Investing in autonomous driving in the Middle East

Since 2023, the domestic autonomous driving field has welcomed a number of investments from the Middle East. After receiving more than 100 million yuan in strategic financing from Prosperity7 Ventures, a fund under Saudi Aramco Venture Capital, in February 2022, Hongjing Zhijia received tens of millions of yuan in additional investment in May 2023, with a cumulative amount exceeding 100 million yuan; in October 2023, Pony.ai announced a $100 million investment from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's New Future City (NEOM) and its investment fund NIF (NEOM Investment Fund). It is worth mentioning that Pony.ai has signed a cooperation agreement with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority of the United Arab Emirates to join the Abu Dhabi Intelligent Driving Vehicle Industry Cluster (SAVI) built in Masdar City, and has been approved to conduct autonomous driving road tests on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi.