Intelligent Driving for All: The Heavy Money Competition between Car Companies and Technology Companies
"Intelligent Driving" has become the keyword of the car market in 2025, and has also become a hot spot for capital pursuit.
On February 10, BYD held an intelligent strategy conference at its headquarters in Shenzhen, officially releasing the "Intelligent Driving for All Strategy", and announced that all models will be equipped with high-level intelligent driving technology. A few months ago, BYD announced that in the second half of intelligence, it will invest 100 billion yuan to develop intelligent technologies combining artificial intelligence and automobiles to achieve comprehensive intelligent advancement of the entire vehicle, and the size of the intelligent driving team has also expanded nearly 50 times compared to 2022.
At the 2025 Guangdong Development Conference, He Xiaopeng, the helmsman of Xiaopeng Motors, announced that the company will invest 9.5 billion yuan to fully promote technological innovation, of which the investment in the field of artificial intelligence is expected to reach 4.5 billion yuan, which will focus on the research and development of autonomous driving technology. Xiaopeng Motors plans to achieve L3 autonomous driving in the second half of 2025 and start mass production of high-performance Turing chips developed internally.
In addition to the large-scale investment of car companies, intelligent driving-related technology companies have also become the darlings of capital. On February 8, Zhixing Automobile entered into a placement agreement with the placement agent, and it can obtain HK$234 million (approximately RMB 223 million) in financing through the placement of shares. The net proceeds are approximately HK$228 million, of which 60% (approximately HK$137 million) will be used to enhance the research and development of high-end intelligent driving, cockpit integrated solutions and products.
A conversational AI platform company, Aspire, recently announced the completion of a 500 million yuan financing. Based on the company's self-developed new generation of conversational human-computer interaction platform and AI voice chip, it has made a layout around "cloud + chip", providing AI technology and product services combining software and hardware, and accelerating the large-scale implementation of vertical domain large model (DFM-2) and full-link conversation technology in the automotive and other fields.
Lianchuang Automotive Electronics, a developer of automotive intelligent network control systems, has completed its first round of nearly 500 million yuan in financing. With this financing, Lianchuang will further deepen its complete product layout covering intelligent steering, intelligent braking, intelligent driving and innovative solutions for vehicle-mounted network connection, accelerate the mass production of cutting-edge new products such as wire-controlled steering and wire-controlled brake EMB electronic mechanical braking systems, and continue to increase the upgrade of intelligent driving and network connection technologies for high-level autonomous driving.
Embodied intelligence: a new high ground for capital competition
At the beginning of 2025, the embodied intelligence track continued to receive the focus of the capital market. Many automakers including BYD, GAC, Xiaopeng, Changan, and supply chain companies such as Horizon Robotics and Sagitar are all increasing their investment in embodied intelligence.
Guojin Securities released a research report saying that embodied intelligence is the most powerful application of AI, while intelligent driving and humanoid robots are the two most important directions of embodied intelligence. After electrification, the ROBO+ track represented by intelligent driving and humanoid robots will reshape the entire automotive industry chain and become the strongest industry trend in the automotive sector.
Under this wave, on January 7, embodied intelligence startup Zhipingfang (Shenzhen) Technology Co., Ltd. announced the completion of Pre-A round of strategic financing, with a financing amount of several hundred million yuan. Zhipingfang founder Guo Yandong was once the chief scientist and R&D executive of Xiaopeng Motors, and the company has signed contracts with many domestic and foreign first-tier car companies.
Coincidentally, on January 22, embodied intelligence startup Vita Power announced the completion of nearly 100 million yuan in seed round financing, followed by Horizon Robotics, Borui Capital (an investment institution founded by Li Ping, vice chairman of CATL), and others. Vita Power was established in Beijing at the end of 2024. Its founding team includes Yu Yinan, former vice president of Horizon and former president of software platform product line, Zhao Zhelun, former intelligent driving product director of Ideal Auto, and Song Wei, former chief architect of software platform and member of the founding team of Zhijia.
In 2025, the penetration rate of high-end intelligent driving will enter an explosive growth. Intelligent driving and robotaxi will jointly drive the rapid growth of high-computing chips, lidar, sensors and other tracks, which will also make such companies favored by capital.
Weijing Technology, a domestic high-end intelligent SOC chip design company, recently completed nearly 100 million yuan in financing. Nearly half a year after the release of the chip, it successfully won the POC project of two leading domestic car companies, and is expected to be mass-produced and put on the car by the end of 2025. It insists on the evolution and innovation of "vision + AI" technology, expands intelligent vision and strengthens intelligent driving, and will enter the rapidly developing robot market and become one of the main suppliers of the "brain" of embodied robots.
As an important sensor for intelligent driving, lidar has also attracted much attention from capital. Recently, Hangzhou Luowei Technology Co., Ltd. officially announced that it has obtained strategic investment from Beijing Electric Control Optoelectronic Fusion Fund and completed the B1 round of financing, fully promoting the in-depth research and development of laser radar products.
Consolidation of parts: the big money-making action of the supply chain
At a time when the global trade pattern is complex and changing, the construction of a stable and efficient local supply chain has become the key. The independent control of core parts technology has consolidated the foundation of the automotive industry, and also promoted the automotive industry to move towards higher-quality development, and attracted the attention of capital with strength.
According to the official website of the Beijing Stock Exchange, on January 20, the listing application of Shenzhen Futaihe Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was accepted, which was the first order in 2025. Futaihe is a national high-tech enterprise, mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of automotive engine parts, automotive chassis parts, new energy vehicle electric drive parts, and home appliance and bathroom parts, and is committed to international layout and global competition strategy.
On January 9, Bibost (Shanghai) Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd. officially announced the completion of more than 300 million yuan in round B financing. The company has now formed a full range of products for wire-controlled chassis, including intelligent braking, intelligent steering, intelligent suspension, and domain controllers, and is committed to leading the breakthrough and innovation of core technologies in China's intelligent chassis and becoming a world-class automotive chassis system service provider. After this round of financing, Bibost has landed and consolidated the mass production and delivery of intelligent braking and intelligent suspension products, leading the integrated development of the XYZ three-axis of the intelligent chassis.
Almost at the same time, Shanghai Qiangu Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. announced the completion of a RMB 400 million Series B financing, and has successfully completed six rounds of financing. Qiangu Technology's core team has more than ten years of professional experience in wire-controlled chassis such as wire-controlled braking and vehicle stability control, and its intelligent chassis braking products have been successfully mass-produced and landed for more than 6 million sets. In addition, the new force of new energy heavy trucks, Suba Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., has also completed a round B financing of several hundred million yuan; Shenzhen Dingran Information Technology Co., Ltd. announced the completion of a round C financing.
In addition, the trend of solid-state batteries and hydrogen fuel cells is rising, and capital is rushing to these popular subdivided tracks.
At the critical juncture of the automotive industry in 2025, various tracks where hot money is flowing are outlining the blueprint for future development. With the deep integration of capital and technology, this two-way rush will not only rewrite the industry landscape, but will also drive the coordinated development of related industries. Let us look forward to a gorgeous transformation of the automotive industry.
