China's largest auto group SAIC announced today that it has invested in Shanghai Yuanjie Intelligent Science and Technology Equity Investment Fund Partnership. The total capital contribution of the fund is RMB 7.2 billion, of which SAIC will contribute RMB 5.399 billion.
Shanghai-listed Zhangjiang Hi-Tech also participated in the fund with a contribution of RMB 1.8 billion.
The fund also plans to make a special investment with Alibaba in a high-end smart electric car project, tentatively named Zhiji Auto, which literally means Smart Self Auto.
The fund is mainly to accelerate the building of SAIC's own high-end intelligent pure electric vehicle brand, while the investment project will create a new electronic and electrical architecture to connect the electronic control units of the vehicle and the driving experience from the ground up.
The project will also be data-driven, focus on customer perception, reconstruct user experience and encourage users to highly customize their own experiences, thus achieving a breakthrough in the width and depth of automotive intelligence.
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SAIC will invest 5.399 billion yuan, or 74.986%, of the 7.2 billion yuan fund. Zhangjiang Hi-Tech will invest 1.8 billion yuan, with an investment ratio of 25%. Shanghai SAIC Hengxu Investment Management Co., Ltd. made a capital contribution of 1 million yuan, with a proportion of 0.014 percent.
HengXu will provide investment management services to the fund, and the fund shall pay management fees to the manager annually as agreed.
SAIC said that the investment will give full play to the advantages of each partner in the fields of artificial intelligence, automatic driving, chips, and new energy vehicles, and comprehensively promote digital transformation, realize innovation and development, so as to build a win-win and sustainable strategic cooperative relationship.
It's worth noting that Zhiji Auto is the long-rumored "L" project of SAIC, which is positioned in the high-end luxury electric smart car market.
Zhiji Auto is positioned in the high-end luxury electric smart car market, with a founding round of financing of about RMB 10 billion, which SAIC intends to build into the "Tesla of China," according to local media.
In the EV project, SAIC invested 5.4 billion yuan, Zhangjiang invested 1.8 billion yuan, and Alibaba and other companies invested 2.8 billion yuan, local reports said.
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