General Motors is set to invest $300 million in Momenta to accelerate the application of the young Chinese company’s autonomous driving technologies in future products in China.
The move is part of a plan the Detroit automaker announced in June to invest $35 billion globally from 2020 to 2025 to develop electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles.
Momenta, established in 2016 in Beijing, is developing mass-production L4 autonomous driving systems.
As of March 2021, Momenta had raised $700 million from strategic automotive partners such as SAIC Motor Corp., Mercedes-Benz, Toyota Motor Corp. and Bosch, as well as a group of financial investors.
GM is expanding its design and engineering facilities in China for the development of EVs and self-driving vehicles. In July, it completed an expansion and upgrade of an advanced design center in Shanghai, doubling the facility’s design capacity.
“Customers in China are embracing electrification and advanced self-driving technology faster than anywhere else in the world, and the agreement between GM and Momenta will accelerate our deployment of next-generation solutions tailor-made for our consumers in China,” Julian Blissett, president of GM China, said in a statement Thursday.