Led by an alumnus of Tsinghua University, Zaihe Truck raised 1 billion yuan in financing.

Investment community sources have learned that Zaihe Truck, a leading new force in the AI heavy truck industry, has officially announced that it has cumulatively completed financing in the scale of one billion yuan. The financing structure forms a capital closed - loop of "equity + debt + industry" trinity. It has gathered the support of well - known VCs such as BV Baidu Ventures, Suzhou Venture Capital Group, and Lushi Investment. It has also formed a deep industrial alliance with Horizon Robotics, Chuangyuan Group, and Wanan Technology, and has obtained comprehensive financial support from five major state - owned banks including the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and the China Construction Bank.

In the new energy heavy truck market, such a large - scale financing is rare.

Meanwhile, a keyword is being repeatedly mentioned - the vehicle - cloud integrated AI heavy truck. This is a new track pioneered by Zaihe Truck, which will realize the large - scale operation of "true unmanned and truly safe" heavy trucks in the future.

Quietly, a new era of future logistics reshaped by AI is approaching.

Led by a Tsinghua University elite

Aiming to build the world's best new energy intelligent heavy trucks

In 2022, the new energy passenger vehicle market was booming, while the new energy transformation in the heavy truck field was still regarded by the industry as a just - started marathon.

It was in this year that Zhang Lei, a doctor from the Department of Automotive Engineering of Tsinghua University, started a business in Suzhou, targeting new energy intelligent heavy trucks. This has never been an easy business, requiring extremely strict engineering foundation and forward - looking technological vision.

Behind Zaihe Truck is a composite elite team with an outstanding background.

The founder, Zhang Lei, was recommended to pursue his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees at the School of Vehicle and Mobility of Tsinghua University. He is also a founding member of the "AI Intelligent Driving and Vehicle - Cloud Integration Application" team led by Academician Li Keqiang of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He also has two other resumes that impressed the industry. As the youngest section chief at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, Zhang Lei was in charge of national aerospace major projects worth tens of billions of yuan. In 2019, he founded the intelligent driving company Qingzhi Technology, creating the largest industrial merger and acquisition case in the track.

Dr. Guo Liqun, the co - founder and CTO, is also of great importance. She enjoys the special allowance of the State Council and is a National March 8th Red - Banner Holder. She once served as the chief engineer of the R & D center of FAW Group and led the R & D of FAW Jiefang's flagship model J7.

The combination of aerospace - level rigor and in - depth experience in the automotive industry is just like the origin of the name "Zaihe". It is derived from the spirit of "carrying all things with virtue" from Tsinghua University and the practical belief of "unity of knowledge and action" in the logistics industry. The homophone of "Zaihe" is "payload", a value symbol understood by logistics, automotive, and aerospace professionals.

At the beginning of its establishment, Zhang Lei had a very clear judgment on the vehicle - building route, that is, to abandon the shortcut of "converting fuel trucks to electric ones" and develop a truly all - forward - developed new energy intelligent heavy truck.

In Zhang Lei's view, "converting fuel trucks to electric ones" is just a stop - gap measure for the electrification of traditional commercial vehicles. Limited by the physical constraints of the inherent structure of the fuel platform, its energy - efficiency ceiling and intelligentization limit are clearly visible and will eventually be replaced.

Therefore, Zaihe Truck has self - developed an integrated domain - control system of "three - electric systems + intelligent chassis + thermal management". It applies the "meticulousness" of aerospace to the vehicle's lightweight design - for every additional ton of cargo, the driver can earn more money. More importantly, it has pioneered a hydrogen - electric flagship heavy truck with a world - record long - range of 1,500 kilometers, which has been delivered to SF Express for operation in batches. It is currently the only player among the new heavy - truck forces with both hydrogen and electric technologies and the most complete technical route.

It is understood that Zaihe Truck's business has covered more than ten provinces such as Shaanxi, Henan, Xinjiang, Sichuan, and Jiangsu, covering multiple core scenarios of express delivery and bulk logistics. It has accumulated tens of millions of kilometers of customer operation and intelligent driving test mileage. In 2025, Zaihe was successively rated as a potential unicorn enterprise in China and a high - end innovation and entrepreneurship talent enterprise in Jiangsu Province, and ranked among the top three in the delivery volume of new heavy - truck forces.

