Alibaba And Baidu Bet Big On Autonomous Driving, Back $700M Horizon Robotics IPO

Alibaba Group Holding BABA and Baidu Inc BIDU are joining forces in a significant investment in a Chinese autonomous-driving company’s IPO, signaling their confidence in the fast-growing market.

Horizon Robotics, a firm specializing in advanced driver-assistance systems, aims to raise nearly $700 million through its upcoming listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The company plans to begin taking orders from institutional investors this Wednesday.

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Alibaba, Baidu, and state-owned Beijing Financial Holdings have committed to purchasing over 30% of Horizon Robotics’ shares before the official IPO.

The stock will start trading on October 24, and Horizon Robotics expects this cornerstone backing to boost appeal among institutional and retail investors.

The proceeds from the offering will primarily go toward research and development, with around 70% of the funds earmarked for this purpose over the next five years. The remaining funds will go toward marketing and operational expenses.

Top banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and China Securities International are advising on the deal.

Recently, Alibaba’s cloud unit tapped Nvidia Corp NVDA to enhance autonomous driving tech for Chinese EV makers like Li Auto Inc LI and Xiaomi Corp XIACF XIACY.

In collaboration with Banma Network Technology and Nvidia, Alibaba Cloud unveiled a large multimodal model (LMM) solution for automotive applications at the Apsara Conference.

The solution integrates Alibaba Cloud’s Qwen portfolio of proprietary large language models (LLMs) with Nvidia’s Drive AGX Orin platform to enhance in-car voice assistants.

Alibaba and Baidu gained 12%-22% in the last 30 days.

Investors can gain exposure to Alibaba, also known as China’s tech barometer, through Avantis Emerging Markets Equity ETF AVEM and Global X Artificial Intelligence & Technology ETF AIQ.

Price Actions: BABA stock is up 0.28% at $102.13 premarket at last check Wednesday.

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