IM Motors has bet on the homegrown autonomous driving unicorn.

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Recently, Huawei and BYD’s smart driving solutions have adjusted their prices, and the smart driving industry seems to be escaping the narrative of price wars.

As more and more automakers begin to pay suppliers for advanced smart driving, IM Motors has waited for another kind of reward: the smart driving unicorn they bet on is about to reach its IPO milestone.

Recently, the website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission showed that the autonomous driving unicorn Momenta has completed its IPO filing for Hong Kong stocks. Behind this listing, a previously overlooked name—IM Motors—has returned to the capital market’s spotlight.

Over the past few years, China’s automotive industry has developed a common model: automakers are responsible for manufacturing, while smart driving companies provide solutions. The two sides are connected through procurement contracts; technology upgrades mean new procurement costs, and the stronger the smart driving capability, the higher the fees automakers pay.

But IM Motors took a slightly different path.

Public information shows that IM Motors’ parent company, SAIC Motor, is Momenta’s largest institutional shareholder, while in Series B funding, Momenta holds reverse equity in IM Motors, forming a rare two-way equity binding structure in China’s automotive industry.

This means that at the key node where Momenta is about to list in Hong Kong, SAIC and IM Motors are not only among its largest and deepest partners as vehicle clients but also direct beneficiaries of post-listing equity appreciation dividends.

For an IPO, this identity as both client, shareholder, and technology co-builder is rare in the automotive and tech supply chains of A-shares and Hong Kong stocks, and it means Momenta’s capital narrative cannot ignore IM Motors as a node.

Turning back time to the initial investment period, this was a bold gamble, as no one knew at the time if smart driving would become a necessity.

Around 2018, the focus of China’s new energy vehicle industry competition was still on driving range, charging infrastructure, and battery costs. Autonomous driving was still in the lab and on PPTs, with many startups using funding to tell stories about the future, and commercial paths unclear. Betting on an autonomous driving startup back then is nothing like betting on an industry leader that’s already proven its business model today.

In hindsight, SAIC clearly made the right bet.

According to CIC (China Insights Consultancy) data, from March 2025 to February 2026, Momenta will hold a 65% market share as China’s top third-party urban NOA supplier. Its client list includes Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Toyota, Honda, GM, BYD, and other major global automakers, and it is regarded as one of China’s most globally capable intelligent driving companies.

With its Hong Kong IPO approaching, Momenta will become a window for capital market observation of China’s intelligent driving industry.

This raises an often overlooked question: If the value of a leading smart driving company is being rediscovered, shouldn’t the automaker most deeply bound to it also be re-examined?

In the past two years, capital markets’ valuation logic for new energy vehicle companies has changed.

The dividends from electrification are reaching their peak, and battery, range, and charging infrastructure are increasingly similar; the “fridge, TV, big sofa” trend is also becoming homogeneous. Against this backdrop, investors increasingly care about one other thing: who controls the next generation of cars’ core capability—AI.

In the AI era, data is fuel. Every real-world driving behavior provides samples for model training; after the model capabilities improve, they return via OTA to the vehicle end, forming new user experiences. This “vehicle—data—model—vehicle” cycle is becoming a competitive barrier in intelligent driving, and IM Motors stands at the center of this flywheel.

As Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, Volkswagen, and other global automakers become clients, IM Motors has deeply participated in Momenta’s process from technical validation to scaled mass production. From this perspective, the impact of Momenta’s IPO may not be limited to equity appreciation on paper.

The deeper impression of this IPO is that it begins to set a price for the core assets of China’s intelligent driving industry chain.

For years, the capital market has debated smart driving. Some see it as the next trillion-yuan track under new energy vehicles, others believe true commercialization is still far off. But the greatest significance of an IPO is price discovery.

When a leading smart driving company begins to undergo public market scrutiny, the industry gains a valuation anchor, and value transmission along the supply chain often follows.

This is why, recently, more investment institutions are reassessing the relationship between automakers and AI companies. Because in the future, what determines an automaker’s value may not just be sales and profit margins, but also its position in the AI ecosystem.

Now, as Momenta is one step away from capital markets, this multi-year bet is finally entering the cash-out stage.

For IM Motors, this might be the real significance of the IPO. It not only means a partner is about to list, but also that a seed planted by SAIC years ago is finally growing into a tree capable of feeding back into the whole-car business.

Today, as intelligence becomes the new value anchor of the automotive industry, more automakers are competing for the next ticket. What IM Motors is trying to prove is that compared to buying a ticket, a better approach might be to become a shipbuilder ahead of time.

However, competitors are also accelerating—the pace of Tesla’s FSD entry into the Chinese market is clearly increasing, while automakers like Huawei, Xpeng, and Li Auto have chosen to pursue self-research, hoping to keep smart driving capabilities in their own hands.

For third-party suppliers like Momenta, continually proving their own value is a question they must answer after listing.

For IM Motors, the new story is just beginning. The real test is, after smart driving becomes the core competitive force in the automotive industry, how to convert this first-mover advantage into a sustained leading market position.

After all, competition in the automotive industry has never been just between products, but also between industry relationships. Over the next decade, the market will verify whether the deep symbiosis of “automaker + AI company” is more efficient and valuable than traditional supplier relationships.

Risk Disclaimer and Exemption ClauseMarkets are risky, investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute individual investment advice, nor does it take into account the unique investment goals, financial circumstances, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions herein are suitable for their specific situation. Invest at your own risk. ```