Caixin News Agency, October 18th (Reporter Liu Yang) With the emergence of high-level autonomous driving for intelligent connected vehicles under the path of "vehicle road cloud integration", the autonomous driving industry has also ushered in a new round of listing trend.
On the early morning of October 18th, Pony AI Inc., a unicorn in the field of autonomous driving, submitted a prospectus to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), applying for its US depositary shares to be listed on NASDAQ under the stock code PONY. According to the overseas listing filing of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the company plans to issue no more than 98.1495 million ordinary shares.
The funds raised from Xiaoma Zhixing's IPO plan will mainly be used to execute market strategies and commercialize the company's autonomous driving technology on a large scale in major target markets; Continue to invest in the company's autonomous driving technology research and development; General purpose of the company, as well as potential strategic investments and acquisitions to enhance the company's technological capabilities and overall ecosystem.
In April of this year, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued the "Notice on the Filing of Overseas Issuance and Listing of Pony AI Inc.". Research and development companies actually need capital support. "When discussing IPO for the first time in August this year, Peng Jun, CEO of Xiaoma Zhixing, admitted that financing is a win-win situation with the capital market." With the support of funds, companies can do better, create more and better products, and with better products, they can obtain more investor support. This is a positive cycle
Almost simultaneously with Xiaoma Zhixing's sprint for an IPO on the US stock market, on October 17th, the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a filing notice for the overseas issuance and listing of WeRide Inc. (Wenyuan Zhixing). The company plans to issue no more than approximately 159 million ordinary shares and list them on the NASDAQ stock exchange in the United States. According to the data, the company's revenue mainly comes from two parts of business: sales of L4 autonomous vehicles, such as Robotaxis, Robosweepers, and related sensors; Provide L4 autonomous driving and ADAS assisted driving services, such as operational and technical support, ADAS research and development services, etc.
The field of autonomous driving has entered a turning point in both business implementation and capital operation, "said an industry insider. Robotaxi and even the entire autonomous driving field have entered a period of explosive growth along the high-tech development curve, based on the development and accumulation of previous years." Therefore, we will see a significant increase in public attention to it and the phenomenon of companies going public in clusters. The entire industry is in an upward trend
The two companies are preparing for an IPO in the United States at a time when autonomous driving related players are competing to enter the capital market. According to incomplete statistics, since the beginning of 2023, nearly 16 autonomous driving related companies have started the IPO process, with nearly 10 choosing to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, while the rest are targeting the US stock market and the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
Meanwhile, the autonomous driving industry has received frequent policy support. In July of this year, five departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Transport officially announced that China will carry out pilot applications of intelligent connected vehicles "vehicle road cloud integration" in 20 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Shenyang, promoting the construction of a vehicle road collaborative development system with the same architecture, unified standards, business interoperability, and safety and reliability.
Under the framework of the "vehicle road cloud integration" technology path, high-level autonomous driving is accelerating towards commercialization. Guo Shougang, Deputy Director and First level Inspector of the Equipment Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated on October 18 at the 2024 World Intelligent Connected Vehicle Conference that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development, and the Ministry of Transport, has carried out pilot projects for the admission and on road traffic of intelligent connected vehicles. Currently, industrial testing and safety evaluation of the pilot consortium are being carried out, and the testing plans for some conditional autonomous driving models have been confirmed. They will soon enter the testing and evaluation stage, and the pilot consortium that has passed will be granted admission permission according to procedures.
In addition, in terms of standards first, according to Gong Jinfeng, Deputy General Manager of China Automotive Technology Research Center, multiple national mandatory and recommended standards related to the field of intelligent connected vehicles will be intensively released from 2024 to 2026. According to the plan, China's intelligent connected vehicle standard system will support high-level autonomous driving and networked multi scenario applications by 2025, and achieve comprehensive collaboration between single vehicle intelligence and networked empowerment by 2030.
L3 level autonomous driving is expected to be commercially available as early as next year, and it is recommended to accelerate the legislation of relevant standards, "said Yu Chengdong, Executive Director of Huawei, Chairman of Terminal BG, and Chairman of Intelligent Automotive Solutions BU, on October 17. Huawei ADS 4.0 will launch high-speed L3 level autonomous driving commercial and urban L3 level autonomous driving pilot projects in 2025.