Volkswagen plans to invest €2.4bn in a joint venture with one of China’s leading designers of artificial intelligence chips, as the carmaker bets on AI-assisted and driverless cars as a way to retain share in its biggest market.
The German carmaker, which earns roughly half of its net profits in China, said on Thursday that it had agreed to partner with Horizon Robotics “to accelerate the development of automated driving [and] drive the repositioning of our China business”.
VW’s software company Cariad will take a 60 per cent stake in the joint venture with Horizon. The transaction is expected to complete in the first half of 2023, pending regulatory approval.