Jia Yueting sells his car to Middle Eastern tycoons!
The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) and Faraday Future (FF) announced on the 4th that FF will bring its generative AI technology and cutting-edge AI electric cars to the intelligent driving automotive industry cluster in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
According to the agreement signed by both parties, FF plans to establish a regional headquarters, production base, and advanced research and development center in Abu Dhabi. The person in charge of ADIO stated, "FF will deepen Abu Dhabi's electric vehicle industry and bring new expertise in generative artificial intelligence and shared intelligent transportation."
FF creator Jia Yueting has recently made no secret of his plan to enter the Middle East.
FF officially announced its entry into the Middle East market as early as November 23rd, and also held a high-profile strategic press conference on its entry into the Middle East at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Abu Dhabi. At the press conference, FF signed strategic cooperation agreements with two companies with UAE royal backgrounds: Master Investment Group (MIG) and Siraj Finance LLC.
This also marks the implementation of FF's Middle East strategy. Jia Yueting referred to this as the third pole after FF's dual home court strategy between China and the United States, and it is also an important springboard for FF to enter the European market in the next step.
Subsequently, FF announced the launch of a limited edition FF 91 2.0 Futurist aiFalcon model in the Middle East, with plans to deliver it in 2024.
But the outside world still holds a reserved attitude towards FF's delivery capability. After 9 years of manufacturing, FF delivered a total of 7 FF 91 2.0 Futurist Alliances to users. More importantly, it was not until the third quarter of this year that FF achieved revenue for the first time by selling cars. However, the $550000 in car sales revenue is a drop in the bucket for FF. The net loss of FF in the third quarter was $78 million.
Lack of money has always been a fatal injury for FF. On October 16th, Jia Yueting also released an open letter to all shareholders and investors, which mentioned that the current market value of FF has fallen to less than 1% of the total cash investment of over 3 billion US dollars.
Just before announcing his entry into the Middle East, some media outlets had exposed that due to a lack of money, Jia Yueting planned to sell FF's car factory in the United States. Although the current news has not been confirmed, FF's Middle East expansion plan is clearly aimed at the money of the wealthy. This is not only to hope that the other party can invest money, but also to obtain more orders, which is very important for FF.
However, Jia Yueting has quite a few opponents.
FF will lay out its AI tram in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, this time. This "blue ocean" has long been targeted by more new energy vehicle companies.
On the day before the FF Middle East Strategy Conference, BYD opened its new flagship showroom in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and officially launched the pure electric Han model for the UAE market. On June 20th, NIO received a strategic investment of approximately 1.1 billion US dollars (approximately 7.9 billion yuan) from investment institutions under the Abu Dhabi government in the United Arab Emirates. Prior to NIO, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Investment also invested 5.6 billion US dollars (approximately 40.1 billion yuan) in the parent company of Gaohe Automobile, Chinese Express. Chinese new energy vehicle brands such as Xiaopeng, Jike, Aichi, and Nezha have already entered the Middle East.
Although these brands are not direct competitors of FF, it can be imagined that the choices of Middle Eastern investors and consumers are inevitably increasing.
Source: Yangcheng Evening News - Yangcheng Sect