Mercedes-Benz invests 1.3 billion in Chongqing's AI stars. The body remains in Germany, but the soul is in China.

Mercedes-Benz has once again placed a bet on an AI star, and this time it's a Chinese up-and-coming player.

Qianli Technology, a rising star in intelligent assisted driving that regrouped and set off again in Chongqing this year, recently announced that it has received an investment of 1.3 billion yuan from Mercedes-Benz, making the latter the fifth largest shareholder.

This is also another intelligent assisted driving player that Mercedes-Benz has invested in after Momenta.

The German luxury car giant is giving itself a "Chinese soul".

Mercedes-Benz invests in Qianli Technology and becomes its fifth largest shareholder

Qianli Technology recently issued an announcement to announce the entry of a new shareholder:

One of Qianli Technology's major shareholders, Chongqing Lifan Holdings, failed to repay its debt on time due to stock pledges, so it transferred part of its shares in the company.

The acquirer is none other than the luxury car giant Mercedes-Benz.

Specifically, Lifan Holdings transferred 135.6 million shares of Qianli Technology to Mercedes-Benz's subsidiary, Mercedes-Benz (Shanghai) Digital Technology Co., Ltd., at a price of 9.87 yuan per share (a 25% discount compared to the previous day's closing price).

In total, the transaction amount is approximately 1.339 billion yuan.

After the transaction is completed, Lifan Holdings' shareholding ratio will drop from 13.68% to 10.68%.

Mercedes-Benz will become the fifth largest shareholder of Qianli Technology with a 3% shareholding. Mercedes-Benz also promised not to reduce its holdings within 12 months.

On the day the announcement was released on September 25th, the stock price of Qianli Technology, led by Yin Qi, once soared by more than 19%, and its market value once skyrocketed by more than 9.95 billion yuan.

Based on Yin Qi's 19.91% shareholding, his net worth increased by up to about 2 billion yuan in a single day.

Qianli Technology may already be familiar to many. It is a rookie in intelligent assisted driving that has maintained its popularity this year.

Its predecessor was Lifan Technology, an established car company in Chongqing. Although it deployed in the new energy field early, the transformation was not satisfactory, and it eventually went through restructuring and introduced Geely Holdings.

The major turning point came when the company's leader changed. The company's chairman and legal representative were replaced by Yin Qi, and the company was also renamed "Qianli Technology".

We are even more familiar with Yin Qi. He was born in the 1985s and is from Wuhu, Anhui. He graduated from the Yao Class of Tsinghua University in 2010 and went to Columbia University to pursue a doctorate in computer science in 2011. He founded Megvii Technology during his doctoral studies.

Later, Megvii became famous overnight with its face recognition algorithm that outperformed Facebook's. Its Face++ became one of China's earliest AI calling cards.

Megvii also led the first wave of AI startups in China and was known as one of the "Four AI Dragons" along with SenseTime, CloudWalk, and Yitu, the earliest AI unicorns.

With the addition of Yin Qi and the support of Geely, Qianli Technology has staged a comeback and even attracted Wang Jun, the former president of Huawei's Automotive BU.

Qianli Technology also established a joint venture company, Qianli Intelligent Driving, with Geely to lead Geely's intelligent assisted driving business and is regarded as "Geely's own Automotive BU".

Recently, this star company that is already listed on the A-share market is planning to enter the Hong Kong Stock Exchange -

Qianli Technology issued an announcement saying that the company held a board meeting on September 12th this year and officially approved the relevant proposals for issuing H-shares and listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Next, it still needs the vote of all shareholders on September 29th and the approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

Speaking of Geely, in fact, Geely has a long - standing relationship with Mercedes-Benz:

In 2018, Geely acquired 9.69% of the shares of Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. In 2020, the two sides also jointly established the smart global company.

Therefore, outside analysts believe that Mercedes-Benz's investment in Qianli Technology is actually a further tie - up with Geely.

Moreover, according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, the two sides are also in preliminary discussions on a fuel - vehicle cooperation project, but it is still in the early stage.

In addition, with Mercedes-Benz becoming a new shareholder, Qianli Technology is expected to cooperate with Mercedes-Benz to provide technical support for the models that Mercedes-Benz will launch in China.

The "upcoming models" here are likely to refer to the fully electric C - class or GLC.

The wave of new energy is irresistible. Mercedes-Benz's pure - electric products are ready to go, and it is in urgent need of transformation and actively seeking help from Chinese technology.

Mercedes-Benz's soul has become Chinese

Mercedes-Benz's "intelligent investment" in China actually started a long time ago. Qianli Technology is the second intelligent assisted driving company that Mercedes-Benz has invested in.

A long time ago, Mercedes-Benz invested in another technology provider - Momenta.

Momenta is also a star in the industry this year and a "unicorn" in the field of autonomous driving. It is well - known in the industry for its "one flywheel, two legs" (one flywheel large - model, assisted driving and Robotaxi as the two legs).

Now, mainstream domestic and foreign car companies including BBA, Toyota, General Motors, and SAIC are all customers of Momenta.

As early as 2017, Mercedes-Benz participated in Momenta's Series B1 financing, continued to follow - up in 2018 and 2021, and also planned to add an investment of $75 million (about 535 million yuan) in 2024.

At the same time, the relationship between the two sides has gradually upgraded from investment to strategic cooperation.

On the same day that Qianli issued the announcement of Mercedes-Benz's investment, the fruit of the cooperation between Mercedes-Benz and Momenta was also released.

The new - generation intelligent assisted driving system jointly developed by the two sides will soon be installed in Mercedes-Benz's domestically produced all - new pure - electric CLA model.

The intelligent assisted driving system is based on Momenta's flywheel large - model and can realize intelligent assisted driving functions from parking space to parking space in high - speed, urban, and parking scenarios.

Moreover, in the future, this system will also be installed in more Mercedes-Benz models.

This all - new pure - electric CLA concept car was unveiled as early as 2023, but it has only now been equipped with a "Chinese brain". In addition, the mainstream 800V platform, 866km long - range, Qualcomm 8295 chip, etc. on Chinese smart cars are also all installed.

Now, this car has just started pre - sales, with two configuration models launched respectively, with a pre - sale price of 259,000 - 299,000 yuan, and it is expected to be launched in October.

Moreover, the Chinese genes in this car are not limited to these.

Before the pre - sales started, Mercedes-Benz just announced a cooperation with ByteDance and signed an upgraded strategic cooperation memorandum -

ByteDance's Doubao large - model will also be integrated into the all - new pure - electric CLA.

With the Doubao large - model, the in - car voice assistant can not only execute commands but also recognize emotions (such as happiness, sadness) and conduct anthropomorphic interactive communication, with almost no delay in voice wake - up and command execution.

That is to say, from intelligent assisted driving to the intelligent cockpit, Mercedes-Benz has entrusted the "brain" and "soul" of smart cars to Chinese technology.

The car is still the German car you like, but it's going to have a "Chinese soul".

This article is from the WeChat official account “Intelligent Vehicle Reference” (ID: AI4Auto), author: Jessica, published by 36Kr with permission.