Thus, the one - billion - yuan - level financing came naturally.

A trillion - level market

The new energy intelligent heavy truck is facing the strategic opportunity period.

However, beneath the prosperity, the industry also has its drawbacks. The single - vehicle intelligent solutions are becoming more and more complex. Problems such as the failure of over - the - horizon perception and system breakdown in bad weather remain unsolved, and the marginal benefit of dealing with corner cases is getting lower and lower.

Zaihe Truck's solution is to break out of the single - vehicle box.

The team has chosen the "vehicle - cloud integration" route and proposed a "four - layer collaborative safety architecture". That is, using the "redundant wire - controlled chassis" as the hardware guarantee, "advanced driver - assistance systems" as the active safety baseline, the "single - vehicle end - to - end large model" as the regular main brain, and the "networked cloud - control system" as the overall backup.

In a word, it truly breaks through the physical boundaries of single - vehicle intelligence. This also explains why Zaihe Truck adheres to the "direct sales and direct service" model. Collecting data in the most complex customer working conditions is the toughest moat for the future Physical AI In Motion (physical AI at the transportation terminal).

"Unmanned heavy trucks are the next trillion - level market. It is a rigid demand for the logistics industry to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and also one of the largest application scenarios for general physical AI," Zhang Lei is very confident.

In the eyes of investors, the value of Zaihe is far more than the product itself.

Gao Xue, the managing partner and CEO of BV Baidu Ventures, said: "We have long been optimistic about the wave of intelligentization and networking transformation in the commercial vehicle industry. We recognize Zaihe's forward - looking layout and self - developed capabilities in the fields of full - domain intelligent driving, vehicle - level domain - control architecture, and vehicle - cloud collaborative system in the intelligent heavy - truck field. Zaihe takes software - defined vehicles as the core, reconstructs the underlying intelligent logic of heavy trucks, and deeply explores the application of autonomous driving in trunk logistics scenarios. We will continue to empower and support Zaihe Truck to increase investment in intelligent algorithm R & D and improve the commercialization of full - scenario autonomous driving, and jointly lead the new track of China's intelligent heavy trucks."

Similarly, Suzhou Innovation Investment Group mentioned: "Zaihe is a leading new energy heavy - truck enterprise jointly incubated by the Suzhou Research Institute of Tsinghua University and the Suzhou government. Relying on a top - notch team and vehicle - building foundation, it focuses on breakthroughs in lightweight, low - energy consumption, and intelligent networking, providing strong support for the 'dual - carbon' goal. We will continue to support Zaihe to take root in Suzhou, grow bigger and stronger, deepen industrial collaboration, and contribute to the upgrading of the green logistics and new energy industries."

In the industrial wave of the new energy heavy - truck industry moving towards high - end, intelligent, and green development, Horizon Robotics also expressed firm optimism: "We will deeply empower its intelligent driving system, jointly build a full - link hardware - software collaborative solution of 'perception - decision - execution', and accelerate the large - scale mass production of L2++ and above intelligent driving in heavy - truck scenarios." Meanwhile, relying on the accumulation of the Horizon Robotics ecosystem, it will provide customized ecological resource introduction for Zaihe to help it quickly amplify its technological and product advantages.

Deng Zhao, the chairman of Lushi Investment, an early - stage investor, believes that since its establishment, Zaihe has been based on a forward - developed intelligent platform and has built a solid technological moat in the fields of vehicle lightweight, ultra - low energy consumption, and vehicle - cloud integrated intelligent driving. "We will continue to support Zaihe to accelerate the iteration of core technologies and the in - depth expansion of the national market, and jointly promote the green transformation, efficiency leap, and technological breakthrough of the commercial vehicle industry."

This hard - core revolution of physical AI is just in its infancy.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment Community AI". Author: Feng Yuchen. Republished by 36Kr with permission.