China's largest carmaker SAIC Motor has put more effort into securing semiconductor supply. It announced on June 19 that it will inject over CNY6 billion (US$837.6 million) with a few other companies in establishing a fund to invest in the automotive IC supply chain.
According to an announcement, SAIC is setting up the fund with its subsidiary SAIC Motor Finance Holding Company, Hengxu Capital and Shang Qi Capital. Hengxu is the automaker's private equity investment platform. Shang Qi focuses on automotive electronics, automotive IC, and many other car ecosystem investments, according to its website.
SAIC Motor and its partners will put CNY6.012 billion in the fund, according to the company. It said the investment management team will facilitate the establishment of an automotive semiconductor ecosystem and accelerate the ramp-up of China-made ICs.
SAIC stated that the fund will concentrate on investing in the automotive semiconductor supply chain and any other critical products generated by automotive electrification and smart, connected vehicles. The investment is expected to add resilience to SAIC's automotive IC supply chain, it said.
The company has increased investment in semiconductors since shortages arose. China-based ijiwei reported that SAIC Motor Finance Holding Company and several partners established a CNY3 billion fund in June 2022. The fund focuses on items such as automotive electronics, semiconductors and advanced manufacturing.
Moreover, SAIC is working with China-based AI chip developer Horizon Robotics. According to ijiwei, the pair has been building two compute platforms together to help develop and apply high-level intelligent driving products. They will likely put the first platform with Horiozon's Journey 5 chip in a SAIC car in 2023 and launch the second one with Journey 6 chip in 2025.
