| Momenta Global Ltd. | |
| Industry: | Self-driving cars |
| Founders: | Cao Xudong (CEO)[1] |
| Hq Location City: | Beijing and Suzhou |
| Hq Location Country: | China |
| Products: | Deep learning software |
Momenta Global Limited (shortened to Momenta) is a developer of intelligent driving technologies, based in Beijing[2] and Suzhou, China.[3]
Momenta was founded in September 2016 led by Cao Xudong, a former scientist at Microsoft Research and formerly executive director of research and development at Chinese deep-learning and computer vision company SenseTime.
In 2017, Mercedes-Benz Group invested in Momenta, which was the automaker's first-ever investment into a Chinese startup.[4] [5]
Momenta became the first Chinese unicorn in the field of self-driving cars after investors valued the company at more than $1 billion in 2021.[6] The investors included, in addition to those already mentioned, General Motors (GM), IDG Capital, GGV Capital, Blue Lake Capital, Shunwei Capital, and Cathay Capital.[7] General Motors invested $300 million in Momenta, as was announced in 2021, with the aim to accelerate the development of self-driving cars in China. By that time, Momenta struck partnerships with SAIC Motor, Toyota, auto parts supplier Bosch, Mercedes-Benz, Temasek, Yunfeng Capital, and Tencent.[8]
Since 2021, SAIC Motors and Momenta have worked together on robotaxi operations in Shanghai and Suzhou. In addition, Momenta is also supplying autonomous driving technology to SAIC's IM.[9]
In December 2021, Momenta and BYD established a joint venture, called DiPi Intelligent Mobility Co, located in Shenzhen, to deploy autonomous driving capabilities across certain BYD car model lines.[10]
In 2023, General Motors China received approval to conduct road tests in Shanghai for its autonomous vehicles developed in collaboration with Momenta.[11]
In 2024, additional partnerships with Nvidia and Qualcomm followed.[12] [13]
In August 2024, Audi and SAIC Motor announced a joint venture in which Momenta is contributing a system for autonomous driving.[14]
In September 2024, Momenta introduced its first end-to-end self-driving model intended for mass production.
Momenta does not build cars itself, but sells their car software to automakers. The company works on deep learning capacities, the so-called "brains", of cars. Momenta's software is fed with large amounts of data which are needed in particular for the development of self-driving cars, so that they can achieve end-to-end intelligent driving.[15] [16]
According to Rita Liao in TechCrunch, the company has a "two-legged approach of selling semi-automated software while investing in research for next-gen self-driving tech".[17]