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A Pony.ai car. Photo by AP

China’s Autonomous Driving Startups Join the Billion-Dollar Club

By  |  Nov. 23, 2018 7:01 AM PST
Photo: A Pony.ai car. Photo by AP

In the race to develop autonomous cars, Silicon Valley companies like Alphabet’s Waymo are far ahead. But a wave of Chinese startups are raising of hundreds of millions of dollars to try to catch up. And these companies, including Pony.ai, Roadstar.ai, WeRide.ai and Momenta, have an edge: Their U.S. competitors may be shut out of the Chinese market.

Investors at least seem to think they have a decent chance of success. WeRide is valued at $500 million, but the other three are being valued at more than $1 billion—well before they’re ready to start selling the products under development. Those valuations put them in the ranks of global tech unicorns. The mega rounds they’re raising also are a stark contrast to what’s happening more broadly in China, where investors are growing cautious amid signs of an economic slowdown and disappointing performance of Chinese listed tech companies.

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