Seres plays the next card.
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Author | Chai Xuchen
Editor | Zhou Zhiyu
After riding the popularity of AITO, Seres is now partnering with ByteDance, preparing to play its second card.
On May 29, 2026, data from Tianyancha shows that Seres’s subsidiary, formerly Bluetti Technology, has officially been renamed Chongqing Saidou Technology Co., Ltd. The "Sai" in the name points to Seres, while "Dou" likely refers to ByteDance’s Doubao. A new company, with Chongqing state-owned assets holding the majority, Seres relinquishing control, CATL investing, and deep involvement from Volcano Engine, has emerged.
On June 1, further information indicates Saidou Technology will become the main body of Seres’s new auto brand. The first model is already in preparation, targeting a younger demographic, and will be produced at Seres’s Phoenix factory.
According to information obtained by Wallstreetcn, the focus of the Seres and ByteDance collaboration will revolve around vehicle interaction large models, AI cockpits, and intelligent capabilities.
In response, on June 1, Seres told Wallstreetcn that details of the new brand will be announced officially in due course.
Within the industry’s view, this may be Seres’s "second curve" after the success of AITO, and this was already foreshadowed.
On May 25, 2026, Seres announced progress on capital injection and stock expansion in its subsidiaries. At that time, Bluetti Technology’s contributors signed a capital injection and stock expansion agreement worth about 6.671 billion RMB. New shareholders included CATL, Bojun Technology, Xingyu Co., with the largest shareholder being Shaci Zhiyuan, controlled by Chongqing state-owned assets, holding about 34.5%.
After this round of capital increase and stock expansion, Seres will give up its preemptive rights to subscribe to the new registered capital of Bluetti Technology, reducing its stake to 32.96%, and removing it from the listed company’s balance sheet.
An automotive industry insider told Wallstreetcn, “Seres gave up control in exchange for 6.671 billion RMB from local state assets, as well as a deep partnership with CATL.” Removing this new company from the listed company’s report also serves Seres’s considerations, “even in case of trial and error in overseas markets, it won’t directly drag down the financial performance of the listed entity.”
It can be said that Seres has created a sandbox for “Saidou.” But the market wonders why they started afresh after AITO.
In the past two years, Seres has undoubtedly been one of China’s most successful automotive industry transformation samples. After collaborating with Huawei, AITO quickly rose. Especially the M7 and M9 models became consecutive hits, enabling Seres to leap from a marginal player to a major force in China’s high-end new energy market.
From intelligent driving, cockpits to channel systems, Huawei was deeply involved in every core aspect of AITO. This model helped Seres turn the tables, but left a long-term question: Once a company becomes profitable, how does it build its own brand and technology system?
Last year, as the “Sijie” entered, AITO was no longer the sole darling of HarmonyOS Smart Mobility. If there are changes in bargaining power within the HarmonyOS ecosystem, Seres’s valuation anchor will wobble.
This is the issue Seres has been thinking about in the past year. Financial reports show that in 2025 Seres’s R&D investment reached 12.51 billion RMB, up nearly 80% year-on-year. Beyond platform architecture and product development, a key word is “AI-ization.”
In 2025, Seres not only jointly established Beijing Ser航 with Beihang to lay out embodied intelligence, but also signed cooperation agreements with Volcano Engine’s Phoenix Technology for smart robots. This year, their cooperation went further, extending from robotics to automotive intelligence.
The reason is not complicated. Huawei can help Seres win now, but Seres must prepare a second growth curve for the future.
Saidou Technology is likely the main vehicle for this strategy. Judging from disclosed information, the new brand not only has its own independent channel system, but products will be sold overseas at the same time, making a clear distinction from AITO’s positioning.
ByteDance’s involvement makes the issue more intriguing. In recent years, whenever market discussions arise about ByteDance entering the auto industry, a misconception appears—thinking ByteDance will make cars like Xiaomi.
In fact, ByteDance has never done so. It hopes to become the Android of this ecosystem.
Just over a month ago at the Beijing Auto Show, Volcano Engine launched a new generation automotive AI solution based on the Agentic AI architecture. Internal sources at Volcano Engine revealed that in the second half of this year, the whole Doubao cockpit assistant capability will be mass produced.
From the tech architecture perspective, ByteDance is attempting something other car companies haven't yet accomplished: giving cars continuous online, continuous perception, and continuous learning AI capabilities.
Traditional vehicle systems are essentially still menu-based interactions. Users speak, the system responds. No matter how many functions are added, the underlying logic doesn’t change. In the Agent era, cars start to become an intelligent entity with active understanding and task execution capability.
In fact, Tesla has already verified this direction.
Since Musk integrated Grok into the automotive system, large models began to reshape the in-car interactive experience. From route planning to intent understanding to personalized services, cars are evolving from a transportation tool to an AI terminal.
This is why almost all mainstream car companies have begun arranging cockpit intelligent agents this year.
An automotive intelligence industry insider told Wallstreetcn that smart driving competition is gradually converging, “Whether it's Huawei, XPeng, Li Auto, or BYD, the gap in intelligent driving capabilities is rapidly narrowing.”
The AI cockpit is still an untapped new continent. Whoever first establishes a relationship of continuous dialogue, learning, and service between users and car, will have the chance to define the next generation of intelligent vehicle experience.
The Seres and ByteDance cooperation is unsurprising. One side needs to establish independent smart capabilities and a global brand; the other needs to find the most important terminal scenario for AI applications. The two sides complement each other perfectly.
More importantly, cars are becoming, after smartphones, one of the few super devices able to carry large models running long-term.
They have cameras, microphones, sensors, screens, and continuous internet connectivity, with naturally high-frequency usage scenarios. Compared to smart speakers and robots, cars are closer to true AI terminals.
ByteDance has previously established a mobile entry point through Doubao’s APP and embedded its capabilities into devices via partnerships with phone manufacturers. Now, as Doubao enters automotive, ByteDance is completing another key puzzle piece.
Looking back, if AITO represents Seres’s industrial leap with Huawei’s help, Saidou Technology embodies Seres’s proactive bet on the next stage of competition.
As the new energy competition shifts from electrification to intelligence, and from intelligence to AI-ization, a new script is being written for the auto industry.
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