Nvidia invests in Chinese concept stock WeRide, stock price surges 83%, note that it invested 7 years ago without building a new position

The king of AI chip stocks, Nvidia (NVDA), recently disclosed its quarterly position changes. As of the end of last year, it had built a position of 1.74 million shares in the Chinese autonomous driving startup WeRide (WRD), which spurred a surge of 146% during intraday trading last Friday, closing up over 83% to $31.5. In addition to WeRide, the news also stimulated another U.S.-listed peer, Pony.ai (PONY), which jumped 11.3% to $16.54. However, it is important to note that Nvidia had made an early strategic investment in WeRide back in 2017, and the aforementioned position of 1.74 million shares is not a new purchase; however, Nvidia's current holdings are still under a lock-up period and cannot be sold.

Founded in 2017, Listed in October Last Year

According to comprehensive media reports, WeRide, headquartered in Guangzhou, was founded in 2017 and went public on NASDAQ in the United States on October 25 last year. It conducts autonomous driving research, testing, and operations in 30 cities across 9 countries and is the only company that holds autonomous driving licenses in China, the United States, the UAE, and Singapore. It also has offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Stuttgart, and other locations.

Focused on Autonomous Driving, Including Robotaxi

The company focuses on developing autonomous driving technology, with application scenarios covering smart mobility, freight, and environmental sanitation. Its product matrix includes autonomous taxis (Robotaxi), minibuses, freight vehicles, and cleaning vehicles, and it has entered the commercialization stage. The founder and CEO of the company is Han Xu, who previously served as the chief scientist in Baidu's (9888) autonomous driving division.

Although the company is listed in the United States and is one of the seven companies approved to test autonomous driving without a safety driver in the vehicle in California, its business scale in the U.S. is not large and is limited to research; most of the company's employees are in China, and most of the research is also conducted in China.

Nvidia is an Early Investor in WeRide

When the company went public in the U.S. last year, it mentioned that its investors include the fund Alliance Ventures, composed of Nissan, Renault Group, and Mitsubishi Motors, as well as the German automotive parts manufacturer Robert Bosch. Nvidia is also an early investor and major supplier to WeRide It is worth noting that in 2017, WeRide, then called Jingchi Technology, had only been established for a few months. At that time, WeRide disclosed that it had raised $52 million in a Pre-A round, led by Qiming Venture Partners, with participation from Nvidia GPU Ventures.

As early as 2017, the newly established WeRide (then known as Jingchi Technology), which had only been in operation for a few months, secured $52 million in Pre-A round financing, led by Qiming Venture Partners, with Nvidia participating; since WeRide went public on October 25 last year, the 13F filing for the last quarter also marked the first time the company's shareholders disclosed their holdings.

At that time, Nvidia's Vice President of Business Development, Jeff Herbst, stated that the investment was a great opportunity for Nvidia and Jingchi to establish a technical collaboration, especially since Jingchi would use Nvidia's autonomous driving platform DRIVE PX; while Nvidia would not develop autonomous vehicles in China, Jingchi would, thus Nvidia's technology would be integrated into this process. Subsequently, Jingchi Technology gradually shifted its business focus from Silicon Valley to China, and the company name was changed to WeRide, with Nvidia remaining a shareholder.

Nvidia Liquidates 3 Stocks, Most Plunge 40%

On the other hand, Nvidia recently disclosed its quarterly position changes, showing that it held 1.2 million shares of artificial intelligence cloud company Nebius (NBIS) last quarter, which spurred the stock to rise 6.7% last Friday; it also reduced its largest holding, British chip company ARM, by about 44% to 1.1 million shares, causing the stock to drop 3.2%.

In addition, Nvidia completely liquidated 3 stocks, including delivery robot company Serve Robotics (SERV), Israeli medical technology company Nano-X Imaging (NNOX), and voice assistant manufacturer SoundHound AI (SOUN), all of which saw their stock prices decline, falling 40%, 11%, and 28%, respectively.

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