SAIC and Momenta Form Joint Venture for Advanced Driver Assistance, Momenta Holds 51%

By Wujie Aniu

SAIC and Momenta plan to form a joint venture for advanced driver assistance R&D, with Momenta holding 51% and SAIC together with its subsidiary Yandian Technology holding 49% combined.

On November 5, the SAIC Group board of directors approved the relevant proposal. The joint venture's registered capital is planned at 300 million yuan, of which Momenta's Suzhou entity Momenta (Suzhou) will contribute 153 million yuan; SAIC will contribute 75 million yuan for a 25% stake; and Yandian will contribute 72 million yuan for a 24% stake. The announcement is dated November 6.

What is more noteworthy than the 300 million yuan is that Momenta holds a majority stake.

Carmakers held 60% in the past; this time Momenta holds 51%

In 2021, Momenta and BYD established Dipai Zhixing. BYD's annual report that year disclosed that BYD held 60% and Momenta held 40%; of the five directors, three were appointed by BYD. Lotus Robotics, established the same year, was also 60% Lotus and 40% Momenta.

This time, SAIC accepts Momenta holding 51%, with the algorithm company holding a majority stake in the company they jointly develop.

The specific board seats and voting arrangements for major matters have not yet been disclosed in the announcement. But the equity arrangement already shows that SAIC is willing to invest funds together with Momenta at this ratio and jointly carry out advanced driver assistance R&D.

The purpose SAIC stated in the announcement is direct: strengthen advanced driver assistance technology R&D capabilities and enhance the global market competitiveness of its vehicle products.

SAIC wants to apply driver assistance to vehicle products and has chosen to jointly invest with Momenta while letting Momenta hold a majority stake. This reflects a stronger willingness to deepen cooperation than simply adding another co-developed model.

Yandian brings automotive electronics development capability

Yandian Technology is the cockpit electronics business platform under Yanfeng and belongs to the SAIC system. Products listed on Yanfeng's official website include infotainment systems, domain controllers, in-vehicle display systems, and connectivity systems.

A domain controller can be understood as a dedicated computer installed in the vehicle. For Momenta's algorithms to run on production vehicles, they need to work with chips, controllers, and vehicle systems. Yandian has experience developing automotive electronic products and can provide engineering support for this kind of software-hardware integration.

Looking at the businesses of the three shareholders together, this cooperation has a clear direction. Momenta provides driver assistance algorithms, Yandian participates in automotive electronics hardware development, and SAIC provides vehicle development requirements and application scenarios, with the three parties working together to turn algorithms into products that can be installed in vehicles. This is a division-of-labor inference based on the three parties' businesses; the formal division has not yet been announced.

The benefits of this kind of cooperation become apparent in specific development work. How much computing power the algorithm needs, how the controller should be configured, and whether the vehicle cost is acceptable can be determined together early in R&D. Software, hardware, and vehicle teams coordinating earlier can help reduce repeated revisions later.

For Momenta, Yandian's participation adds automotive electronics development capability to this joint venture; for SAIC, having algorithm and hardware partners participate together also makes it easier to develop driver assistance products according to vehicle model requirements.

Beyond algorithms and chips, in-vehicle hardware must also be developed

Momenta has already been pursuing similar cooperation.

On August 19, Momenta announced a joint effort with Xinxin Hangtu and QNX to build a production-oriented autonomous driving platform. Momenta provides the full-stack autonomous driving solution, Xinxin Hangtu provides the X7 automotive-grade chip, and QNX provides the safety operating system.

After algorithms, chips, and low-level software form a platform, in-vehicle hardware still needs to be developed, followed by vehicle integration. The new joint venture has not yet disclosed its chip selection, while Yandian participates as a shareholder in its