Xiaomi to invest $10b in EV unit

SHANGHAI:

China’s Xiaomi Corp announced plans on Tuesday to invest $10 billion in a new smart electric vehicle (EV) business, and separately to release a self-developed computing chip, as the group expanded out of its core smartphone business. At a livestreamed event held on Tuesday, Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun, who will also head the smart EV unit, said the division will be the “last major entrepreneurial project” in his life. The firm will initially invest 10 billion yuan ($1.52 billion) in the unit, with a total investment goal of $10 billion over the next 10 years, it said in a filing published earlier on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The company’s move into cars follows similar steps by other tech giants, in China and overseas. In January, Chinese search giant Baidu Inc said it would develop an EV unit via a partnership with domestic carmaker Geely Automobile Holdings Limited.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2021.

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