The autonomous driving industry has witnessed a significant explosion, with 19 financing rounds attracting over 30 billion yuan. All four major sectors are booming.
The financing wave in autonomous driving has surged again.
According to Che Dongxi on October 14th, in the past month, there have been 11 financing events in the autonomous driving industry, with a total financing amount exceeding 29.2 billion yuan. Since the beginning of this year, the total number of financing events in this industry has jumped to 19, and the total financing amount has exceeded 36.7 billion yuan.
The capital market is firmly casting a vote of confidence in the commercialization prospects of autonomous driving with real money, which is in sharp contrast to the capital winter of the previous three years. The autonomous driving industry will experience an explosion in 2025.
▲A review of financing in the autonomous driving industry since 2025
01.
The great explosion of autonomous driving
Four major directions have become the focus of attracting capital
Since 2025, the capital market has been extremely active in the autonomous driving industry. The 19 financing events cover four major directions: L2-level assisted driving, L4-level niche areas, Robotaxi, and core sensors.
In the direction of L2-level assisted driving, there have been 6 financing events this year.
Among them, a relatively large-scale financing event was the share placement of Horizon Robotics, which raised approximately HK$6.34 billion (equivalent to approximately 5.812 billion yuan) in net proceeds. The funds will be used to expand overseas market business, support the large-scale application of mid- to high-level assisted driving solutions, and invest in emerging fields (including plans related to Robotaxi), etc.
▲Horizon Robotics' share placement announcement
NavInfo Co., Ltd. invested 1.8 billion yuan in a strategic investment in PhiGent Robotics Limited, the parent company of the intelligent driving software algorithm company Jianzhi Robotics. The purpose is to further supplement high-level intelligent driving technology reserves and enhance core competitiveness.
▲NavInfo's transaction announcement
Qianli Technology also received an investment of 1.339 billion yuan from Mercedes-Benz, and Xinqing Technology completed a Series B financing of over 1 billion yuan. There are also reports that Qingzhou Zhihang may have received 1 billion yuan in financing.
▲Qianli Technology received a 1.3 billion yuan investment from Mercedes-Benz
From the perspective of this track, capital clearly favors enterprises with clear commercialization paths and rich cooperation backgrounds with automakers, reflecting the market's urgent demand for immediately applicable L2-level assisted driving technology.
The Robotaxi track is undoubtedly one of the most capital-attracting tracks this year. Although there are only 4 financing events, most of the financing amounts are as high as billions of yuan.
Didi Autonomous Driving recently completed a Series D financing with a total amount of 2 billion yuan. The funds will be mainly invested in the R & D of AI core algorithms and the implementation of L4-level autonomous driving applications. Hello also officially announced its entry into the unmanned taxi track and completed a financing of over 3 billion yuan, which will be used for the R & D of L4-level autonomous driving technology, safety applications, and commercial implementation.
▲Hello, Ant Group, and CATL signed a cooperation agreement
Good news has also come from foreign unmanned taxi companies.
▲An autonomous driving model jointly developed by Didi and GAC Aion
Today, according to Reuters, sources said that British autonomous driving technology group Wayve is in talks with Microsoft and SoftBank for a $2 billion (equivalent to approximately 14.3 billion yuan) financing. The company's valuation could reach around $8 billion (equivalent to approximately 57.1 billion yuan).
▲Reuters reported that Wayve is in talks with Microsoft and SoftBank for a $2 billion financing
The L4-level niche track refers to autonomous driving businesses in closed or semi-closed scenarios such as mines, ports, and logistics. This track has the most financing cases, with a total of 7 enterprises receiving financing.
On October 13, 2025, some media reported that Jiushi Intelligence completed a new round of financing of hundreds of millions of dollars, led by Ant Group, with participation from both new and old shareholders.
▲There are reports that Jiushi Intelligence completed financing of hundreds of millions of dollars
In addition, according to multiple industry sources, Lingyi Automobile received 500 million yuan in financing, and Zhuoxian Technology and Sinian Zhijia also received hundreds of millions of yuan in financing...
These financing events indicate that before the arrival of fully autonomous driving, L4-level applications in specific scenarios are becoming a practical choice favored by capital.
In the direction of core sensors, the two financing events in the lidar market are also of considerable scale.
RoboSense raised HK$4.16 billion (equivalent to approximately 3.8 billion yuan) through its Hong Kong IPO, and RoboSense obtained HK$989 million (equivalent to approximately 900 million yuan) through a share placement in Hong Kong.
▲RoboSense officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
To a certain extent, this reflects that with the advancement of autonomous driving technology, the market's demand for sensors and performance requirements are also increasing, bringing certain opportunities to lidar companies.
02.
The shift of capital: Autonomous driving has moved from winter to explosion
Compared with the financing environment of the previous three years, the capital enthusiasm in the field of autonomous driving in 2025 has obviously increased.
In the previous three years, the global autonomous driving industry experienced a capital winter.
The well - known American autonomous driving company Argo AI announced its closure. Star companies such as Cruise under General Motors and Zoox under Amazon have all encountered operational difficulties. The financing scale and valuation have declined significantly, and the market sentiment was once in a slump.
▲Argo AI's autonomous driving vehicles
However, the situation has undergone a decisive reversal in 2025. The emergence of this inflection point stems from the multiple resonances of technology, market, and policy.
Industry leader Tesla publicly announced its Robotaxi product plan in 2024 and officially launched commercial operations in June 2025, sending a strong positive signal to the market and greatly boosting the capital market's confidence in the commercialization of the unmanned taxi track.
Moreover, a group of leading L4 companies such as WeRide and Pony.ai have gone public in a cluster, marking a new stage for the industry to move from technology R & D to large - scale commercial application, thus attracting a large amount of capital inflow.
▲WeRide listed on the US stock market
Against this background, the investment logic of capital has also become more pragmatic. It has shifted from chasing cutting - edge technology narratives to valuing the commercial implementation prospects of technology.
From the perspective of financing directions, enterprises with clear application scenarios are more favored by capital. The clustering of various capitals in Robotaxi and other L4 - level niche scenarios all reflects this trend.
Another significant change is that state - owned capital and industrial capital have played an important role in the autonomous driving financing this year.
For example, Xinqing Technology announced the completion of a Series B financing of over 1 billion yuan, led by the second - phase fund of the State - owned Capital Adjustment Fund, followed by state - owned industrial funds from multiple regions. It also successfully obtained the first AIC orders from Hubei and Shandong provinces and strategic investment from Taiping Financial Holdings, a central enterprise insurance capital, achieving milestone progress in multiple dimensions such as state - owned capital, bank capital, insurance capital, and industrial chain collaborative capital.
▲Xinqing Technology's intelligent driving series solutions
03.
Conclusion: Autonomous driving will eventually arrive
With the large - scale inflow of capital, the pace of commercial implementation of autonomous driving is accelerating.
Yu Kai, the founder of Horizon Robotics, once predicted that 2025 would be a real turning point for intelligent driving, a real technological base point and an inflection point. The capital market is adding a footnote to this judgment with real money.
Enterprises with scenarios and the ability to implement are receiving more capital support, and the support of capital further accelerates their commercialization process, forming a positive cycle. The large - scale application of autonomous driving is changing from a vision to a reality.
This article is from the WeChat public account "Che Dongxi". The author is Er Yan, and the editor is Zhi Hao. It is published by 36Kr with permission.