On March 9th, SAIC Group announced that in order to further improve the expansion and flexibility of the company's layout in the automotive industry, its subsidiaries SAIC Financial Holdings, Huayu Shanghai, Donghua Automobile, and Zoomlion Electronics plan to jointly invest and establish "Henan SAIC Huirong Mall No.1 Industrial Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership)" with Zhanxin Fund, Modern Industry Fund, and Chongqing Yufu.

According to the announcement, the subscribed capital contribution target of the newly established industrial fund is 4 billion yuan, and the initial closure scale is 3.373 billion yuan. Among them, SAIC Group subscribed a total of 1.47 billion yuan, holding 43.58% of the fund shares.

The fund will focus on related fields such as automotive electronics, semiconductors, new energy, and industrial chain extension, and focus on segmented track projects such as autonomous driving, intelligent cockpit, low-carbon travel, semiconductors related to the industrial chain, and information security。

It is worth mentioning that SAIC Group participated in the establishment of industrial funds three times in the past month. The investment directions of these funds include dual carbon, semiconductor, automotive electronics, advanced manufacturing, new materials, new energy, intelligent networks, etc.

Automobile is one of the important application scenarios for chips. In recent years, with the development of automotive intelligence and electrification, chips have become more important. In response, the country has issued a number of industrial policies, such as the "Auto Semiconductor Supply and Demand Matchmaking Manual", "Smart Car Innovation Development Strategy", "Medium and Long Term Development Plan for the Automotive Industry", to encourage and support the development and innovation of the automotive chip industry, and thus seek to achieve the goal of domestic replacement.

With the iterative updating of automotive technology and the periodic shortage of chip supply, the shortage of chips in automotive enterprises has always been the focus of heated discussion in the global automotive industry. In a situation where supply is in short supply, opportunities and challenges coexist, many domestic automotive companies have broken this situation through strategic investment, independent research and development, joint research and development, and other ways. In addition to the above-mentioned SAIC Group, many domestic automotive companies such as BYD, Great Wall, Dongfeng, and Chang'an have also begun to accelerate the layout of the automotive chip industry chain.

In the long run, domestic automotive companies are actively developing automotive electronics, semiconductors, and other fields, not only to address the current core shortage, but also to meet the current wave of new energy vehicles. Whether domestic car companies will explore a path of self-development and sustainable development in the future remains to be seen.