremely significant. Some companies are targeting though non-US markets as alternative, as Pony.ai expands to EU by establishing an R&D center in Luxemborg.

Fundraising didn’t stop with Horizon, as Zongmu also announced its IPO, Racoits raised RMB 100M for autonomous mining and Neolix raised RMB 600M for autonomous last mile delivery.

Enjoy reading~

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China AV Newsletter - Mar. 2024

Mar.7th: Leap Motor and HESAI Technology signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Hangzhou, based on HESAI's new generation of LiDAR products, Leap Motor will actively promote the development of autonomous driving for several new models.

Mar.8th: Racoits, a commercial vehicle autonomous driving developer, announced completion of 100 million RMB Series A financing. This investment round was led by Zhongguancun Capital and Zhongguancun Venture Capital. Racoits has completed product and technology breakthroughs for mining applications, delivered multiple benchmark projects, and gradually extended to open-pit mines, harbor closed areas, urban demonstration areas and other types of commercial vehicle autonomous driving scenarios.

Mar.11th: Jiyue Auto announced that it has been awarded the L3 autonomous driving test license in Guanggu, China. Guanggu district is located at Donghu New Technology Development Zone in Wuhan, Hubei Province. In terms of intelligent driving, like Tesla, Jiyue 01 adopts pure visual technology route, does not use high-precision maps, and does not include a single LIDAR, becoming one of the only two car companies that adopt "pure vision" intelligent driving architecture.

Mar.12th: Pony.ai announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Luxembourg government, formalizing their collaboration in autonomous driving research. Pony.ai plans to establish a regional R&D center in Luxembourg that will focus on developing cutting-edge areas of autonomous driving and will play a key role in Pony.ai’s efforts to introduce customized autonomous driving solutions in the European market.

Mar.19th: WeRide announced that it has signed a strategic cooperation with Lenovo Vehicle Computing. The two parties will combine WeRide's technical accumulation in autonomous driving and Lenovo Vehicle Computing's advantages in full-stack solutions for automotive intelligence to jointly create an L4 autonomous driving solution and promote commercialization of autonomous driving.

?Mar.19th: NVIDIA announced at the GTC developer conference that it will expand its collaboration with BYD and other Chinese automakers. It was revealed that BYD will use NVIDIA's next-generation in-vehicle chip, Drive Thor, to improve autonomous driving and other digital features. In addition to BYD, NVIDIA has announced expanded partnerships with several local automakers and autonomous driving truck developers, including XPeng Motors, GAC's premium brand Hyper. Lixiang Motors and Geely's Zeekr bra

Mar.22nd: Dongguan Municipality and Baidu signed a strategic cooperation agreement, the two sides will focus on the development of the artificial intelligence sector, including: AI algorithms, cloud computing, big data and autonomous driving technology.

Mar.26th: Horizon Robotics has officially filed a prospectus with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and CITIC Capital as its joint sponsors. According to the prospectus, Horizon's solutions have been adopted by 31 brands from 24 OEMs and are installed in more than 230 models.

Mar.27th: Neolix, a startup company focusing on L4 autonomous driving autonomous delivery, announced the completion of RMB 600 million Series C financing, with investors including CICC Huirong, Qianhai Ark, and Shell Capital. Neolix is now the biggest vendor for fully autonomous L4 logistic vehicles.

Mar.28th: Zongmu Technology has filed for listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with Huatai International and BNPPARIBAS as its joint sponsors. According to the prospectus, Zongmu is ranked fifth among all suppliers headquartered in mainland China in terms of sales revenue from passenger car ADAS solutions in 2022. To date, Zongmu Technology has deployed intelligent driving solutions for 50 vehicle models.

Sources: Bloomberg; Leap Motor; Hesai; Racoits; Gasgoo; Jiyue Auto; Pony AI; Horizon Robotics; New.qq; Zongmu, Neolix.